Devotionals

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2 Corinthians 6
1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain.

All week, I've been feeling called to examine how we relate to God. Things came to a head when, in a somewhat silly mood, I prayed that God would help me pass five exams I had taken at work.

As background, my employer requires that every employee pass 14 exams over the course of two years. There is one exam day each month and you may take up to five exams each time. You need a 90 percent to pass and may take the exams as often as necessary -- unless your two years runs out.

In six months, I've taken five exams each month and have never passed more than one or two.

They prayer went something like this:
"God, You know I've been too busy to study much for this month's exams. I would feel happy to pass one or two of them. And You know if I happened to pass three, I'd think I was very lucky.

"You also know that if I passed all five, I would know it was only by your grace -- a true miracle. I'd feel called to tell everyone I knew about your awesome power and I would truly feel how important I am to You."

I hastened to add, "This is NOT a test" as I recalled Deuteronomy 6:16 -- "Do not test the Lord your God ..."

I passed all five exams.

My first thought was how awesome God is. Then I started thinking how underserving I was.

Then it dawned on me that, once we start partnering with God, He doesn't see us as undeserving. In fact, He can't WAIT to bless us.

He also can't wait for us to pass along those blessings to others, so they may have relationships with Him as well.

Let me put it into musical terms:

God patiently teaches us the melodies of life. We stumble over the hard parts, but God brings us back to the notes on the page -- His Word -- until we learn to FEEL the song.

He is building us up to a new stage, where He can trust us to carry the base melody and He can add the harmonies -- bass, tenor, soprano. Suddenly, we are in a duet, a blessed partnership, still a very junior partner, but trusted and loved.

Participating in this duet, we learn how God builds in the bass parts, the tenor. Soon, we may know the song well enough to sing those parts, if that is where our gifts lie.

But something deeper is happening. We are learning how the whole song feels. We could write our own parts now and soar without clashing. Or we could teach others the melody.

Eventually, the song is part of us. And God is free to write a symphony, knowing there will be instruments to plug in.

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