What is an exploit? The dictionary describes it as a 'brilliant feat'!
One of my favourite characters in the Bible is Phinehas - the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the High Priest who walked with Moses during the time of the Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt.
The amazing story of a man who was described by God as 'jealous with my jealousy' was a man who 'rose up' and did a mighty exploit for his God - read the whole story in Numbers 25.
This man did not compromise, neither was he afraid, when it came to serving his God.
Psalm 106:30 & 31 tell us:
Then stood up Phinehas (the priest) and executed judgement, and so the plague was stayed.
And that was credited to him for righteousness (right doing and right standing with God) to all generations forever.
The end result of this was that God made a covenant with Phinehas in Numbers 25:12
Behold I give to Phinehas, the priest, My covenant of peace.
25:13 And he shall have it, and his descendants after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.
God gave an amazing gift to Phinehas and we have proof that He kept His promise. Many generations later, we come to the book of Ezra. When God moved on the hearts of unsaved kings, and caused His people to return to rebuild His temple in Jerusalem, a wise and respected man comes on to the scene to take his important place in this task - Ezra - a descendent of Phinehas! God does not break His promises.
Ezr 7:6 ...this Ezra went up from Babylon. And he was a ready scribe in the Law of Moses, which Jehovah, the God of Israel had given. And the king granted him all he asked, according to the hand of Jehovah his God on him.
When we truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, we set in motion things that will benefit those we may never meet - because of God's great faithfulness.
I sit here quietly considering this!
You are within me, You have my heart and life, and yet You also come near to me and I sit in Your presence.
I feel You as I walk, talk, read, pray. You don't withdraw Yourself from me, I just get distracted and forget to look for You.
As David wrote in Psalm 139 "Where can I go from Your presence...?" - nowhere!! If You are my 'all in all' then that is the fact.
Perhaps in some circumstances and times You are more easily known and recognised within me - nevertheless, You ARE there, in me.
When the price was paid I was purchased forever - You are now in possession of my life, my affections, my afflictions, my infirmities, my mistakes ... You smile and take them all with love.
I am Yours, always and everywhere.
Thomas Merton wrote:
"There is greater comfort in the substance of silence than in the answer to a question. Eternity is in the present. Eternity is in the palm of the hand. Eternity is a seed of fire whose sudden roots break barriers that keep my heart from being an abyss."
We have tended to pray as if God were at a distance, hard of hearing, and slow to understand!
He has been drawing us to a closer place, where we have His ear and can whisper, know His wise responses, and pray out of our knowledge and experience of Him, or simply rest in His greatness and ability.
Daniel 11b (Amplified Version) tells us that in the times of great hardship and pressure
"... the people who KNOW their God shall prove themselves strong and shall stand firm and do exploits (for God)."
It becomes 'up close and personal' - how will we stand firm unless we know where to stand and the One who stands there with us?
