The Cup That the Father Gives

A very dear friend of the family just sent us word on his current situation of health.  This person has been an inspiration to me towards spiritual growth all my life and has been to me like a second earthy father.  He is not overly advanced in years but is suffering a terminal illness.  His situation leaves him with reoccurring treatments of chemotherapy which do not seem to alter or halt the cancerous growth which is afflicting him.  The doctors have given him no hope for more than 6 months left to live.

In the message he sent explaining the sad condition, he also mentioned his close walk with the Lord.  Our friend has come to accept the Lords will for him whatever it may cost him and has to live through the painful part of demonstrating it in living experience.  A part of me suffers with him and I read the message with tears in my eyes.  But there was another thought that the Blessed Holy Spirit brought me which helped me greatly.

There is no doubt that we have an earthly walk here in this lifetime.  No matter how high you have been carried into the bosom of God, while you remain on earth in the flesh, there are still many experiences and occurrences in your daily life.  The Lord has made no effort to conceal the fact that we will suffer many things, but rather offers to carry our heavy burdens for us.

It brings great comfort to know that our Savior is here for us in troubled times and that it is His desire to help us.  However this is not the thought that was brought to me.

Just as true as it is that we have an earthly walk, we also (I hope), have a spiritual walk as well.  It starts before we become aware of our need for the Divine and for those who care to cultivate it and give it importance, this walk can grow like a mustard seed.  As we grow closer to the Lord, our walk becomes a greater part of our lives.

There are many things which may help or enhance the growth rate of this closeness or walk with our Creator.  A larger concept of God has a tendency to throw us further upon His strength in attempt to capture and assimilate the deeper truths.  A humbler attitude and more acute honesty with self are fundamental traits which may be sharpened with quick response to the work of the Holy Spirit.  Careful study of the Holy Scriptures, prayer and meditation are all things which, when held up to our Lord, serve to endear ourselves to Him and make that walk a larger and more important element to our essence.

Therefore we have two walks, the lower one full of the common daily struggles and attentions, and then we have the higher walk where we seek to be found in Jesus.  Surely there does not have to be a division between the acts and thoughts we do in either. The purer religions are the ones which work to combine these two walks.  It is altogether possible and highly rewarding to lift up all the things we do in our lower earthly walk and dedicate them to and offer them  to our Lord.

The more effective we are at achieving this combining of both walks, the less complicated our lives become.  It goes without saying that we become experientially closer to our God and the results touch not only every aspect of both worlds but of those around us too.

This brings us to the message which was given to me when I read of the cup that my friend is suffering with now.  We walk at the same time these two separate walks, the lower we offer up to the higher walk with Christ.  If the lower walk must end or go through rough places, it does not alter the higher walk.  That higher walk is made of and directed to the spiritual and eternal.  The time, energy and efforts invested in this higher walk are in safe and eternal hands.  All that we invest in the lower walk must one day pass through some kind of purification and transition because they serve purpose only for our short existence here on earth.

Those who are found in Jesus and He in them, those who have truly walked with Him in a very real way will never be affected by anything that may happen to the earthly body.  When you are more concerned with one walk, you may hardly notice the other.  If that higher walk is what you are focused on, the Lord may take away completely the lower walk without any lasting injury to the believer.

When we consider the God we are dealing with, He has this kind of power and these kinds of attributes.  There are people today as well as times past, who are so completely wrapped up in their Savior, that they have this kind of life inside of them.  God lives as surely inside of their hearts and souls as the spark of life that has placed them among us.  But the flame that burns for the Lord is one which can be fanned into an everlasting burning, that no power in this life can ever snuff out.

Those blessed souls who are this far devoted to serving the Almighty God, may shed tears as Jesus did while amongst us, but they count not their days left to walk this lower walk.  They are far too busy concerning themselves with the relationship they have with the Divine, and that one is just beginning!

¨The cup that the Father has given me, should I not by all means drink it¨? (John 18:11)

We suffer together with those who suffer, but for those in Christ, we rejoice in the knowledge that we remain together in the most permanent way when we live that higher and eternal walk with the Lord. In Him we live and move and in Him we will continue forever.

To God be the Glory and I pray that our lower walk here on earth is able in some way to offer up to Him our love, our praise and bring Him that Glory that He deserves.

I love you my friend, but there is One who loves you far more than we can, with a love far higher and more everlasting.  We rest in His will for us all knowing that it will be done and it will bring glory to Him who loves us and keeps us.  God is completely capable of healing if it suits His purposes and our highest wishes are set on seeing that will being done in our lives.

Live on my friend, you have earned it.  Even if you walk only a little while more that lower walk, your journey and your walk with the Lord is still only just beginning. You have chosen the highest reward that can be given any human being, to seek and serve your Maker and your Savior.

Love in Him, forever,

Scott W