Faith

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I had the privilege of ushering in Shabbat with some Messianic friends of mine recently and we were discussing the importance of obeying God immediately when He gives us a task to do. I don't dispute that that is the best thing to do. If God asks us to do something, it is not because WE are sufficient to the task, but that HE is sufficient through us with the skills and talents He has put in each one of us to be whatever small part of accomplishing His purposes through us that He gives us the privilege of witnessing and participating in.

But God is not surprised that we are "leaky" vessels. He knows us through and through better than we know ourselves and knows that we aren't always going to jump immediately to the task and persevere faithfully to see it through without sidebars, detours, a lot of excuses and spiritual vacations. Not to make more excuses for our erstwhile lack of diligence in all the things of God but since He knows that, He also knows how to bring us back repeatedly and complete His purposes through us no matter how windy is the road that we choose to get there.

I read an illustration in a story once where a mother was grieving and praying for her son to make it home knowing the difficult circumstances he was facing. One day she was looking at a road map of the U.S. and God showed her the insight that all those roads are interconnected in some way or other. She could not see all the connections from her earthly vantage point, her vision was limited, just as ours is so very often. But God who lives and moves and breathes high over the earth, can see even the tiniest connections from the remotest unpaved mountain roads and pathways that barely deserve to be called a road, to the superhighways that run through the most populous metropolitan areas and the streets, avenues and boulevards of our towns and cities. He knows that even if we miss our exit and end up headed for Boise when we meant to go to San Diego, that there is another exit or turn around or turnoff where we can work our way back around to the right direction and still hit our destination. Some ways may be shorter or easier or more direct, but you can always get to where you are going by more than one route. And she realized that God is Supreme over it all and sees each individual person exactly where they are and holds each one in His hand. Regardless of time, distance or displacement that make it unlikely for two people to find each other, if God wants to bring them together again, He knows the exact path that each of them need to take to arrive at the same place at the same time at some future point, just like God directing Moses and Aaron to meet halfway in the desert without the benefit of modern communication technologies.

There is nowhere we can go and nothing we can do to be out of God's sight and care. Even if we go off the road, whether through our own sin or the effect of others' sin on us, He is faithful and just to show us the way back, the alternate route, and complete His purposes through us, seeing us to the Destination that He has in mind for us. We CANNOT thwart God…He WILL do what He will do and He does not change His plan just because we sometimes have difficulty walking in a straight line. Abraham's impatience and lack of faith in God's promise to provide a son brought him to the point of the Hagar-Ishmael saga which brought endless grief and trial in his own family and the consequences of that ancient choice, still affects the whole world today with the descendants carrying on chronic war in the Middle East. In spite of Abraham's attempt to usurp God's plan and bring the promise to fruition by his own devices and the ongoing consequences that has brought (which God does not try to set aside or protect him from), God still gives him the second chance through Isaac and brings about the promised blessing for all the earth. It took Samuel four times to realize that God was speaking to him as a child and respond properly but when he did God blessed him with great ministry for the rest of his life. Jonah didn't get onboard with God's plan until he spend a few days cooling his heels in the belly of a great fish. But after the consequence, God sent him back down the right path for a second chance. God does that with us too. We have to live out the consequences of our choices. But we have the assurance of knowing that wherever our mortal feet have misdirected us to, God sees us and is sufficient and faithful to wipe away the sins of our past and bring us into the fullness of what promises and plans He has ordained for each and every one of us.

I read the back of a book cover once that had a quote from a famous theologian (I don't remember which one). I may not have it verbatim, but the gist of it was "How can I know if I have accomplished everything that God put me on earth do do? Answer: If you are still breathing, you haven't!" So as long as I am alive, I have a responsibility to seek out whatever tasks that God has set for me to do and allow Him to bless me and others through me by being whatever small cog in His grand plan that He gives me the privilege of being without getting mired down in self-doubt and recrimination for past or current sin or ability or lack of worthiness or talent. If He asks me to do it, He will give me the strength and resources to do it….I just have to set my hand to the wheel and get moving, trusting that He will make it happen because He is that good, not I. "It is not I who live, but Christ lives in me…."

"I know whom I have believed and am convinced that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day." (2 Timothy1:12)

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