Have you ever been so overwhelmed by the awareness of the presence of the Lord, insomuch that you felt an inadequacy to express, in your natural tongue, how awesome He is? Charles Wesley, inspired by the Spirit of God, penned the hymn, “Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise” Millions of fellow pilgrims have rent the heavens through the centuries with this ageless anthem, glorifying God in praise and worship and identifying with the Lord Jesus’ testimony in their lives.
Love desires intimacy. God, our heavenly Father, desires intimacy with us. As He continues to write His love story in our hearts, we discover He is wonderful beyond belief of our natural thinking. He writes eternity in our hearts and deposits desires for Himself there, a spring of life, His Life, welling up from an eternal Source. As we walk with Him in humility, our lives can become a channel of the outpouring of His attributes as He lives, and loves, through us, bringing glory to His name.
Can we identify with the words of Paul, Galatians 2:20? “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”.
The Lord Jesus declared, Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled”. Our longing for Him is birthed of Him and can only be quenched by the coming of His Spirit. He loves to quench our thirst for Him. God is our life source (Psalm 87:7)….”…all my springs are in You”.
Our lives are opportunities to prove the truths of God’s word. God presents us with the challenge: “Prove Me now….” Malachi 3:10. In all areas of our lives we can prove God’s faithfulness. Some have erroniously thought in their immaturity that God has disappointed them. We all have to learn that God’s character is sure and steadfast and is who His word declares Him to be. The problem was that my understanding of Him was wrong. More revelation is needed to understand His ways and unchanging character. God is love and seeks to bring all His children into deeper relationship with Him, not push them away in disappointment, but prove His faithfulness and love in the trials of life. I cannot walk with Him in rebellion, for God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, (1 Peter 5:5). He truly is our ever present help in times of trouble, (Psalm 46:1) Take up the challenge to prove it! Humility is the key that opens locked doors.
The apostle Paul had weathered many deep storms and challenges on his earthly journey, but he had learnt that through them all God was working for his good. His conclusion was that he was fully persuaded that nothing could separate him from God’s love. Are you, am I, fully persuaded?
Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …………No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. FOR I AM PERSUADED that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Make a choice, fully resolve, to believe God is who His word declares. My believing must come in line with His word, only then will my life begin to change from chaos to order. As I learn to abide and trust Jesus, I will discover the source of His joy and peace in the trials of life as I, too, become fully persuaded that nothing can separate me from the love of God. In this position I will find there will be times, like Charles Wesley, that I will desire a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise!