For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts'"
Isaiah 55: 8 - 9 NKJV
The question came up again this week. You know...THE question. That question which somehow makes every Christian pastor and scholar trip over their words as they try to describe how it is that the Lord works at times. The best answer I ever got when I asked a pastor the question is, "We should just let God be God." I agree. So, why is it that God allows good things to happen to seemingly godly people? This past week a dear Christian friend and brother was hospitalized with virus complications. I watched my own other, a good Christian lady who knew the Lord, suffer in her final years. How is it that God, whose very love and grace we cannot deny, would allow His own children to suffer? Well, to better understand this we need to take a step back and really look at what He is doing. Is this my God...or our God? Should we only expect good from the Lord? I would say no. For the scripture is full of instances where devout men and women of God were subjected to bad circumstances. Our very Lord and Savior, Jesus, was subjected to horrible scourging on His journey to the cross. However, what we need to realize is the blood that He shed...was for us. All of us. That includes the good, the bad and the ugly among us. The crucifixion of Christ covered all of Gods children. It is through the work of Christ that we are saved. Again, that means everyone. One of the most iconic scriptures we will ever know attests to this. In John 3:16 we're told that God gave His only Son for our salvation. Yet, I consider verse 17 to be a key point in this passage. In verse 17 we're introduced to the love and grace of our heavenly Father once again..."That the world through Him might be saved." God wasn't playing favorites when He provided for our salvation. God was...being God. I have found that too many Christians have developed a "God for me but not for thee" attitude when it comes to how God works in our lives. The difficulty with this belief is that when God allows hardship into our lives, our first reaction is to question and put the blame at the feet of the Lord. A turning point in how I see God happened after my mother passed away. For more than a few years I had been praying, fasting and tithing in order that He would relieve her suffering. Whatever the institutional church recommended for enticing the Lords favor, I did it. Of course, it didn't work. I have never been angrier at God than I was in the days after her passing. Why did He not answer my prayers? What I failed to realize at the time was that God HAD lovingly answered my prayers in His own way. My mother was no longer suffering.
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12: 8 - 10 NKJV
I find it interesting that the pride of many believers would somehow give them a front row seat into the grace of the Lord. That God would save His best for those who believed in Him. The apostle Paul reminds us that indeed there is no partiality with God {Romans 2:11}. Where do we get such ideas? Well, thousands of years of church tradition certainly don't help our cause. We're told that we can curry the Lords favor with regular church attendance, bigger tithes of more hours serving the church. The catholic church was infamous for selling indulgences in the middle ages. A indulgence was basically a get out of jail free card, absolving a individual from the punishments of hell...for a price to be paid to the church. In a twisted way, the modern church continues in the tradition of indulgences. We're told that there may be a way to ease the Lord into acting in our favor...through prayer, tithing and service. Call it what you want, I still see it as man trying to influence God to act. So, we return to the lesson which I learned after the death of my mother. We let God be God. That in no way means that He is not keenly aware of our struggles, but that He is working all things into His will. What is the will of the Father? I believe that one of Gods greatest desires is that He would be known by His children. That is...all of His children. Paul helps us to understand how He works this into our own lives in Galatians. Here, he introduces us into the reality of Christ in you {Galatians 2:20}. How will Gods children come to know Him? Through us! Through those whom Christ Jesus lives through. Jesus Himself speaks to this as He talks about others seeing the Lord in believers {Matthew 5:14-16}. Not only will we allow God to be God, but we will free Him to work through us as well.
"You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. "Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
Matthew 5: 14 - 16 NKJV
~Scott~
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