Tuesday, July 29, 2008

What Do You See In Your Clouds?


“Behold, He cometh with clouds.”
Revelation 1:7

In the Bible clouds are always connected with God. Clouds are those sorrows or sufferings or providences, within or without our personal lives, which seem to dispute the rule of God. It is by those very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were no clouds, we should have no faith. "The clouds are but the dust of our Father's feet." The clouds are a sign that He is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow and bereavement and suffering are the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near without clouds, He does not come in clear shining.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to Him is exactly that of a child - God and my own soul, other people are shadows. Until other people become shadows, clouds and darkness will be mine every now and again. Is the relationship between myself and God getting simpler than ever it has been?

There is a connection between the strange providences of God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Unless we can look the darkest, blackest fact full in the face without damaging God's character, we do not yet know Him.

"They feared as they entered the cloud . . ." - Is there anyone "save Jesus only" in your cloud? If so, it will get darker; you must get to the place where there is "no one any more save Jesus only."

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The devotion above is from "MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST" written by Oswald Chambers. This is the devotion for July 29 on that book. The post was taken from the website HEARTLIGHT.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Matthew 17:5(TLB)
" But even as he said it, a bright cloud came over them and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son,and I am wonderfully pleased with him. Obey him."

Matthew 17:5(KJV)
"While he yet spake,behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them:and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."

Liza on Maui said...

Thank you for this wonderful verse (Matthew 17:5). What a comfort it brings...

Karen said...

Another beautiful post from Liza.I don't know how you do it. Thank you Liza, you are so gifted and you have provided so much deep and boundless comfort for us.

Though we still grieve, we feel more peace as time goes on. We are learning to trust God with this cloud He has allowed into our lives. We are seeing Jesus through our tears. Joey's death has shifted our eyes from a preoccupation with this earth to our True Home in Heaven. It truly becomes more real to us with each day he is there. We are able to see that God can and will transform even this sorrow for good. We yield to Him.