And you are fully equipped to meet the day, because God is within you. He has promised us, that for those of us who call Him our Savior, His Holy Spirit lives within us and is present with us at all times. Our "perfection" is not a condition of His presence. After all, His good presence in us has little to do with us, but has everything to do with His grace towards us. All we are asked to do is believe and receive. Then once that has happened, He's there, with us, always, everywhere. Whether we acknowledge and remember or not, He does, He keeps His promise.
So today, the boundary of my skin and your skin, marks the edge of "us" in this world. The presence of the Holy Spirit in us will enable to meet the day and guide us through. Oh how much sweeter the walk is when we pause to remember, HE is with us, He is enabling us, He is guiding us, He is. When we stop relying on ourselves to accomplish what needs to be done, and instead we rely on Him to enable us to accomplish it, there is beauty in the outcome.
Learning to live in our skin with the Holy Spirit, our Father God, giving the perfect pressure from the inside so we can withstand the pressures put on us from the outside ---- is an art, a skill, an obedience. It's the way of Peace.
It becomes exhausting and overwhelming when we try and use our skin to counter the pressures of this world. We're not equipped to do it, we're simply not strong enough. We need someone to save us from the heavy weight of life this side of Heaven. And so, He gives us a Savior; the One who can easily counter the pressure of this world with His powerful presence within us.
So today, you and I are equipped to meet the pressures of this world and it's many demands on us, at the boundary of our skin, when we allow the Holy Spirit to reside in us and apply the counter pressure.
My Steve loves to dive in deep waters. He's ok to stay at the surface if he must, but given a squeak of a chance, he'll go deep. He has explained to me the pressure one feels as they descend, the water has power and is pushing in on the divers skin; if not countered with pressure from within the diver, the water can and will crush them. So as divers descend to the deep, they must pause periodically to equalize the pressure. If they do not, they will experience severe pain, and their dive will end prematurely. So the diver must manage the pressure the waters are inflicting on them with the pressure they can build up on the inside of them. Likewise, when the diver is ascending from a deep dive, they must pause to equalize the lessened pressure on their body, or they will be in trouble with what diver's call the "bends" (also called decompression sickness). If not managed and attended to carefully, it can prove fatal. It is that serious --- the pressures from within and from without must be equalized --- or it can kill the diver.
The same is true with life on the surface. The pressures we feel, the weight of all that comes at us, well, it's more than our skin is equipped to hold up against. We sometimes foolishly think we are suppose to be strong and endure it on our own. After all, it seems those around us are managing it well. But in reality, we don't know what is going on inside their skin, we don't know if medications are needed in order to help them "get through the day". We don't know if their personal relationships are shattered or their physical health is suffering. No one, no one is immune to the pressure and no one, no one is equipped to handle it alone.
We need a God to counter the pressure. He knew we would need Him. He knew the pressure would be too great. He tells us He will carry our burdens, He will give us His strength, He will Shepherd us through the valley.
And so He gives us His Holy Spirit, to live within us, to counter the external pressure with His great, loving internal presence.
It's one of the reasons we can sometimes fall apart when we try and look at tomorrow and examine "how" we will ever manage it. We are equipped, with Holy Spirit presence to counter the pressure of today. Not tomorrow, not yet. We might imagine our "skin" in the tomorrows, and it all seems too heavy, too much, simply impossible. "How will I ever manage?", "How can we possibly?", "What will I do if?" These are weighty, heavy, unbearable pressures to look ahead to ---- because while you might try and imagine your "skin" there --- you can not factor in accurately the Holy Spirit pressure/presence that will be given to you THEN. We cave in on ourselves when we try and imagine ourselves there. But we can stop the madness, when we are tempted to worry over tomorrow ---- and remind ourselves that, God will be with us then. He is our loving Shepherd, He will know exactly how to maneuver through the terrain of tomorrow, if we simply obey Him today.
My skin is the boundary of me today. It's the line between the outside pressures and the inward countering of my Holy God. God can and will perfectly equalize the pressure placed on me, with His powerful presence today.
My skin will be the boundary of me tomorrow. God will be there as well.
Thank you God!
Luke 12:12 ..."for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."
Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Act 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
(photo taken in Kenya of Maggie's hands and an orphaned child's hands by me)
This post is a blessing to me right now, as I have so much I feel I must do, and don't want to allow pressure and worry to break me down. The verses are perfect for me to think about when this happens. Thank you so much ~ God's peace to you.
ReplyDeleteGreat analogy Donna. The pressures from without can only be met by God within us. Nothing else will do.
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