“Fainting Away”
The love the Heavenly Father has for His children is a love that conquers all things. This love is seen and identified on the cross where the Father poured out His wrath upon His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. It is a sacrificial love that can only be seen as the Holy Spirit makes it manifest to us. It is a love that is truly incomprehensible. This eternal love ascends with us to the highest heavens when it seems as if we are staring upon the face of God. It is in that moment when our hearts are enraptured in overwhelming joy. It is like a well spring of water that is bursting forth in all of its glory. It is here we build in our heart a memorial stone of recollection that we can always go back to and remember, crying out as Jacob, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”
But along with those moments we so often covet, come the trials of life. This world is like a land filled with mines and if the scriptures are not directing our pathway we will surely fall captive to the enticement of sin. We must always be aware our hearts are deceitfully wicked and prone to wander from the God Whom we love. Oh Christian, how often do we find ourselves in disobedience to the word of God. But thanks be to God, that though our love changes, His love never changes for us. Even in the moments of disobedience His love descends with us into the valley of rebellion when our heart seeks to elevate itself above His perfect word. It is here in our darkest hour that we see the love of God unmoved and unshaken. It is a true saying, “Divine love in the human heart will never diminish nor depart. It transcends space and time, granting efficacious grace that is so sublime.” J.C. Philpot explains eloquently, “The Spirit shines on the word, and raises up faith in the soul to believe that the Lamb has been slain, that blood has been shed, that a sacrifice has been offered, and that “a new and living way” has been opened and consecrated “through the veil,” the rent “flesh” of the Lord Jesus.”
The Holy Spirit illuminates our mind, testifying with our spirit that we are children of God and that He will never leave us nor forsake us. So that even in our darkest hour we sigh with deep longings for Him. This is exactly what we see in Jonah, a man attested and approved, who was called to be a prophet of God. Yet we find him in the heart of the sea trapped in the belly of a great fish, with bellows and breakers passing over him. Though the consequences of his actions were due him, in the midst of his greatest crisis the Spirit of God aroused him, and he cried, “While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.” During Jonah’s rebellion, the truth is shown forth in his inner man, and so it does also in every genuine Christian.