Behold, He is coming with clouds . . . —Revelation 1:7
In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. “The clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness.
It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child— a relationship simply between God and our own souls, and where other people are but shadows. Until other people become shadows to us, clouds and darkness will be ours every once in a while. Is our relationship with God becoming more simple than it has ever been?
There is a connection between the strange providential circumstances allowed by God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Until we can come face to face with the deepest, darkest fact of life without damaging our view of God’s character, we do not yet know Him.
“. . . they were fearful as they entered the cloud” (Luke 9:34). Is there anyone except Jesus in your cloud? If so, it will only get darker until you get to the place where there is “no one anymore, but only Jesus . . .” (Mark 9:8 ; also see Mark 2:7).
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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
So you want me to “unlearn” some things…… I guess that makes sense. The things I’ve learned that turn out not to be true, seem to cause me the biggest problems. One of the biggest is, “If it’s to be, It’s up to me” Although there is some truth in that common self improvement mantra … it can lead to much wasted effort. Perhaps the way to sift out the kernel of truth in that statement would be to say, If I connect with you and discern what your will in a situation is and am obedient to that … then it will be.
That is true, but it is also true that you can use your own effort to cause a thing to happen without any regard to me or my plans. People do it all the time. It doesn’t bring about my best for them but it does happen. Will power and organized efforts are merely tools. They can be used positively or negatively. They can run you into situations of overload and stress. But if you stay connected, I will show you how to navigate thru the stressors and choose the path of peace that I have for you, even in the storms of life. The peace meter and the stress meter on the dashboard of your life are pretty good indicators of how well we are connected.
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