February 2, 2017

Deep

Beneath the glittering surface of our lives there is the deep of who we really are, who we were, and there are dark tidal forces taking us where it seems inevitable that that we will end up. Most people passing by us see only the glitter and never the deep.

We like it that way.

The deep is private stuff, like the ocean’s floor covered by tons of water, beyond the penetration of the sun’s light and effciently obscured by the silt and sand collected in our hearts.

So distant is the deep, that we seldom dare explore it ourselves.

Just a glimpse of the monsters that may lurk there or the mysteries that linger there is enough to send us searching for the shallows and the friendly splashes of air that welcome us back from the deep.

What Is the Truth?
How much energy do we spend in self-delusion pretending the surface is the true story? Concentric relationship circles radiate out from us with only a very few people in the closest ring and there are secrets we must never tell even them. There is no need. It is all under the blood of Christ, long ago forgiven and stricken from the heavenly ledger. We know this, of course, but even these forgotten and forgiven things erupt in strange images in our dreams setting little fear fires that burn in the night and leaping to mind at odd hours during the day.

The Deep Things of God
Who is there that we can trust to dive deep into the hidden, neglected caverns of our historical hurts and lingering fears? Is there a “Deep” that can speak to our “Deep?”

The good news is this: The Holy Spirit dives as deep into us as we go. At conversion, our sins were cast from us into a sea that is so much deeper than we are. Thank You, Jesus!

And the Spirit within us is an abiding Spirit. He does deep work. At the surface it may feel like an emotional tug, or we may feel nothing at all. But when we open our depths to the Lord whose dimensions are deeper still, He is faithful to do the deep work only He can do.

• Hurts are healed.
• Painful memories are managed, filed away someplace too deep to disrupt our joy.
• Despair is dislodged and hope installed in the empty space left behind.

No matter how deeply we have been hurt, no matter how deep our shameful secrets are buried, no matter the terror that crouches deep in us, the Spirit of God goes deeper.

We are deep but the Spirit dives deeper. Trust Him with your deep places today

Scriptures:
Psalm 42:5-8 NIV
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. … Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me–a prayer to the God of my life.
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 NIV
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Prayer:
Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts I pray;
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin and set me free.

I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
Fulfill Thy Word and make me pure (and whole) within;
Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame;
Grant my desire to magnify Your name.
from Cleanse Me J. Edwin Orr

Song:
Deeper, Deeper
Words and Music: C. P. Jones

1. Deeper, deeper in the love of Jesus Daily let me go;
Higher, higher in the school of wisdom, More of grace to know.

Refrain:
O deeper yet, I pray, And higher every day,
And wiser, blessed Lord, In Thy precious, holy Word.

2. Deeper, deeper! Blessed Holy Spirit, Take me deeper still,
Till my life is wholly lost in Jesus, And His perfect will.

Refrain

3. Deeper, deeper! Though it cost hard trials, Deeper let me go!
Rooted in the holy love of Jesus, Let me fruitful frow.

Refrain

4. Deeper, higher, every day with Jesus, Till all conflict past,
Finds me conqu’ror, and in His own image Perfected at last.

Refrain

Semper Reformanda!
Stephen Phifer

© 2017 Stephen R. Phifer All Rights Reserved