I know God is active and present! I don't always KNOW what God is doing! We like to believe we are wise and well-prepared for life’s developments. God smiles at our naiveté. When circumstances spin outside of our plan, sometimes the Tempter tries to tell us that He is not there, or that He has forgotten us. Yet, He's a patient Father that keeps working out His purposes – sometimes with our cooperation, sometimes in spite of us. I think it’s fine with the Lord if we ask, "Why?” We might even cry out, “What purpose did that serve?" The dangerous place to go is into faithless rebellion, refusing to walk with Him in total trust.
In the enthusiasm of youth and with more dream than caution, Bev and I moved far from home. We felt that the Lord was going to let us do a great work in our new place. So, we moved 2000 miles; with little money, no safety net, or employment. Each month brought a new trial. Local Christians were less than welcoming. Our baby boy developed critical pneumonia and spent 5 long days in the hospital. The denomination that credentialed me balked at transferring my ministerial license to another District because, due to my inexperience, I had failed to observe proper protocol. To support my little family I worked in construction from sun-up to dark.
One year later we were serving in the same position we had left. To all appearances, we made a meaningless detour in life. I now know that God sent us to on that mission, not at all for the purposes I thought. He was teaching me about His faithfulness and grace. That year was one of the most transformational times of my entire life to this point. Are you struggling through a situation that seems meaningless? Trust Him. If you’ve made a mistake, He can turn it around. If He’s got a vision far different from your dream, He asks only that you trust Him and obey Him today.
In Genesis, there is a wonderful account of a man beloved of God who stared into the dark, yet trusted the Lord. God allowed Joseph to travel from favored son into a place in slavery. The household where he served as manager became a place where he was falsely accused of sexual harassment. That to his imprisonment! Observers might have concluded that Joseph was rejected by the Lord, all his dreams stone-cold dead! But God, … was at work! Each `detour' was actually a turn in the road that led to the throne! Years later, when he was the Prince of Egypt, he wept as he told his brothers that God had used all the events, even their treachery, to ultimately accomplish His will. He said "God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt." (Genesis 45:7-8, NLT)
Does this all mean that we should become fatalists, floating down the stream of life, just bouncing off all the rocks while we shout, "hallelujah!"? No, we pursue the will of God. Choices must be made that are shaped by a God-honoring obedience. Even then, in spite of our best of intentions—there will be side trips and detours that leave us wondering, “what happened?”
Here's a word from the Word to take with you today.
"My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you …
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life." (Psalm 42:3-8, NIV)
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O love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee.
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow,
May richer fuller be.
O joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee.
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
O cross that lifted up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee.
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red,
Life that shall endless be.
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
Matheson, George / Peace, Albert Lister
© Public Domain
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