It’s Sunday! This is Your day, Adonai, and I hope my activities are honoring to You today. I bow myself low before You, O Most High God, and I am filled to overflowing with gratitude and awe at the incredible gift of knowing You and calling You by name. Who am I, that You would pick me? But, You didn’t just pick me, You invented me. You formed me and designed me, for Your purposes. Oh how I long to cooperate with You in fulfilling the purposes You had in mind! Lord, please take charge, please be in charge; guide and lead me in the path You want me to walk. I’m Yours, because You bought me, but I’m also Yours because I give myself to You. Oh Great and Mighty One, You are my KING. I am so grateful! I’m grateful because You are good. That You are good means You are holy. Pure. Untainted by selfish ambition at Your people’s expense. This world has known very, very few “good” kings down through the ages. That is because all human kings are included in the statements that “all of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” in Isaiah 53; and that we all live our lives “following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature” in Ephesians 2. Human rulers are no different. But praise be to You! Those statements do not describe You! And I am so grateful. May I forever abandon these earthly kingdoms ruled by the tyrants of my self, of darkness and despair, and of this foul culture that utterly pollutes Your beautiful world.
The words of Isaiah 11 provide an enthralling vision of what You are like as King, and what your kingdom is like as well.
Isaiah 11 (excerpts)
Out of the stump of the line of Jesse will grow a shoot—
yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.
And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
He will delight in obeying the Lord.
He will not judge by appearance
nor make a decision based on hearsay.
He will give justice to the poor
and make fair decisions for the exploited.
The earth will shake at the force of his word,
and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked.
He will wear righteousness like a belt
and truth like an undergarment.
The lion will eat hay like a cow.
The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra.
Yes, a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm.
Nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,
for as the waters fill the sea,
so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.
In that day the root of Jesse
will be a banner of salvation to all the world.
The nations will rally to him,
and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.
Oh to know that I will live in that glorious place! I feel like I won the lottery with the knowledge that that is what I have to look forward to. Yet, I know it was not be chance at all, but by Your amazing grace.
Oh glorious day! That is my King! You are my King now. Today. You have defeated the enemy with Your mighty, victorious resurrection. Though he still reigns in this world, I am no longer a part of it. I’ve been transferred from satan’s kingdom of darkness to Your kingdom of glorious and majestic light. Oh Righteous and Holy One, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart always bring You delight. Hallowed be Your Name. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe, who grants His citizens a kingdom of peace and security. Amen.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.