You Raise Me Up

It’s sort of funny in a strange kind of way that when you repent of your sin(s) it’s like being ‘Born Again’ again.

Having recently been through an intense personal struggle – and it doesn’t really matter over what in particular, the principle remains the same,  -- it seems to me that my ‘spiritual vision’ (what Paul calls the ‘eyes of our heart,’) is much clearer now than, say, a week ago.

I do think that I’m now actually being renewed in my mind -- Romans 12:2

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will,” and 2 Corinthians 4:16: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

It’s a little like King David after his affair with Bathsheba. He says in Psalm 32:

“Blessed is the one
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
² Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord does not count against them
    and in whose spirit is no deceit.

³ When I kept silent,
    my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night
    your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
    as in the heat of summer.

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you
    and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
    my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
    the guilt of my sin.”

You will notice in verse three that there was a physical aspect to results of the sin with Bathsheba.

Another Bible version uses the phrase which says that David’s bones “waxed dry within me.”

I know what that’s like, and so do you.

Your bones feel dry, brittle, as if they would break at the slightest hint of more pressure than you are currently under.

In verse 4, David also felt the strong hand of God the Father’s discipline upon him:

“For day and night
    your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
    as in the heat of summer.”

And we all know that such discipline is not pleasant as in Deuteronomy 8:5

“Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.”

And Job 5:17
“Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.”

See also Job 36:10
“He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.”

It’s a far cry from Psalm one, verse three in which the faithful is like a tree flourishing by the water’s edge:

“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.”

It’s also like the picture of what I will call the ‘The Soaring Christian’ in

Psalm 103:5 where God “^5 (who) satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

And Isaiah 40:31: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

I am so glad that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me like a son and corrects me when I stray.

Do you have a relationship like that with God the Father?

Prayer: Dear God, my Heavenly father, forgive me for my sin, which has been removed at the cost of the precious blood of your Son, Jesus Christ, on Calvary’s Tree. I acknowledge that I have sinned against You, and You only. Please cleanse me and renew a right spirit within me; remove the heart of stone, and replace it with a heart of flesh, so that I may know You, the Only True God. Thank you for loving me enough to send your Son to die for me. Thank you that you hear the cry of a penitent sinner. Help me to go forward and to sin no more. Thank you that if and when I sin again, I have an Advocate who will plead my cause before You. Amen.”

'You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;

You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up: To more than I can be.'

(From “You Raise Me Up” -- Music by Secret Garden's Rolf Løvland and the lyrics by Brendan Graham).