While in Africa, a big part of our ministry includes preaching in churches and homes. This is something I absolutely love to do, so below is one of the sermons I’ve had the privilege of giving while in Malawi. I want to share something with you guys today about how our God works in these cycles.
First of all – we can see that our God is a God of cycles just by looking at the world around us. He made the water cycle – where rain falls from the sky and fills the soil with nutrients and hydrates the plants. That water evaporates back into the air and that collects as water droplets in the sky that make clouds. Then, when the clouds are so full of water that they can no longer hold it in the air, it rains and the cycle starts all over again.
You see cycles like this all over God’s Creation. Trees shed their leaves when it gets cold and then grow new ones when it warms back up and that cycle repeats every year. We have rainy seasons and dry seasons that cycle through year after year. Our earth even cycles around the sun while, simultaneously in a beautiful dance, the moon cycles around our earth.
Now it’s obvious our God loves to work in these cycles – but I want to share with you a few ways He shows us more about Himself through cycles
Let me lay out a scene for you (you will be familiar with this one if you read my imagery blog): Christians often think of these “mountaintop moments” where they are on a spiritual high and feel closer to God than ever. But, have you ever looked at a mountaintop? They’re ugly. There isn’t much life. Mountaintops – especially the highest mountaintops – are barren because there isn’t enough oxygen or nutrients for plant-life to grow. However, as you come down from the mountain, the snowcaps start to melt and bring fresh water into the valleys. It may be harder to walk through the valley and you may not be on the high you were on at the top of the mountain, but there is so much life and growth in those valleys.?All we learn during those mountaintop moments with our Lord is used to water the low moments that inevitably come, and your faith only gets tested and grown through those lows. Plus, you have to cross a valley in order to get to the next mountaintop, and from there you can enjoy the view of the growth that came out of that valley. And that cycle of going up the mountain and back down again is a constant in our faith – it’s how we learn and are refined by our God. Isn’t it SO GOOD that we have a God who works mightily in suffering?? No other God does that! He wants us and calls us valuable at our lowest and most vulnerable points.
The second cycle I want to talk about is the cycle of turning and repentance that God has for us. We see this laid out really beautifully with the Israelites. In the original Hebrew of the Old Testament we see the word shuv used. This word means to turn or repent. We see this especially in the book of Zechariah.
In Zechariah 1:3 it says “so tell the people: this is what the Lord of Hosts says: Return to Me – this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts – and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts” this word return had two meanings for the Israelites: a return from captivity – so a physical return. They as a people are physically moving from captivity and back into the promised land and to the temple that held the presence of our Lord. But, it also signifies a spiritual return to relationship with our Lord. Now, we see in that verse that the Israelites are returning, but so is our Lord. And it applies to Him in two ways as well: after removing His presence and blessing from His people for a time, the return is God showing His favor to the Israelites again. It also signifies the end of a time of judgement from God and the beginning of a time of blessing. His offer to return to His people relied on their return to Him as well. When I think about it, I imagine two boards, one is God’s people and one is God, and these two boards are constantly turning, and they need to line up and face each other for everything to fall into place – for real relationship between God and His people to flourish.
We also see this cycle of turning laid out in the book of Hosea. To sum up the story – God calls a man named Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer, and multiple times, Gomer leaves Hosea to be with other men. But, every time God tells Hosea to get Gomer back and forgive her. Even to the extent of buying her back as a prostitute. This whole story is a beautiful picture of the way God is constantly calling us to return back to Him and to be redeemed by Him.
Speaking of redemption, I want to talk about a final cycle of redemption and shared glory that our God invites us into.
Worship is this love song of us giving back to God what He gave to us.
“Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne, the One who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, worship the One who lives forever and ever, cast their crowns before the throne, and say: Our Lord and God, You are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, because You have created all things, and because of Your will they exist and were created.” –
So, we see these elders in heaven that keep throwing down their crowns. Crowns are a gift we receive from God when we get to heaven for honoring Him here on earth – so why would they throw them on the ground? How are they even able to continuously throw their crowns down? As I thought about this I realized… someone has to be putting those crowns back onto their heads so they can throw them down. You see, worship is this cyclical love song between the heart of man and the heart of God. And these elders are finally in His full presence and glory and they are like “oh my God you are so holy and so beautiful and wonderful!!” And they throw their crowns before our Lord to honor Him. Then, this is so beautiful, He scoops the crowns back up and says “I get to sing back over you now. YOU are holy, you are wonderful you are beautiful!” And the elders say “ahhhhhh! This is too good to be true!” And they cast their crowns back down at God’s feet.
It’s just like that cycle of water I talked about at the beginning. The rain goes down into the dirt and the sun rides across the sky and draws that water out of the dirt until the sky is so full of water that it can’t contain itself and it rains back down on the ground.
Just like the sun in our sky participates in this cycle, the Son of God participates in this cycle of worship and glory being exchanged between Him and His people. This is the cycle of romance between God and His people as He scoops our crowns back up and says “no this is who YOU are! As you discover who I am this is who YOU are!”
You see, knowing more about God always results in knowing more about ourselves. Let me share with you a description of sin I read recently:
Sin is like taking a hammer to a mirror, sin shatters the image in which man is made. When Adam sinned, the image of God in man was irreparably broken. There is no way for us to un-sin. We cannot simply do a few good deeds to repair our souls. There is nothing on earth that we can do. It would take a miracle, an act of God, to restore us and save this world.
You see, these cycles are part of that miracle that can repair the broken mirror of our souls. Our souls are meant to reflect God perfectly and learning more about Him in these cycles of redemption restores more and more of those pieces of glass back into the mirror so we can reflect Him better.
In Japan, there is this art form called Kintsugi. Whenever a pot or a vase shatters, they mold the pieces back together using precious metals like gold or silver. And out of something that was broken and shattered and no longer the image it was meant to represent, a more beautiful image is created. The pot is redeemed with intricate veins of gold running through it. This is God’s plan with these cycles. Not only is He showing us more about Himself, He is using this cycle of brokenness and reparation to turn us into an even more beautiful image of Him than we ever could have imagined.
grace + peace
If you liked what you read here and feel led to partner with me on mission – please feel free to support me by praying for me and subscribing to this blog! I am fully funded!! But, if you would still like to support me financially, you can find me on paypal ([email protected]) or check out my store.
