SWALLOWED UP

Phil.3:9,10 – My passion is to be consumed with him and not clinging to my own “righteousness” based in keeping the written Law. My “righteousness” will be his, based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ—the very righteousness that comes from God. And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus more fully and to experience the overflowing power of his resurrection working in me.

Sarah Edwards used a phrase to describe what happened to her when the Holy Spirit came upon her in the church in Northampton, Massachusetts during the early stages of the Great Awakening. This phrase was “swallowed up in God”. What could she have meant by this unusual choice of words? She was trying to describe that overwhelming nature of the touch of God. She felt as if she was literally in Him, swimming like a dust mote in the beams of the sun. Being swallowed up by the Lord changes all of the patterns and habits in your life. Just as Jonah was swallowed by a whale, Sarah was swallowed up by the Lord. When that happens we see God and His plan from a whole different place. Here is how Jonathan Edwards describes being lost in the will of God.

“Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy. And how is it possible for a man to possess anything more than so as shall be most to his advantage? And then besides this, the Christian shall have everything managed just according to his will; for his will shall so be lost in the will of God, that he had rather have it according to God’s will than any way in the world.”

What an amazing thought, every atom in the universe is managed and upheld by Christ for the benefit of God’s sons and daughters. That’s exactly what the Lord is doing, ordering everything for the benefit of you and me. If that is true then it is impossible for me to be defeated. The only way that could happen is if I give up and quit. Just stay in the game. So… swallow me up Lord; my compromises, my fears, my doubts, and my temptations. In you everything is being orchestrated for my good.