Clouds

We sang a great new song at church last Sunday. Perhaps you have heard of it. It's called "Blessed Assurance."

Ok. Ok. So maybe it's not THAT new, but it is the song that often comes to mind when I think about old becoming new.

You may ask...why? I'll tell you.

I couldn't begin to guess how many times I had heard or sung this song before I grasped the first verse. I am ashamed to admit that I fell victim to hearing the words as stanzas of the song, and not as actual sentences. Have you ever done that? I hate that.

The verse is sung like so:

Blessed assurance
Jesus is mine
Oh what a foretaste
Of glory divine

The last two lines musically flow so that the sentence works as intended. However, I always considered "Jesus is mine" to be it's own stand alone thought. If you consider the words a sentence instead of song lyrics, the true meaning should speak to you. (Hopefully much sooner than it did to me in my life. Oops.)

Jesus is my blessed assurance.

Wow! What a thought.

Also not exactly what I want to talk about. I want to talk about clouds.

You see, the newness of that old song is found in the version that we played. It's a recent recording by Matthew West. He took some liberties with the old melody, and he also added this tremendous chorus:

My king is coming soon.
He will roll the clouds away.
Light of heaven bursting through.
Oh what a glorious day!

Of course the cloud lyric here refers to when Jesus returns to Earth in his glory and power. That will indeed be a glorious day, but why limit God to that? Why keep him in such a specific box?

It occurs to me that clouds can symbolize many things in our lives. Figurative clouds can envelop us daily in our walks. Examples could be clouds of sadness, clouds of anger, clouds of heaviness, or clouds of fear. The one I feel that I deal with most is the cloud of doubt. What about a state of confusion? We actually refer to it as things being "a little cloudy."

Any of these clouds can come and go on their own, but sometimes they linger. Other times, they grow. They turn into storm clouds and threaten to destroy us. If allowed to, clouds of sadness can turn to depression. Clouds of heaviness can turn to despair. Clouds of fear can ruin us without any transformation at all, let alone after they have intensified into terrible storms around us.

So, how do you and I escape our clouds? How do we defeat them?

We don't.

We don't because we can't. Not by ourselves, and not with our own strength. That is why we need Jesus. That is why we must cry out to him, and we must do so fervently and without ceasing. It doesn't matter what type of storm we are in. It doesn't matter how long we have been there. Call on Jesus. He has the answer. He IS the answer.

Whatever your cloud is, you may have just encountered it, or you may have been dealing with it for a long time. I encourage you to always continue to call out to Jesus. He always hears us when we pray. You may not have seen your answer yet. Just remember one thing.

Your king is coming soon. He will roll the clouds away.




Scripture: "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” - Isaiah 61:3

Quote: "He will come to where you are. You're not too lost. You're not that far. When you're caught in stormy weather, and you're no match for the waves, the water walking God is gonna come and save the day." - Ernie Haase & Signature Sound (on the new album entitled, appropriately enough, Glorious Day)

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