Sometimes...

Some times I'm so painfully ashamed. I know who I want to be but then I am confronted with who I really am. I see my faults and failures and they isolate me and make me want to hide. Then I hear His voice calling, “Where are you?” I think sometimes I know how Adam and Eve felt. I also wonder if the garment of skins God clothed them with was a lamb.

Sometimes I see the haunting look of shame on the faces of those I love. They have lost their since of dignity. They have lost way. I want to shout to them, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” I want them to understand who this lamb of God is. “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”Isiah 55:3-5

Sometimes I feel like I am in the middle of a terrible storm. The winds and rain assault me I feel battered and confused. I cry out for help! In times like theses I hear again God''s invitation to make Him my hiding place. I run to Him and find again that He protects me from all my trouble and surrounds me with songs of deliverance. Though I have no strength of my own I rest beneath the shadow of the Almighty.

Sometimes when I am feeling safe because I have put my hope in God's word and have found Him to be my refuge and my shield I suddenly am aware that someone dear to me has wondered away. I hear their cries but can do nothing to save them. What good is it if I am safe and secure if the ones I love are in danger! Then I remember the words of Jesus. He came to seek and to save the lost. He is the Good Shepherd who will leave the ninety nine and go look for the one lost sheep. Just as God went looking for Adam and Eve and clothed the nakedness of their sins so Jesus Himself is seeking to save the lost and to take away the sins of the world.

Lord Jesus, I want to be like the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31 who clothed herself with dignity and strength. I am aware that in myself I have no dignity no strength but you have made provision to cover my shame with your righteousness my weakness with Your strength. So once again I come just as I am without one plea except Your blood was shed for me O Lamb of God I come I come. Just as I am , poor wretched , blind; sight , riches, healing of the mind, yea, all I need in thee to find, Oh Lamb of God, I come, I come.