Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
There are certain verses in the Bible that I just find very entertaining. The reason why I say this is because when the Bible says, "for as the waters fill the sea," the sea can't be the sea without water.
I just find the humor in that. I love how the Word of God says things that can be a little humorous, actually, because what it's saying is exactly that. For as the waters fill the sea—in other words, it wouldn't be the sea without it—the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.
The Glory That Naturally Consumes
In other words, just like this illustration is somewhat humorous, the glory of the Lord can't help itself. It consumes. So, because the glory of the Lord is so apparent, there's an awareness of it all around us.
With that context, then it's almost as if, just like the sea, you can do things to block off the sea, to push it back, to allow it to be blocked off in a certain area. Sometimes they do that to build bridges, a structure, or something else that's going on. They purposefully block off the sea or the water from being able to inhabit the place that it would naturally consume.
The same thing can happen to our lives. The power of the glory of God wants to be able to consume and emanate every single part. Unfortunately, because of our sin that we were born into, our sin is actually what blocks the glory of God from consuming our heart and our life.
Jesus Removes the Walls
That's the beauty of what Jesus did for us. By offering forgiveness and His grace on the cross, when we accept Him as our Savior, all of a sudden the block of our sin is removed and the glory of the Lord can consume every facet of our life.
Unfortunately, over time we can start building up other things that we start becoming enamored with, other things that become influencers in our life. We start slowly but surely blocking off different areas and saying, "Lord, I'm not going to allow that area to be consumed by You. I'm not going to let that flow into my heart in this area. Sorry, Lord. This area of my life is now off limits.” Now we start pulling back and we start blocking off areas that the Lord's glory wants to naturally consume.
Removing the Barriers We Build
We are His temple, we're His vessel. If we're able and willing to say, "Lord, I'm removing it all," it's just like the sea, the water consuming the sea. It's natural. That's what it does. As we remove and surrender the things in our life to allow God to truly consume us and allow the water of the power of His presence to actually flood over us—that's when we can truly see God's glory being lived out in our life.
I would encourage you today, take some time. If there is something that you've put in place in your life that's influencing you, that's keeping God held at bay because it's like, "Lord, I don't want You to have that part of my life," remove that. Let God's Word and His's presence consume you and naturally flow through you.
The end of this verse says a lot of times we can be consumed with the other things going on around us—the circumstances, the news, other things. It says that the earth will be filled with an awareness of the glory of God. I would encourage you to pause. Look around you. Allow God to amaze you at the awareness of His presence today.
