Is God doing a new thing?

 

Choices between the will of God and my will are relatively easy because I see the selfishness of my will. But what about the choices that have pluses on both sides, those choices between what is good and what is best? Is it as black and white concerning my will vs. His?

We are faced with a decision that involves clarity. For me, the will of God is not yet clear because either choice could be the right one. But my emotions are mixed to the point that I am not able to discern my will in this matter. Knowing what I want could clarify what God wants. Or are the emotions involving my will causing this confusion?

It does not help that today’s devotional reading says that without any regard to the state of our emotions, I must have the right attitude toward the will of God. Since He is not telling me what choice He wants, that means I must blindly yield, like Abraham:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)

This man had no idea where God would take him, but in faith he went as the Lord told him, taking his family and all their possessions. I’ve been able to yield ‘no matter what’ to smaller things, but this is a larger choice. Yielding to one or the other would be okay as far as I can see because He isn’t telling me His will in the matter, only presenting two opportunities.

That means I have to be willing to do whatever, not have a preference until He helps me with all the reasonings and preferences that keep wandering through my head. It means being willing to go with either choice, having my will given up to Him no matter what it is or when He reveals it. It may also mean making the choice and trusting Him with the results.

Decisions like this need to be unencumbered with a lot of unmanageable feelings. If I have any emotions, I’m not to be troubled by them. I’m simply to put my will in God’s hands and leave it there.

Another devotional reading happens to speak of the same thing. It adds this thought: “When Jesus asks us what we want Him to do for us in regard to the incredible thing with which we are faced, remember that He does not work in commonsense ways, but in supernatural ways.” I’m not to limit Him by past experience, neither success or failures. He can do the impossible so that should never enter into decision-making. If I ask His help, He gives what is needed because He does the impossible thing as naturally as breathing. My stress is about not trusting Him, nor about His power to do something.

This is about the depth of my trust. One of our choices is easy. The other seems impossible. Is that a clue? Is God asking us to launch out into the deep?

Jesus saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. (Luke 5:2–9)

If so, then God will surprise us with the results. Like this story, my needs are to be met in the deep things of God and His Word, with deeper meaning than ever before. Is He asking for deeper trust?

PRAY: Lord, I know You are with us even in places of difficulty. Yet this perplexity seems a test of trust to see if we will rely on Your grace and power. I sense that You will deliver us and give us a lesson we will never forget and never be able to thank You enough for having done whatever You are going to do. Continue to guide us in the right direction and make the best decision.

God’s Escalating Promises

As I read my old journals and reflect on the events in my life, I’ve wondered, even lamented, at how slow I have been to learn spiritual principles and even slower to apply them. I’ve said many times, “If only I had known then what I know now” and “Had I understood this about God back then, what a difference it would have made in my life.” Besides regretting my slowness, I’ve sometimes questioned or doubted the wisdom of God in His dealings with me.
 

This morning, God shows me that His promises are on an ascending scale. That is, He starts with a blessing that leads to a fuller blessing. This progressing is illustrated in His promise to Abraham about the land He would give him. These few verses illustrate that progression, going from the first promise, to showing him the land, to giving it to him, and then ahead to the possession of the land by Abraham’s offspring.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12:7)

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.” (Genesis 13:14–15)

The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you (Jacob), and I will give the land to your offspring after you. (Genesis 35:12)

The fullness of this promise did not happen to Jacob’s generation. His son Joseph rescued them from famine by bringing them to Egypt, but after his death, the people became slaves. Then Moses led them out of Egypt, but they rebelled against God and wandered forty years in the wilderness before finally beginning to take possession of the promised land.

So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war. (Joshua 11:23)

So it is with spiritual growth. We start with great and precious promises, and as we keep our eyes on them and obey God’s leading, we are tested and drawn along to the fulfillment of those promises. He does not give them all at once. That would be overwhelming. Had some of the events of my life happened earlier, before the testing and refining that made my faith stronger, I would have fallen. 

As He did for Israel concerning their land, God keeps in hand an infinite reserve of promised blessing for His children. The longer I walk with Him, the more I realize how much of His blessing is yet to be experienced. As the devotional writer for today says, who ever saw His last star?

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Oh Lord, every day You show me another facet of Yourself, another glimpse of Your wisdom and Your ways. I regret that I’ve had to learn at times by repetition, yet from these years of slowness, I more fully realize the depth, extent and stubbornness of my sinful nature. Resisting You is not wise, yet You knew I would do it and arranged accordingly that I should grow by degrees. Like a sculptor creating a statue, You keep chipping away at all the parts that do not look like Jesus, the One who lives inside me. You promised to transform me into His image, using all things for that good result. You also take time to do it, and now I understand why — You intend that transformation to be deep, extensive and thorough, eternally permanent, just as You promised.

A few steps closer

On my visit to the ER January 27, my hiccupping heart required electrical shock to get it beating normally. They put something into the IV on my arm that made me “feel sleepy” so I shut my eyes, then opened them. The procedure was done!

When describing this to a friend, she said, “That is what it will be like when we die, you know.” I think she could be right. We close our eyes in this place and open them in the presence of Jesus. 

Today’s devotional reading is about this walk with God from life here to life in eternity. It takes thoughts from two verses about Abraham. In the first, Abraham began by obeying the Lord. He left everything he knew and followed as the Lord led him.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)

The next verse describes the end of his life. This man of faith was taken to his real home and his real kindred.

Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people. (Genesis 25:8)

The devotional reading is from Alexander Maclaren’s lovely words about life here and life there. He reminds me that each believer is called away from this world to a new citizenship. With that comes a vague or even a sharp sense of isolation. However, that will be over when we get to our real home. Here is what he said:

After all communion we dwell as upon islands, dotted over a great archipelago, each upon his little rock with the sea dashing between us; but the time comes when, if our hearts are set upon that great Lord whose presence makes us one, there shall be no more sea and all the isolated rocks shall be parts of a great continent.… If we cultivate that sense of detachment from the present and of having our true affinities in the unseen, if we dwell here as strangers because our citizenship is in heaven, then death will not drag us away from our associates nor hunt us into a lonely land, but will bring us where closer bonds shall knit the “sweet societies” together, and the sheep shall couch close by one another because all gathered round the one Shepherd. Then many a tie shall be re-woven, and the solitary wanderer meet again the dear ones whom he had “loved long since and lost awhile.”

These poignant thoughts touch me deeply today. I went to one of the finest heart hospitals in the world and had tests and an examination by a cardiologist. He told me that my childhood Rheumatic Fever left me with a leaky mitral valve, which I knew. It seemed well when tested a few years ago, but since then that leak has caused the atrium to be excessively enlarged, which is very likely the cause of my a-fib hiccups. This failure to properly pump the blood can be assisted with medications, but it cannot be fixed.

What does this mean? It means that my walk with Jesus Christ involves a reality --- this life is short, a mere blip on the time continuum. It means that I must cultivate that sense of detachment from this present world and firmly fix my affinity on the unseen. I have a promise from God that the Bible calls a future hope and home that has been guaranteed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It means also that my home-going will likely be heart related. 

This assessment was given to me 2-3 hours ago. At first, I felt shocked, but instead of those stages of grief (such as denial, anger and bargaining), I began thinking about two verses. One is an anchor that gives me comfort, a verse that I memorized years ago and have thought of often in the past month.

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)

The second verse is about death, dying, and how people grieve. I learned this verse after my first experience at a Christian funeral. It was an amazing and joyful celebration. Yes, those left behind were sad “because we miss him” but so glad that “he is in a most marvelous place.”

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13)

Christians grieve, but not the crying and wailing that go with an uncertain future. I am grieving that my health is not going to improve. I even feel tearful and sobered. I did not expect this. Yet there is an amazing inner peace, even joy. What is that? It can only be the Lord Jesus Christ who is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

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Oh Lord, I expected the doctor to suggest a procedure that would fix the erring electrical impulses. Last I knew, that leaky valve was so insignificant that the radiologist could hardly see the problem. This change in status is a surprise for me, but not for You. You gave me Psalm 73:26 long before the heart hiccups started. You gave me assurance of a heavenly home when You first came into my life. And today, You had a devotional in place to remind me that my true residence is not here, but with You and Your people in eternity. I don’t know what is next, but I’m certain of one thing: You have a path for my feet and will guide me each step of the way.