Devotional Thought – “When Concealed Resources Are Revealed”

18 Aug Devotional Thought – “When Concealed Resources Are Revealed”

“Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.” Genesis 1:9

“Let the dry land appear.”  I had never noticed that before, but it was there all along.  The dry land had just been concealed, but at God’s command the waters were removed, revealing to all that it had been there since the beginning.

This statement isn’t just true in creation, it is true in our lives as well.  A lot of the Spirit’s creating work is simply the revelation of qualities that had once been hidden.  There are many people who, when we look at them, seem to be as shifting as the sea, and yet within them there is the element of solid land.  This is easily illustrated by looking at a silly, frivolous teenage girl.  There is a time when there is nothing that she takes seriously and only thinks of herself and what she wants, and yet over time, and as the waters are removed, she is revealed to be a devoted wife and dedicated mother.  What caused her to become such a wonderful woman?  Was it her frivolity or silliness? No, that is simply what hid it.  The devoted wife and dedicated mother was there all along, waiting for the waters to be removed so that she could be revealed.

What is it that makes the dry land appear?   It’s not the giving of something new, it is the removal of something that is old.  It is the taking away of something that is in the way –  “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place. . .”

It’s not really inability to see that prevents me from getting a glimpse of the future and possibilities that the Lord has for me; it is the fact that there is something between me and the Sun – my own shadow.  If only there was a way in which I could get rid of my own self-absorption then the hidden heaps of gold that God placed within me would be revealed.

Here is the hinge.  We can not remove our shadow from our selves, it must be removed by God.  He alone can release the imprisoned land that lies within our heart! It is only though His power that we can actually see what is there before us and within us.  How many marvelous things will we see when for the first time our own obstruction is removed?

Or , imagine it this way.  We go up the mountain early in the morning with a burdened soul.  There is within our heart the realization that we can not escape putting Isaac on the altar.  But when we arrive at the summit – the place of sacrifice – we purpose in our heart to do what the Lord has commanded.  All of a sudden we see that the sacrifice is not required.  We see what we had not seen even moments before – a ram caught in a thicket.  The substitute for our sacrifice was there all along.  It was placed there by God Himself, even before our soul cried out from within us to Him.  However, it is not until we died to everything near and dear to us that we were able to see it.  The shadow of our selfishness and fear hid it from our eyes.

Or, picture it this way. We go out into the desert and find no water.  We cry out to Him and suddenly there is a promise of hope and that hope allows us to see what we had never seen before.  There in the desert of our daily life there has always been a well of living water waiting there for us.

“Father, even in the seasons of despair and doubt, please lift all of my shadows.  Clear away the mist that cover Mt. Moriah; disperse the darkness from my desert.  Let the waters of my troubled past be gathered from my soul; let the stone of my old grave be rolled away from the door!  Let Christ arise from that hollow, hidden place within, and in the scene of waves and graves redemption will be revealed. Amen.”