Have you ever thought?
Friday, January 26th, 2024
by Ken Pullen
ACP
I was lying in my bed, saying a prayer out loud to God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, our Almighty God when upon into this supplication I had in my mind and heart how much God must be grieved. In such anguish. All because of the folks on earth.
Not that you need to know this, but I do not pray lying in my bed out of laziness or rebellion to get on my knees. I have had total knee replacement surgery on both knees. And eight other orthopedic surgeries. I am on my knees before our God in my heart and soul.
Have you ever thought these thoughts, as I have had tonight, and often have come to my mind and spirit? I thank the Lord for the sacrifice He made in coming to this sin-filled world to be the replacement for my sin, the sin of any and all that come to know they are sinners in need of a Saviour and they know there is only one place to go — to the One True God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Word of God.
Then, within that thought path, in a prayerful heart and mind, I think of how many people are on this earth presently and that God knows every person. He knows every hair on every head. He knows every thought as the thoughts are thought. Real time. All the time. Beyond our comprehension just how Mighty, Magnificent, Powerful, Knowledgeable our Creator is. A Constant. Unchangeable.
I then was led to think, and this happens from time to time, just how many people in some location on this earth doing what they are doing. So many people in one place. Doing so many things. Many committing heinous and horrid acts upon other people created in the image of God.
Others party away, wasted, drunk, high, within their distorted lost, and darkened world even if it’s noontime where they are. Others are just oblivious. doing what they do. Every day. Others live lives of true joy and awareness, of faith in Christ. Some. Many. But oh so many others Lord! I pray they have their hearts and souls pierced to allow the Light in, the Truth in the darkness they carry and grope around in continually vainly imagining they have no need of You Lord!
Having this flood of thought enter in slowly and just continue to build to where in a finite feeble mind as I have, a human mind not the mind of God, though I live daily to mature and grow closer to having the mind of God, yet never will, I will only become like Christ upon the ending of my fleshy realm and my graduating into the spiritual realm of heaven — this ever-increasing flow of thought, building, increasing lead me to think how being betrayed, illegally arrested, spat upon, beaten beyond being recognized as a man, the walk to Calvary, the having His flesh, sinew, His earthly life nailed fiercely, violently to the cross, being mocked and humiliated before the people who rejected Him, which is all the people of the world all the time since His being nailed to that tree of shame until and unless they come to know Him, come to Him in faith.
I keep thinking about not the physical pain He endured, but the utter pain of for a time being separated from the Father as God can have no part of sin, as the Lord Jesus Christ took all the sin of all the people of all time from then to now, and however long until He returns — He took every sin upon Him and was separated from the Father for that duration. Oh, the greater agony that must have been!
Yet I keep thinking as I lie in my bed praying — how among the thrashing, rushing, complacency, distractions, denial, earth filled with sin to such a degree it can not only be seen, but felt, and even smelt the rankness, the violence, the distractions, the denial, the banality and the reprobate minds of so many people — this constant, all these people, only God, only the Lord Jesus Christ, only the Holy Spirit know the number — must cause such continued grief in heaven to the heart of God for the rebellion, the hatred toward Him and His Son. Such grief that was foreknown and will only grow in God until His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ returns and all of God’s Word is fulfilled.
This constant roiling, boiling, churning sphere chock full of those seeking their own pleasure, following lies, false teachings, violence, carnal pleasures and escapism, all the banality and insanity, all the evil that is within the heart of man and woman.
Oh the grief and pain it must cause our Lord!
While there is joy in heaven for one sinner that repents!
I keep in my heart as I continue to pray all those individuals who this day, this very moment somewhere on this earth came from the darkness to the light, to the knowledge and faith in Jesus as their Saviour, as Lord of their life and they are fresh lights in this world of darkness among the more than 8,000,000,000 now.
Imagine that.
Imagine what God must be thinking, seeing, hearing as He sees everything everywhere, hears everything everywhere, every thought, every spoken word, every act of every person without end? It is impossible for us and we would burst and die if we even could comprehend, see, hear, or know one speck in all the eternal knowledge of our God!
I continue to pray that the suffering, the persecuted, those enduring trials of despair, pain, loneliness, confusion, abuses, violence, complacency, and adhering to lies are led to the Lord and the comfort, the security, the salvation only He can provide.
I continue to pray that all the saints, the people of God come closer to the Lord, engage, envelop, indulge, immerse themselves in God’s Word, grow in faith and spiritual strength to enter into battle in this world well-equipped in the whole armour of God.
Then, as a period of calm and peace came over me I had to pull the blanket off, slowly rise from my bed, and ask the Holy Spirit for help, and I came to my computer and sat down to write this.
Now? Now I’m going to leave the classical music playing on my computer gently playing, and go back to my bed, pull that blanket back over me, give thanks to my God, asking that His will be done on earth as in heaven, His kingdom come, and that I may be useful, purposeful for Him, and Lord willing, if I am to rise when it is light out again, a new day the Lord has made, providing me every strength I need for that day alone, that I give Him thanks before my feet hit the floor. And do all things to His glory. As best I can. Not for any accomplishment or praise. But out of my love and thankfulness to God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Almighty God for waiting so patiently for me to come to Him. So thankful for what He did on that cross, in that sepulcher conquering death. And I thank Him for His patience in waiting for each sinner to repent and come to Him completing every name in the Book of Life before He returns.
I then wondered, do you ever think such thoughts among the continual prayers offered up to God?
I think such things as this and similar things with frequency. I pray to be a useful vessel for the Lord knowing the priority is eternal and not of this temporal world. I fail more times than not. I continue to sin — fall short, but God picks me up always and I continue onward. Always onward. For to stagnate, to become complacent often leads to sliding backward. And we can’t have that, can we? It is only God who provides everything I am and everything I have, everything we all have. None is of my own. Nothing is. It is all provided by God. Even the trials, the tests, the suffering. To refine. Hone. Sharpen. Cleanse. To grow closer to the Lord. In this continual prayer, I ask that all those who are His seek Him more, desire to grow in faith, to strengthen in spiritual ways to serve the Lord and find their purpose, to come to Him, to come ever always closer to Him!
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John 3:36
The price God paid, the price the Lord Jesus Christ paid on that cross is eternally priceless. Do not squander such treasure. Do not be like the one to bury the one talent, or the five virgins otherwise occupied and distracted not keeping oil in their lamps ready for the coming of the Bridegroom.
Good night, and thank the Lord in all things. Always. Amen.
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