Jesus in His final teachings to the disciples set this situation when He said He was going to Father to prepare a place for them. He also told them as part of the Mission Mandate He placed before them that He would “be with you always.” Jesus by His presence in our lives goes before us to enable us to do Father’s will.
This can be seen as both a comfort as well as an inspiration to us. A comfort in that we can feel confident in our going about Father’s business because Jesus is with us, that we are not reliant on our own abilities and/or efforts. It can also be an Inspiration to us because we can be sure from His words that we are capable of all things when God places a thought into our mind.
If we accept these teachings as a personal Faith statement then not only do we have the basis for an adventurous life with the Master. We do not have to have it all worked out. We can walk into a dark place because we have the assurance of Holy Spirit. David the king knew this reality he repeats these concepts right through the poems he wrote; what we call the Psalms.
But more than assurance the reality of David’s life was that he lived the truth of his words. During the “Civil” war between him and Saul who wanted David dead, David went into a cave to rest and hide only to discover King Saul in it already asleep. In a flash David could have shortened the fight by plunging a weapon into his pursuer but no he made a God Kingdom decision and finding Saul’s asleep he removed the King’s spear and water jug as a sign. This account is to be found in 1 Samuel 26 and a part of the dialogue after the event is in verses 22 and 23.
"Your Majesty, here's your spear! Have one of your soldiers come and get it. The LORD put you in my power today, but you are his chosen king and I wouldn't harm you. The LORD rewards people who are faithful and live right ...”
David chose the honourable, and the God thing to do when it would have been so easy to seize the moment and shorten the life of his protagonist. He provides us with a model to follow in our lives. Most of us do not have a sentence of death on our lives and yet often we take shortcuts to achieve outcomes that we desire. Father has outcomes in mind for all of us but when we chose to make our own arrangements, according to our concepts of comfort, we can lose our bearing in Father’s plan
Are we focussing on God’s target or going off the bullseye in search of our own convenience; and if so what is it costing us? Perhaps it is good that Father reminds us via Jeremiah
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 29:11-12 (NIV)
Our God goes with us each and every one of us as we go about our day. He does this through the Spirit He has placed within us. We may not know what the next five minutes or whatever but God, on the other hand, knows everything about all our days.
No comments:
Post a Comment