Working my way through the Bible as a
story from cover to cover instead of “snippet reading” (reading portions of
scripture, learning from them and then applying the lessons piece by piece) it
takes on a slightly different emphasis. It unfolds the history of God’s dealings
with His creation and one of the prominent actions seen is “God gives and God
takes away”. He is Sovereign and in perfect control of all things. Life tends
to let us believe that we are in control, which is an obvious deduction, we get
up, we eat, we sleep and we play when the need arises. We choose! But we can
only operate within the bounds of our circumstances and who determines that? Can
a man without feet walk like everybody who has them? What about a family going
about their independence with all of homes comforts, one doing this and the other
that when a catastrophic tornado sweeps across their path, who determines that
outcome?
We may be capable of making day to day
choices but it is God who opens and shuts the doors to our existence, let us
never forget that! For when we do we become independent and no longer dependent
on Him; that my friend is a very ominous place to live. It is easy to lose your
way with this reality but just as easy to find it again. Call out to the One
who has it in His power to give or to take away and He will hear your cry, just
so long as you come to Him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Without Him as
our cornerstone we may think we are in control but we would be wrong. Wisdom
would not accompany us on our travels, she would remain afar off, but folly and
his friends would be our supports.
This is why this verse carries so much
weight; “But
seeks first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will
be added to you. “Therefore
do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”” (Matthew 6:33-34)
We
must be constantly reminded that God determines our surroundings and the
conditions of our lives, no one else! If you are troubled and discontent with
life, take it to God in prayer and find His grace to carry you through as
nothing else will amount for much, even if on the surface it appears as a
blessing. Look at the story of Job and it will soon become apparent of God’s
control. Satan did not have “ad hoc” liberty to do as he pleased; it was by
permission only and for a specific purpose. Job suffered immensely but
ultimately brought our God great glory! This then is our purpose to glorify God
through our lives. God gives and He takes away, blessed be the name of the
Lord, Amen and Amen!
What
lesson were the Israelites meant to learn throughout scripture? Dependency upon
their God, not independence upon themselves; we too must learn the same
valuable lesson, for when that becomes a way of life for us it will be well
with our souls. It is when we wrestle to have more than we have that life
becomes bitter and twisted and before long our environments may change
drastically to teach us a better way.
Society
has been hoodwinked good and proper, and we are so far from the pressing issues
of eternity and so narrowly focused on the here and now that even the Christian
has lost his sight with this reality. It has always been like this throughout history,
just read the Bible as a story and it will some become obvious. But look at
this beautiful encouragement; “Take
care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading
you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called
"today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence
firm to the end. As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not
harden your hearts as in the rebellion." For who were those who heard and
yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom
was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies
fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his
rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to
enter because of unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:12-19)
Let us not be fooled into thinking that
independence is not a sin, it is full of idolatry and shouts of pride scream
from our independence as people pat us on the back with congratulations as we
make a success of life at the expense of our dependency upon our God. I wonder
how many of us have got it wrong with our children and helped the devil with
his deception? Let us learn to be content with what we have, find rest in our
Saviour, He has done it all… praise the name of Jesus! Father God may your
children find rest in you is my cry, Amen!
Signing off
Tyrone
No comments:
Post a Comment