continued ….
What impact did this have on Eliezer’s life? Notice that in verse 26 it says, “and the man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord.” When I was younger in the Lord and went to church we would sing the great songs of faith…”Great is thy faithfulness, Oh God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not…” I loved that song even when I was young, and I would sing every word. But today, after decades of serving God, I can’t sing that song without emotions welling up in my heart and tears coming to my eyes. It is no longer just words on a page in a hymnal. It has become a personal testimony that makes me worship God more and more. I’ve stayed in the way long enough and by God’s grace, He has led me long enough that when I sing “great is Thy faithfulness” it is my own experience testifying. There is no substitute for that. Get in the way and stay in the way. Get under God’s leadership and follow him. Never turn to the left. Never turn to the right. You will learn of God’s mercy and truth.
Do you know what it means when it says that Eliezer bowed his head? It means his experience absolutely humiliated him. Knowing and understanding God ought to humble us. How dare we stand so arrogantly and wave our fists at God? We do sometimes in our spiritual youth and say, “Oh God, what are you doing to me? You don’t care about me at all.” How foolish. How childish. Get in the way, stay in the way, follow Him and you’ll never say those things again. Because God is absolute mercy and God is absolute truth. Eliezer bowed his head and he worshiped the Lord.
I wonder, do we really worship the Lord? There’s so much talk about worship today. Some people think that unless you are dancing around and playing rock music you aren’t worshiping. Other people think that unless you’re playing an organ and never say “Amen” you aren’t worshiping. I think we only really worship the Lord when sincerely out of our own life experience we focus on an aspect of God’s character we have discovered and then express that back to him. That’s exactly what Eliezer did. When he worshiped the Lord and he said, “Blessed be the Lord God, the God of my master Abraham who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and of his truth.”
Recently the senior class of our Christian school took a trip to Scotland and Ireland. It was a very profitable and enjoyable experience. After we got back, several of our young people told me the thing they remembered most from the entire trip was a prayer meeting we took part in at Calvary Church in Angora. We got there about an hour before the service was to start and found the people praying. What our young people noticed was that there was a difference between the prayers of the younger Christians and those of the older. The young believers had many burdens on their hearts and they poured their hearts out to God in prayer. But when the older saints would pray, they could not start asking God for anything without first expressing to Him their worship.
During that same trip I had the opportunity to preach with Dr. Ian Paisley of Martyrs Memorial Church in Belfast. We were preaching at a conference north of London and before the conference Dr. Paisley met with the other speakers. I appreciate so much that old saint of God, both a Pastor and a Member of Parliament there for many, many years out of Ulster. This is a man who has suffered greatly for the cause of Christ. That old man put his hand on my shoulder and he began to pray. As I listened to him extol our great God, I knew I was in the presence of somebody who knew how to worship God. You don’t get that six months after you take up your cross. You don’t get that in a decade of going in and out of the way; of being on again, off again. You must stay in the way. You must stay consistent.
Allow the Lord to keep leading you and eventually something will happen in your heart. You will start discovering things about God that will absolutely overwhelm you. That’s what God wants from you and me. He wants us to be overwhelmed with the fact that He is at once absolute mercy and at the same time absolute truth. How do we get there? Eliezer said, “I being in the way the Lord led me.”
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