DIG DEEP
Excavating the Depths of God and His Glorious Riches
August 26th, 2022
SECOND-CHAPTER FAITH
Matthew 6:21, ‘”For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”’ (NIV)
We are learning that there is vast spiritual wealth available to each one of us who call ourselves Christians, who consider ourselves children of God. It is buried just under the surface of the Christian life, waiting to be discovered and drawn out. This month we are headed on a dig, so we can explore, excavate and extract the glorious riches God has for His children.
Small beginnings. Do you ever feel insignificant?
There is outrageous wealth in small beginnings, in new hope, in second chapters. He is the God of those who find themselves inconsequential and starting over.
I think of Biblical giants when it is too difficult to wrap myself around the fact that God is giving me yet another chance at knowing the fullness of His faithfulness firsthand. To us, they are Biblical giants, because we have the affluence of the Bible in our hands to read their wail of defeat followed by their cries of victory. But to these men and women in the Scriptures, they were just ordinary and unlikely people—like we read about several days ago, like you and me. Look at David. Just a shepherd boy, the youngest son of a God-fearing man, brave enough to annihilate a giant with a sling and a stone, bold enough to take God at His Word. From David’s lineage would eventually come the Son of Man, but before that occurred, David committed adultery, and to cover up his sin, he murdered a man to save face. He was considered by a Holy God, “a man after My own heart.” How can that be? a sinful, wretched man who failed God over and over, yet he is a Biblical giant to us because he is known by God as a man after God’s own heart. I don’t think that is for any other reason than his worship and praise sutured himself to the heart of Holy God.
Take Peter. Oh my goodness! mouthy, unruly, cocky, loud Peter, always speaking before thinking, forever making promises he was incapable of keeping, cutting off people and ears and Jesus’ warnings, denying the Savior he hid behind. But who would Jesus appear before to personally cook breakfast, with whom He compassionately shared His heart and His purpose, but Peter? Peter would go on to heal and save thousands for Christ; he would overcome everything the enemy attempted to sift him with. That’s because Jesus prayed for Peter. And He prays for you too! Jesus, Son of the Most High God, prays for you and me too!
Zechariah 4:10 says, ‘Do not despise the day of small beginnings.’ Don’t forget that something great can come from something small. In fact, a seed is tiny, sometimes so tiny you can barely see it, but look at what can grow from something so infinitesimal. Even a great old oak tree came from a tiny seed. Even mountains move from faith the size of a teeny mustard seed. Even inside of you is a victory, a second chapter, a small beginning and a little bit of spiritual wealth that can someday change lives and perhaps go on to save nations. That is, in the hand of a mighty God. Look and see what God can do when you put your trust in Him!
2 Corinthians 2:10b: ‘The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God had planned all along.’ (MSG)
