Isaiah 55: 8 - 9 NKJV
I ran across the weekly podcast from Wayne Jacobsen this week with a bit of skepticism. The initial lead in was more than enough to cause me to question the entire episode. Why is it that God would allow the suffering of a drought in a far away land, and yet provide answers to Waynes prayers beseeching good waether as they hiked through Norway? Now, I have to admit that I myself have all too often found myself asking some type of this very same question. I'm sure that we all have. Why does God answer some prayers, but not the prayers of others? Now, I would never make that mistake of equating our Lords love and mercy to those prayers which He chooses to act on. However, there are those in the christian community who would voice displeasure with God for not giving ear to their requests for intervention. Does Gods lack of action take away the fact that He is still the Alpha and the Omega? Are unanswered prayers a indication of our Lords lack of interest in our day to day lives? Does His promise to never leave us nor forsake us {Deuteronomy 31:6} hold true only in certain circumstances? I can recall a time when my own view of my heavenly Father was one of a provider and protector and not of One who thrived inside of me. This is a mistake I'm afraid that many a christian has made. For not only does this put God in a box, but gives us the impression that He is seperated from His children. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are assured that His Spirit is indeed with us through these lives which we live. He is closer to us than we ever could have imagined. How God acts upon our requests has absolutely NO bearing on who He truly is.
27Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Life Lessons 29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8: 27 - 29 NKJV
As I went through the Jacobsen post, what came to mind were thoughts of a human flesh response to Gods interaction with us. By that I mean that we may react to our Lords decisions or interactions with His children in the only way that we know, through the ways of the flesh. When we do this we are going about it in the wrong way and seeing our heavenly Father for something He is not. For God is not bound by human interactions and flesh led emotions. We cannot treat our interaction with God as we would a interaction with our own neighbor. Even though both will have that Spirit of Christ within them, we all too often treat our heavenly Father as we would another person. It is true that His thoughts are not ours and that His ways are not our own as well {Isaiah 55:9}. Again, when our Lord chooses not to act on a certain situation, all too often our own immediate response is to put a fleshly tag on Him that He somehow is upset, unwilling or oblivious to the plight of one of His children. This is where we are seeing things through our own eyes instead of trusting our heavenly Father that He is indeed all knowing. God is not bound by our own emotions and flesh. It is true that we share all that He is, perfectly created in His own image {Genesis 1:27}. We can delight in knowing that we share all that He is without all the reactions and restrictions of the flesh. He is forever a part of us.
20“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galations 2:20 NKJV
~Scott~
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