When you really analyze it, nothing could be more
exciting, fulfilling
and rewarding than God's desires for you. Fearing God's
will is as
irrational as worrying about what the world's best
mechanic might do to
your car, and as stupid as insisting on defusing a bomb
for fear that
experts will not do it properly. The Almighty, your
Creator and Savior,
is selflessly devoted to maximizing your long-term
happiness. Moreover
he has infinite knowledge. When God asks you to do
something, he is
granting you the unique privilege of tapping into the
greatest Mind
in the universe. You have the opportunity to do
something infinitely
smart. Explore that thought. It could add a whole new
dimension to your
life.
Disregard your Maker's right to tell you what to do. He
merely gave you
life and everything you've ever touched. He holds your
atoms together
and gave you the brain cells you think with. Forget that
Christ
purchased your allegiance by trading his life for yours,
becoming the
devil's plaything on the cross so that evil couldn't
touch you. And
overlook the power of God to determine your eternal
destiny. Consider
merely God's infinite knowledge, perfect goodness, and
self-sacrificing
devotion to your highest good. That alone is enough to
force the
conclusion that disregarding God's slightest suggestion
is the height of
stupidity.
Yet another exhilarating thing about God's will for you
is that it is
not only perfected by infinite love, it is backed by
infinite power. It
is not only achievable, it is unstoppable. For as long
as you let Jesus
rule your life, nothing can thwart it. Do you believe
God is
all-powerful? Then you believe he could over-ride your
every weakness.
He could ask nothing of you that he couldn't do through
you. And if he
has a speck of love, or any respect for his reputation,
he's not going
to command, and then abandon you to your own resources.
It's exciting
when God asks the impossible of you. A miracle is around
the corner!
Since God, in his love, longs to see you reach your
highest potential,
his desires for you will stretch you to the limit. But
no matter how
Satan tries to distort that thrilling truth into
something scary, there
is always something more frightening than doing God's
will - not doing
God's will. The mere fact that we could fear God's
beautiful will is
clear proof that God has a spiritual enemy who carpet
bombs our minds
with malicious untruths. Nothing could be wiser, or
better, than obeying
the God who has a sacrificial commitment to giving you
the very best.
God telling you to do something is the Almighty Lord
expressing his
desire for you to enjoy his best. And obedience is
simply receiving that
love, delighting and rejoicing in the beauty, perfection
and security of
God's yearnings for your welfare. We only disobey when
we secretly
believe we are smarter than God, that his love for us is
inferior, or
that he is so weak that our inadequacies could nullify
his power.
Obedience is love made real.
It has rightly been said that God's will is the greatest
good his
infinite wisdom can devise. Snuggle into it. Experience
the exquisite
perfection of his love plans for you. Then luxuriate in
the security of
knowing that of every possible alternative, you have
chosen the very
best.
Note that submission to God is letting God be God -
allowing Jesus to
assume his rightful place in your life. The emphasis is
not on you
trying to obey, but on Jesus ruling. It is letting him
do the work. It
is avoiding taking upon ourselves responsibilities that
don't belong to
us. The Evil One would love to distort this into a
dreary put down, but
it is actually a glorious relief. We're free to enjoy
life as God's
children and leave all the hard work to Jesus. We don't
have to prove
ourselves to God, Jesus has already done it. We don't
have to defeat
sin, Jesus has already done it.
Submitting to God must never be thought of as obeying a
set of rules.
That's dull and cold. And God is neither. Following a
list of dos and do
nots is not following God the person, but something
impersonal. It
brings with it the great danger of shutting God out.
Submitting to God
is loving God the person, getting as close to him as you
can, and
drawing strength and comfort and direction from him. It
is driving with
God in the front seat with you, enjoying his
companionship. From time to
time in your conversation he will say such things as,
'Turn left.
. . . . You'll need to slow down a bit here. . . . . Let
me show you a
short cut. . . . . This next part is easy, drive however
you choose, I
know you'll handle it well. . . . . Further on it gets
tricky. Better
let me do the driving for that stretch.'
Now let's be brutally frank. God's directions are seldom
that clear,
although when the situation demands that degree of
clarity, he will give
it. Mostly, God leads by such things as vague feelings.
That can be
frustrating, but it's our opportunity to let faith rise,
trusting God to
guide with whatever degree of clarity divine wisdom
knows is best, while
we play our part by drawing close and listening
intently. God and I seem
to have an on-going argument. 'Speak louder!' I keep
telling God. And I
think he keeps replying, 'Listen harder!'
*****
WHY GOD'S WILL IS EXCITING
When you have a critical decision to make, what would
you give for
access to someone with infinite knowledge?
He would know every fact in every universe; all the
future and all
the past.
He could keep you fascinated for weeks just telling you
things
about yourself you never knew. He could tell you how
many inches the
nail of the third toe on your left foot grew in the last
6.34 years; how
many breaths you took on your fifth day of life; what
your father
thought the day he first heard you were conceived; the
real reason your
first romance ended the way it did; what forgotten
incident caused that
peculiar fear that plagues you.
All your enemies' secrets would be open to him. He would
know what
that fabulous looking stranger in the bus thought of
you. He would know
what your boss thinks while he's having a shower.
What if he also had the astounding intellectual power to
know
every ramification of every tiny event - every chain of
events set off
for all eternity by every action? The implications of
such knowledge
explode the imagination. And he could figure the exact
mix of short and
long term happiness that would work best for you. If we
pampered
ourselves all day everyday, our long term happiness
would suffer
enormously, yet sacrificing everything for long term
benefits could
leave us so dejected that we never reach our final
goals. He would have
your perfect solution.
Suppose he also knows the true function and purpose of
everything.
And imagine the implications if his integrity and moral
judgment
are impeccable. He would be absolutely good and know how
to maximize the
good in every situation.
Wouldn't having his input be the greatest thing that
could ever
happen to you?
So great is God's love for you that he longs to marshal
his
infinite resources to determine precisely what is in
your best interest.
And he selflessly offers this incomparable gift, not
just for ten
minutes, but for a lifetime.
How can we book a flight when we don't know which one
will crash?
And yet we regularly make far more dangerous choices by
the hour,
knowing almost none of the pertinent facts.
We choose marriage partners, having no idea how the
ravages of
time will assault them, whether tomorrow they will be
permanently
paralyzed or lose their mind or die; not knowing how
wildly their future
income and expenditure will plunge or soar; not knowing
whether their
unborn children will be deformed or hateful and how they
will treat
them; not knowing, if or when, our prospective partners'
kindness will
turn to cruelty and their love to disgust. Forgetting
the future, we
know frighteningly little even about their past. A basic
thing like
reading their thoughts is beyond us.
We repeatedly find ourselves trying to solve million
piece puzzles
when we rarely get to see more than a dozen pieces. We
walk in a
constant fog, making life and death decisions, knowing
nearly nothing.
So whenever the Almighty reveals his mind, we should
erupt with the joy
of a man lost in a minefield suddenly finding a marked
trail. At last
the light has shone. At last infinite knowledge has
reached us in
infinite love. We should rush to obey, treasuring the
slightest hint of
God's will, like the last drop of water in a desert.
****
YOU ARE LOVED!
When it comes to describing God's unfathomable love,
even the Bible
admits defeat. God's love for you extends far beyond the
bounds of
human comprehension. Yet through a spiritual miracle you
can gain
personal insight into the incomprehensible.
I can easily believe the atom-holding, earth-spinning,
galaxy-sustaining, life-giving Source of everything
wonderful can do whatever he likes. Even the devil
believes God's
power.
My difficulty is believing that God's special love for
me makes him
long to use that power on my behalf.
Few of us doubt that God can do amazing things. The weak
link in our
faith is believing that he would do such things for
ordinary,
inconsequential you and me. We suspect we are not
sufficiently special in
the Almighty's eyes to warrant such attention. Oh yes,
'God loves
everyone,' but we have a hunch that by the time that
love reaches us
it has spread pretty thin. I'm just one of millions. Why
would God want
to focus his omnipotence on me?
If we could grasp the enormity of God's love for us, our
faith would
sky-rocket. Pray for a revelation. (Ephesians 3:17-19
highlights the
necessity of such prayer. 'I pray that you . . . may
have power . . .
to . . . know this love that surpasses knowledge . . . '
)
Awareness of how much we are loved is forever slipping
from our
consciousness. Partially in sight for a few days, it
begins to fade
again. The following suggestions might help.
When we let God down - even if we really foul things up
- picture the
proudest father the world has seen. The baby screams,
dribbles and
soils itself, yet Dad still glows with pride. God is
like that.
When you feel a tiny blob in the seething mass of
humanity, see the
shepherd of a hundred sheep frantically searching for
one. If he can
be personally concerned for one, the omnipotent Shepherd
of
our souls can love all humanity and still be devoted to
you. In the
beautiful words of Isaiah, 'As the bridegroom rejoices
over the bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you' (Isaiah 62:5).
When you feel you can do nothing right, picture a child,
paintbrush in
hand, gleaming with excitement. Enveloping her hand is
the gentle hand
of the world's greatest artist. 'And what shall we put
in this
corner?' asks the man, as his skill and the girl's
imagination merge
into one. See the artist's smile and the child's delight
as together
they create stunning beauty. Under God's guiding hand,
your
possibilities are mind-boggling.
No matter how you feel, you are the focus of God's
attention; doted on
as though you are the only friend God has. If ever a man
wanted to
shower his bride with love, or his son with gifts, God
longs to
lavish you with his extravagance. Expect great things
from God.
Anything less is an insult to your almighty Savior. With
your Lord
impossibilities are playthings.
Let faith mushroom by seizing the fact that the
Omnipotent Lord is
powerful enough to use you - over-riding your every
inadequacy - and
loving enough to want to. Everything God touches is
destined
for glory. Even now, you are God's 'filthy rags to
heavenly riches'
success story.
Do I need a flock of angels on my roof, or an all
expense paid trip to
heaven and back before I will accept that God thinks I
am important to
him? Christ's shed blood proves God's pledge of total
commitment to
me. Am I to pronounce that sacrifice inadequate and
demand additional
proof? Must God send a bolt of spiritual electricity
through me before
I'll believe he wants to bless me?
In his grace God might send me some special confirmation
of his love,
as he has done for thousands, but to so focus on this
possibility as
to not believe unless he does it, is the height of
impertinence.
If every non-Christian on this planet had amazing
(though phony)
spiritual encounters and every Christian received divine
visitations
everyday, and I alone in all humanity experienced
nothing, it could
never diminish the infinitude of God's devotion to me.
If in his
wisdom God decides to cut me off from such experiences
in order to
toughen my faith - that essential ingredient of
spiritual life, more
valuable than earth's treasures - it is yet another
demonstration of
his love.
Faith in the unchangeable character of God is the only
bedrock upon
which a person's spiritual life can be founded. We have
no need for
God to write in the sky because he has written in a
book. And Jesus
taught that people who fail to believe the Bible would
not believe
even if they experienced the ultimate miracle of someone
they knew
returning from the dead and speaking to them (Luke
16:27-31).
I dare not slacken my quest for a deeper spiritual
experience. I will
welcome any manifestation of the Spirit of God in my
life and not
proudly assume I don't need it, but if God decides not
to use such
means to prop up my spiritual life, it merely proves the
depth of his
confidence in me. He obviously believes I have the grit
to tough it
out by raw faith.
Our life needs not spectacular confirmation but
spectacular
commitment.
What more could the One who died for you do to prove his
love? Let's
not slander the Holy One by imagining infinite love is
so fickle that
it fluctuates according to a person's physical
attractiveness,
popularity or talent.
Whenever we eat, a child smiles at us, or we walk from
stifling heat
into an air-conditioned building, we are experiencing
God's provision.
Each day we receive literally millions of love gifts
from God, and yet
our hard heart and dull mind rarely overflows with awe
at each
expression of God's personal love for us. If we could
only open our
eyes and begin to each day notice just a few of God's
innumerable love
gifts to us, our enjoyment of life and awareness of how
special we are
to God would rocket heavenwards, bursting through the
clouds into
endless sunshine.
Suppose a man gives the love of his life a beautiful
engagement ring.
She is so thrilled she can barely contain her joy and
thankfulness and
love for the man who would express his devotion in such
a romantic
way. Later, the man comes into great wealth. Remembering
how much
that gift meant to his darling, he decides to give her
fifty carefully
selected rings every day for the rest of her life. Each
day's gift of rings
would soon begin to mean less and less to her. As time
wears on, she
could walk passed her daily pile of rings, wondering if
her husband
really loves her.
That's like what has happened to us. Our Lord has been
so extravagant
in his display of love to us that we have become jaded
to the real
significance of the gifts he showers on us.
When you snuggle into bed, hear a bird chirp, switch on
a
machine that takes some of the slavery out of washing,
do you marvel
at God's love gifts to you? When, like the most faithful
servant, a clock
wakes you at just the right time; when your bare foot
touches carpet
instead of dirt; when you switch on a light that would
have astonished
everyone who was ever born until relatively recently;
and when you
look in a small mirror that King Solomon would have paid
a fortune to
own, does your heart skip a beat at the lengths your
Father in heaven
goes to say 'I love you'? Or, like the worst spoilt
child, do you just
complain about how much your brothers and sister get?
By making you feel as if God loves you less than certain
other
Christians, it seems as if Satan is attacking your
self-esteem, but he
isn't. He is attacking the integrity of God. He is
hissing that God's
love is so inadequate that it is only people who have
certain
qualities whom God can love or be gracious to. That's a
lie! God's
love toward you is perfect. God is for you. He's
cheering you on. He's
on your side!
In this world, success is often relative - the closer
the relative,
the higher you go. Don't decry the system: remember who
you call Father.
Christian, you are the focus of divine love; filled with
the majesty
of Almighty God; spiritually enthroned with Christ in
his heavenly
palace; granted the highest level of access to the
greatest Person,
and the holiest place. You are the work of divine hands,
made perfect in
Christ Jesus. And enshrined within your being resides
the infinite
power of the sovereign Lord.
Top fashion model Claudia Schiffer has been nominated
the most
beautiful woman in the world. Yet as a teenager, she
concluded from
her lack of popularity at school that she was not
beautiful. We make a
similar mistake in assuming that if we are not popular
with people, we
lack what it takes to make it in a big way with God.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Lord bless you, Carlotta!
In Christ's love,
Grantley
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