Our Father, as the evergreen

Question: How can we remain in the freshness of the Lord while carrying out our repetitive tasks in our daily living?

Answer: First Thessalonians 5:17 says, "Unceasingly pray." To pray is not merely to bring many things to the Lord; it is to take the Lord in by calling on His name. Only the Lord Himself is fresh. Apart from Him we can never be fresh. In Hosea 14:8 Jehovah said, "I am like a green fir tree," indicating that He is evergreen, ever fresh, and ever new. Hymns, #16, which was composed based on Hosea 14:8, says, Our Father, as the evergreen, Thou art forever new; Thou art the ever living Lord, Thy freshness as the dew. O Father, Thou art unchanging, Thou never hast grown old; Thru countless ages, ever fresh, Thy newness doth unfold.

Every day and every moment we should contact the Lord so that we may be as new as He is. As soon as we cease contacting Him, we become old. We can easily become old; thus, we need to maintain our contact with the Lord.

Because God wants us to be a new creation, He must dispense Himself as the newness into our being to renew us. In the sixty-six books of the Bible, only one verse tells us that God is always new, like an evergreen. In Hosea 14:8 our God is likened to an evergreen tree, a green fir tree. Because He is evergreen, He Himself becomes the evergreen element. Now He is dispensing Himself into our being as such an element to renew us. I do have the sense that every day I am newer. I am not older; I am newer. I am not old, because I am being renewed. Something of God as the "evergreen tree" is being dispensed into my being.