Isaiah 65: 24 NKJV
I went there again this week, drawn in like a moth to the flame. Facing a personal struggle, I found myself again making my requests made known to my heavenly Father for deliverance. In my heart I was faithfully fully expecting that God would indeed deliver me from this current firestorm in my life. Why wouldn't I? For He had intervened for me so many times in the past. I could not expect that this time would be any different. And so I turned to my Father in prayer. Along the way I certainly had my doubts, but I was a good christian soldier and trusted that God had my best interests at heart. After all, I was not only His child, but an heir in Christ as well. Having this resume in my favor, how could I not expect that things would turn out exactly as I prayed to my Father for? I don't call faith such as this as confidence, just the reassurance that God will provide the best for us. However, when indeed the smoke of lifes trials had cleared I found myself once again in a the familiar place of wondering why my heavenly Father had seemingly been deaf to my pleas for help. After all, didn't I have an advantage over others who might bend Gods ear for help? Was I not His very child and heir? Certainly I had the right to expect that my heavenly Father would deliver me from this current storm. Or did I? Certainly Gods arms are not that short that He cannot save, nor is His ear so deaf that it cannot hear our cries. But what are we to think when we feel that our pleas seemingly fall on our heavenly Fathers deaf ears? Are we to take from this that we haven't prayed hard enough? That we haven't fasted or tithed enough? I would suggest that this kind of thinking is institutional and is dangerous to our very faith. And yet I once again fell for it. For my very first thought was that perhaps there was something I had done which did not appease God. Nothing could be far more old testament than this kind of thinking. For Christ did not give Himself for someone who had just a passing relationship with the Father {John 3: 16 -17}.
7Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55: 7 - 9 NKJV
Was I right that I should expect that God would hear my calls and deliver me from the storm which I was facing? Absolutely! For I believe in my God fearing heart that He indeed delights in providing for His children {Matthew 7:11}. Was God really indifferent to my cries for His assistance? Absolutely not. Remember, the Isrealites cried out to God for deliverance, and after several hundred years God responded that he "Had heard the cries of His people." Really God? Was God ignoring His people? No, but there certainly was a delay before His deliverance. So it is with us. I do not believe that God is ever indifferent to our cries and requests, that is just not His nature. For God is love, and to turn His back on His children would certainly not exhibit that love which defines him {1 John 4: 7-8}. Far from being indifferent to our requests, I believe that this is more of an issue with our own perceptions than Gods indifference. Isaiah clearly tells us that the ways of our heavenly Father are above our own. So, is what I see as Gods indifference to my situation simply my heavenly Fathers nudging me in a direction He knows is right for me? I feel that this is closer to the truth. However, when the storms come, we will once again find ourselves tossed by the waves calling to God for deliverance. The storms will indeed come, but we are blessed with a Father who delights in His children.
~Scott~
No comments:
Post a Comment