One And The Same God!

There is no way for me to truly express the emotion that wells up in me as I write this devotion today but I hope that as you read it, the Holy Spirit ministers to you in the way He is ministering to me as I write! I am not going to quote any Scriptures because I want you to take time after reading today’s devotion and open up the Bible and allow God to show you who He is for you right now! What I am going to quote are the lyrics to CeCe Winans’ song “One and the Same” as the words are so powerful in helping us to see God in a whole new way! As I have said in the past there is no way to full comprehend the greatness of God but when we start to see Him in this light an amazing transformation takes place in our hearts!

“How shall I begin to speak about a God that I will never comprehend? So high and mighty and yet, closer than a friend, the beginning and the end! The mystery of His holiness, the wonder of His humanness are; one, one and the same! I can't do Him justice with any one name! The Holy God of Heaven and the humble man who bore my shame, are one; one and the same! I scarcely understand how a simple servant can be called the great I am! How the Son of God is still the Son of man? Both the Sheppard and the Lamb! The healer and the wounded one! The Father and the only Son are one! The way that we can come to know the truth that sets us free, yeah the life that died, and rose again! Love revealed! One and the same!”

Sometimes I find myself playing this song over and over again and I sit in complete silence as I try to grasp the enormity of God! First I think about the fact that He stepped down from Heaven and became a man who bore my sin and shame on the Cross! This thought is sometimes so overwhelming that I break down in tears and spend time thanking Him for loving me so much! To think that all the sin I ever committed or will commit God willfully bore the punishment for in His body as they beat Him, spit on Him, and crucified Him; makes me fall to my knees and worship Him with everything that is within me! I didn’t deserve that! I deserved punishment and death for my sins and yet I was spared because the Great I AM took my place!

To think that He is so high and mighty, the maker of heaven and earth, and yet every day He chooses to spend time with me and calls me His friend! That blows me away! And to think of all the days I chose to tell Him I didn’t have time for Him but He never stopped coming to me and asking if He could sit with me and talk for awhile! But that is exactly what He does day after day! I don’t deserve that! I deserve to be abandoned for being such a horrible friend and yet the Lord of Glory doesn’t believe I deserve that and chooses to be my friend no matter what! How can I begin to comprehend that?

Sometimes I think about how the Prince of Peace became the tormented one who cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken ME” just so we could be given His peace that passes all understanding! And how many days have I spent countless hours be anxious and tormented and refused to receive His gift of peace when He presented it to me? Too many to count! But that doesn’t matter to Him and each day He shows up and offers me the gift, regardless of how many times I have refused to accept it in the past! I don’t deserve that! I deserve to be tormented for being so ungrateful and yet the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, sees me worth pursuing with precious gifts like the gift of peace!

I could write page after page of scenarios like these and even so I still don’t think I would fully appreciate all He has done for me. I hate to say that but it is true! That kind of love I don’t understand! And yet He doesn’t ask me to. He just asks that I accept it and walk in it with others! That’s it! He says if I love Him with everything that is within me and I love the people around me; I’ve done everything that He requires of me. Really? Can it be that simple? When I ask this He always says, “It is that simple, I did everything else that was required! I took it on myself and did it perfectly, because I knew you couldn’t!” Have you ever thought about that?

That’s why CeCe’s song is so powerful because it begins to uncover exactly what our perfect Heavenly Father did when He traded in His deity for human flesh! This is why I really want to encourage you to spend time discovering just how much God loves you by comparing the two as CeCe did in this song. I can promise that as I have come to view God in a whole new way, you will too as you delve into who He is and what He did for you on the Cross! May you be strengthened and encouraged today as you walk out this exercise of faith!

Prayer: Make it personal! Make it real! Ask Him to reveal the depths of His love for you and ask Him to give you wisdom and understanding when you open up the Bible with a new mindset of discovery. Praise Him and worship Him with your whole heart today! Amen