He keeps in perfect peace those whose thoughts are fixed on Him. And He draws us to Himself, moreover--continually deeper. The gift and the giver, He is.
Times when all hell seems to (and has) broken out, around--His presence is that much more commanding, in stark relief. He is unyielding. Unbending. Undeniable. Unavoidable. All the more encompassing, the more overwhelming the trial.
In those moments when life-or-death hang in the balance, by varied means, along varied lines...He steps in and takes over. Every time. Even reaching a point of conscious awareness of the state of matters, to such extent self-conscious anxiety would doubt He would still do such a thing, having become aware some part the process?--Still, and no less: He takes over.
He's merciful. And gracious. Especially toward those who love Him, those whom He cherishes as His own beloved children.
He won't allow us to be tried beyond our ability to endure, always providing a means of escaping temptation to falter and succumb. He is our means of escape, moreover. And He is ever-present--even abiding in us, just as we abide in Him. As we abide in His love, He shepherds. Yet He keeps us there, or we'd never have entered in.
And He restrains and empowers. Mitigates and emboldens. He gives speech and reshapes the very words being spoken, while issued forth. He reveals injustices and unmasks guile. He constrains thoughts and shapes hearts. He brings darkness into light and drives out the shadows.
And He will not let go. Not even in dark moments when we turn to rage against Him--shattered by the torment, devastation, and horror of what we've witnessed and endured. He doesn't condone, but no less weathers and absorbs those blows, until our grief is spent and He can begin to cleanse the wounds even so violently revealed--gentling by His very touch, tempering with such grace and love as only a Holy Father could reveal and manifest.
And He doesn't yield. Even yielding Himself, of a sort, to endure our expressions of abject grief and despair--then still, it's as a Father intending to gently tend the deeper wounds once openly revealed.
He has grieved, too, as it goes. He still grieves. And all the more, then, He loves.
He doesn't expect us to be perfect or to respond perfectly. He wants honesty in our deepest parts--wants us to just be honest with Him. He already knows how we feel, what we think, what we want. He'd rather we just come out with it, forthright, so He can help us to set aside destructive delusions by confronting them in the light of truth. Very painful, and very healing.
And there's not always that, as the course. Sometimes comes a deeper yielding, it seems. Crushed unto abject surrender in Christ's own hands, with naught else besides as means to even continue to breathe. Not even thought to manage--too bereft, utterly decimated. Left only a wisping awareness of Him and His unyielding constancy, otherwise suspended in the midst of sheer hell--torments assaulting on all sides, and fear and death constant threatening.
Yet Satan, himself, may come to taunt and threaten and torment, but God will never be moved. And Jesus will not leave us to our own devices nor our own means of defense: We are not left as orphans. He promised, and so it is. Even given to ask, then so also does He give to meet needs as we seek Him first.
So every bit as much as the enemy may seek to overwhelm and oppress--though the night be long, the storm violent raging, the fire wax hotter, and the enemy seek to destroy by all means--our God is evermore faithful to deliver us by His might, always according to His infinitely encompassing, incomprehensible love toward us.
Jesus is not slow to act. He doesn't merely act according to our standards, by our desires...so it's not slowness which stays Him, ever. Just--He knows what's necessary as part of the end goal toward all good, no matter how much it grieves Him and pains us to endure in the meantimes.
For even then, we are assured to suffer a lot entering God's kingdom. (Acts 14:22) Taking it by force, no less, we will suffer. Through sheer endurance, pressing through, pressing on--Christ's own strength suffusing, so to do. And all the while, when the forces are too much: He will deliver us.
And He does strengthen those who are truly given to serving Him, ever waiting upon Him for deliverance. Again and again, He strengthens, delivers, guides, guards, protects, and does all which is necessary.
No matter the trial. (2 Chronicles 16:9)
Whatever comes. Whatever goes. No matter.
There's no stopping point, in pressing on--in seeking Christ--is all.
He gives rest, at intervals, yes.
And He delivers into greater awareness and faith and joy and peace.
But there's no point of harbor, really, except in Him increasingly.
And to long for that harbor...increasingly pained.
There's no stopping, though--no peace, no point of departure, except to press on. Because there simply is nothing else.
Nothing else can satisfy. Nothing else will.
Christ alone.
Our rest is in Him. Press on (Hosea 6:1-3).
Love to you, in Christ. Grace and peace, my brothers and sisters.
Friends.
So, [as the result of the Messiah’s intervention] they shall [reverently] fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight [for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives]. Isaiah 59:19 AMPC
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