Streams In The Desert #121

The cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. . . . The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. (Genesis 41:4, 7)

This dream should be a warning to each of us. Yes, it is possible for the best years of our life, the best experiences we have enjoyed, the best victories we have won, and the best service we have rendered, to be swallowed up by times of failure, defeat, dishonor, and uselessness in God’s kingdom. Some people whose lives offered exceptional promise and achievement have come to such an end. It is certainly terrible to imagine, but it is true. Yet it is never necessary.

Samuel Dickey Gordon once said that the only safe assurance against such a tragedy is to have a “fresh touch with God daily—or even hourly.” My blessed, fruitful, and victorious experiences of yesterday have no lingering value to me today. In fact, they can be “swallowed up” or reversed by today’s failures, unless I see them as incentives to spur me on to even better and richer experiences today.

Maintaining this “fresh touch with God,” by abiding in Christ, will be the only thing to keep the “ugly and gaunt . . . cows” and the “thin heads of grain” from consuming my life. from Messages for the Morning Watch