The Opportunity

 

If someone prays for patience, does God give them patience?  Or, does He give them the opportunity to be patient? 

Morgan Freeman ~ Evan Almighty (2007)

I've been doing a lot of thinking and contemplating lately on just how God works in our lives.  How God seemingly brings something where there was nothing.  How He brings about a situation which we ourselves thought was totally unachievable.  I can give the short answer to this, it's how God works.  But many believers might want to know more about the way the Father works.  Through recent events and circumstances, I have been introduced to the reality of just how the Father works in my own life.  I have to say, I was enlightened.  Yet I still desired to get right down to the nuts and bolts of just how God works.  Maybe I thought that if I knew this that I could better understand Him.  Perhaps if I knew how God works I could better ask Him to work on my behalf knowing that it would come to pass.  Whatever the reason, we humans have been trying for centuries to decipher how it is that God does what He does.  How He created the earth and all that we see {Genesis 1:1}.  How He lovingly created me in His image {Genesis 1:27}.  How did God do that?  The author of Hebrews declares the Lords creation as "That which is being observed has not come out of what is appearing" {To The Hebrews 11:3}.  Therefore, God took something which was formless and void and created that which we see.  Something out of nothing.  Of course, this is a wonderful example of the way in which the Father works, but there are so many others which we all too often overlook.  How He restores a family by allowing life change in a alcoholic father.  How the Father softens the hardest of hearts through the miracle of the birth of a child.  There are far too many examples to list here.  Yet, this brings me to one of the larger questions one might have when trying to understand the Lord.  How does God work?  Well, I don't think that it's too far fetched to proclaim that the Lord works through His creation.  That the Father works through us.  Jesus has spoken that we are to let our light "Let Shine your light in front of men, so that they may perceive your ideal acts and should glorify the Father who is in the heavens" {Matthews Account 5:16}.  That the works which we do, would be recognized as coming from the Father.  It's how God works.  

"You are the light of the world.  A city located upon a mountain can not be hid.  Neither are they burning a lamp and placing it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it is shing to all those in the house.  Thus let shine your light in front of men, so that they may perceive your ideal acts and should glorify the Father who is in the heavens" 

Matthews Account 5: 14-16, Concordant New Testament 

Can it be that far of a stretch to proclaim that the Father works through me?  The apostle Paul spoke of the indwelling Christ in him {Paul To The Galatians 2:20}.  Indeed, if I remain in Christ, then it is entirely possible that the Father will work His works through me.  Is it possible that we are but an extension of the Father here on earth?  I believe that is entirely possible.  Jesus proclaimed that if we have seen Him then we have seen His Father as well {Johns Account 14:9}.  Therefore, if we are in Christ we are also in the Father as well.  The Father in Jesus, Jesus in the Father and I in Christ {Johns Account 17:21}.  I believe that it is all too possible that many of the works done in our lives have also been delivered through others by the Lord.  Therefore, as Jesus proclaims, glorify the Father who is in the heavens!  There is more to doing good than the warm, fuzzy feelings it gives us.  It also pleases the Father {To The Hebrews 13:16}.  Each of us has been gifted from the Father with the opportunity to show His works through what we do.  Not only for the believer, but for the unbeliever as well.  It's how God works.  

~Scott~