This last week I have been thinking about the rainbow. But not for the reasons why my Facebook newsfeed is filled with them. This post isn’t about that. I’ve been thinking about rainbows; particularly the one that surrounds the throne of God.
- Revelation 4:3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.
There is a rainbow around His throne. I have studied this scripture for Harp and Bowl for years. It’s a favorite of mine. But it wasn’t until this last week that I started to really think about what it meant to remember mercy. I’ve gotten really angry a couple of times this last week. Really angry. Not at my kids, but for them. It’s a righteous anger. It’s an anger that seeks justice. It’s an anger that wants to fix everything, restore everything, mend everything. Then I remember mercy. I must remember mercy. Or I’d probably do some serious damage. Not at all with my hands, but with my mouth, mind, and heart. It’s a battle to remember mercy. But it’s to be expected because we are in a spiritual war, after all.
- Hab 3:2
- O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
The scripture that came to mind as I was fighting the battle to remember mercy was this one from Habakkuk. In wrath remember mercy. If I feel this much anger rising up in me as I see the injustices done to these little ones in my care, how much more does our Father God feel for them? He sees and knows all. All of those details that we miss. All of the injustices, all of the hurt, all of the pain, all of the neglect, all of the misunderstandings. He sees it all. How much anger He must feel for His children! And then it occurred to me: that is why the rainbow surrounds His throne. It keeps mercy before Him. When we come before Him, when He looks out at us, He sees things through mercy. He remembers His covenants. He remembers His words, His promises. He remembers mercy.
I’m not going to pretend to have all my thoughts gathered together perfectly on this one. They’re scattered over years of study but suddenly, this last week, I’m back at the rainbow. I’m back to remembering mercy. I’m back in His presence wondering about the beauty of it all. I need this revelation as I continue to walk in my mothering anointing. I need it because I want my life patterned after Him. When my kids come to me I want them to see me through the rainbow of mercy. I want to see them through the rainbow of mercy. I don’t want it be a hard thing, I want it to be a natural thing, something that is embedded in my character.
The Holy Spirit continues to bring me back to a song written by Misty Edwards, “All Men are Broken.” He brings me back to that song for different reasons. The last time because I had made Him small in my mind and then He reminded me that He is bigger than my shortcomings. This last week He brought me back to it to show me that even through the trials I carry my children through, He’s bigger than the injustices done to them. “All men are broken, and broken men break their children, who grow up to be broken men, but I’m bigger than that.”
He is. He is bigger than that. And He sees it all and He knows it all and His ways are all right and true. He knows that the answer to the brokenness is Him. I think we get that confused sometimes. I know that God uses men on the earth. I know that we are to pray and contend for heaven to be made manifest here. But sometimes I think we step out of sync with Him. Sometimes we start to bring our own justice through our own strength, through our own wisdom, through our own power, driven by zeal but not by His Spirit. We burn with anger but forget mercy. When we fail to remember mercy, we fail to walk with the Holy Spirit. We must fight to remember mercy even when it is hard. We must fight to hear what God says about our circumstances instead of trying to fix things in our own strength.
Mercy. Mercy doesn’t mean that God lets everything slide. He is our vindicator. We would do well to remember that. But He is also our Father. We would do well to remember that, too! It all comes down to knowing who He is. Every teaching, every preacher’s message comes down to this: knowing God. That’s it. You must know His word, you must know His character. You must know how He loves people, corrects people, speaks their languages, gets down in the dirt, gets down in the chaos, holds back, presses in. You must know how He knows how to fix all our problems, how sometimes He doesn’t do that the way we want Him to. We must know Him. It all comes down to that. We must know Him if we want to endure. We must know Him if we want to overcome.
Yes, the world will get darker as the days go on, but the church will also shine brighter. Shining brighter takes knowing Him. Nothing apart from that will ever settle our identity. Nothing apart from that will sanctify us. Nothing.
We could try to pass laws to fix the issues we see wrong in our world. We could try to come up with more programs. Sure there are lots of things we could do. We could protest. We could stand on our soapboxes. We could scream it from the rooftops. We could wear cool t-shirts. We could go to conference after conference. But if we don’t walk with the Holy Spirit in all that we do, we’re just building on sand. If we don’t know Him, our works will all burn up. We must seek to understand that at the core of our problems in society, every single problem, the answer isn’t another law, it’s not another fine, it’s Jesus. It’s a heart problem. The prescription is Jesus. You can’t clean the outside of a cup and expect the inside to clean itself. Jesus isn’t into whitewashed tombs. He isn’t interested in making us into a bunch of hypocrites. He wants us to be like Him.
We are citizens of heaven. The throne room is the court room. There is a war all around us. And in the midst of all of these battles we see, even as the righteous anger burns inside of us, we will see everything around us through the rainbow, through mercy. We see differently because of where we are seated. We are seated with Christ Jesus in heavenly places. Jesus is coming for a spotless bride, will you let Him refine you? Will you let Him iron out your wrinkles and wash away your stains? Will you let Him be God and you do and say only that which He says to do? You don’t have to guess anymore what you think God would say or do, God doesn’t want us guessing at who He is. I hate it when my kids do that. Especially the ones who have been with me their whole lives. It breaks my heart. It makes me want to shake them and hold them tight and say, “Don’t you know me by now?!” Then spend extra time with them so they can know me, so their thinking starts to align with mine, so that they can see things and think them through the way I do. That’s the cry of our Father’s heart in all of this, too.
- Psalm 25:6 Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
I think that’s why He brought me back to mercy. Remember mercy, child. Even when you don’t see the answers you want, remember mercy. Remember who God is and quit guessing.
- Hab 3:17
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,Hab 3:18
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.Hab 3:19
GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
Rejoice in God. He is still on the throne. He’s never changed. He’s the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Put your hope in Him!
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