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This past Halloween my oldest granddaughter, her husband and my two great-grandchildren came to “Trick or Treat” our home.  After receiving their extra special bag of treats Gramie had made for them, my great-grandson decided he wanted to take off his Sheriff Woody costume.  His mother wisely said to him, “You can take it off, but IF you want to get candy at your auntie’s house, you must keep your costume on.”  She was forcing him to decide which he wanted more.  In this case he wanted to take his Sheriff Woody clothes off more, so off they came. 

Later I connected Jesus’ way of communicating with people He worked with.  When it came to issues relating to the kingdom of God, his favorite theme, quite frequently He began with the operative word IF.  Here are a few examples:

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matthew 6:14-15, ESV).

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24, ESV). 

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:26, ESV).

And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen  (Matthew 21:21, ESV).

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32. ESV).

If you love me, you will keep my commandments (John 14:15, ESV). 

If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned (John 15:6, ESV).  

It seems apparent our Lord does not insist upon obedience to law.  Instead, He very unequivocally sets a benchmark or standard of what to do to receive the desired reward. When Jesus talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an IF—you do not need to unless you want what I’m offering.  We must be motivated by a deeply felt love for Him not a set of rules.

Throughout the Bible, you will find Jesus does not insist upon obedience to rules as much as He sets His holy standard then leaves it up to us to decide.  If my relationship to Him is based upon deep love rather than legal obligation, I will do what He says without any hesitation.  My hesitation reveals I have a greater love for someone/thing else that stands in competition with Him.  Never forget, Christ values our motivation more than our deed.  Paul warned on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value (1 Corinthians 3:13, NLT2). 

It is in your best interest to ask yourself, “Is my obedience out of deep love for Him?”    

I am my worst enemy.  I second-guess my decisions; find fault in what I’ve said, written or done; I push myself to do more than God has asked me to do, etc.  When I think of freedom, I often think of freedom from myself!  While I enjoy a great deal of God’s freedom in many areas of my life, I can see how the Holy Spirit has been continuing to lead me to greater freedom.  Where do you need greater freedom in your life?

The primary message Jesus preached was NOT Jesus saves or heals, as much as we tend to think that was the case.  If you analyze everything Jesus taught, you will find His most dominate message was the kingdom of God.  It was the only thing Jesus called “good news” or the gospel.  We don’t hear much about that teaching, and when we do, preachers and teachers often put a VERY different spin on what the kingdom of God means or represents. 

Indeed, Jesus came to set the captive free, but we tend to think the captives are those in prison, addicted to something, in some handicap or other form of bondage.  If you look closely at what the freedom Jesus taught, you will find He is referring to the results of the bondage Adam placed us in: freedom from our independent way of life which influences the way we think.  We have grown so used to living with our sin depraved nature that it has become normal to us—as normal is for a child raised in a ghetto with drug addicted parents.  Their toys are limited to empty bottles, sticks, hubcaps or whatever they find lying around. His/her eyes are blind to any other way of life. 

When the apostle Paul preached the kingdom of God on his missionary tour, he was accused of preaching allegiance to a king other than Caesar (Acts 17:7).  That was how radically different the truth of the kingdom of God was in Bible days and is still the same in our day.  Do you essentially obey what you prefer or what our King has commanded in His book or whispered to your inner being?  When Jesus is truly King of our lives, Jesus said out of love for Him we will obey everything our King commands (John 14:15).  

We live in a democracy that is government by the people for the people.  This basically gives us freedom to do whatever we convince ourselves to be best for us.  This has led most Christians to think Christianity is also a democracy rather than a kingdom where the King writes the rules, determines the penalty and goes so far as to judge His servant’s attitudes towards obeying His laws.  

To be crystal clear, God is not as concerned with our behavioral choices as He is with our attitude that determines how we respond AFTER we violate what He has taught in His word.  He doesn’t require a sinless life, but He does require a humble and repentant heart after we sin.  His Spirit will continue to transform our lives PROVIDING the attitude and passion of our hearts are to love Him with all we have and are.

As you look at your life, can you say your daily decisions are governed by the rules of the kingdom of God or more by what you prefer or what is right in your own eyes?  I fall far more than I like.  But because my heart is passionately desiring to know God, His ways and values in a more intimate way, I have confidence His Spirit will continue to change me into His likeness.  Is the condition of your heart for God the way you want it to be? Do you need greater freedom in some areas of your life?  What do you have to do for God to change you?

The strange phenomenon is, we hear far more about those holding an extreme position (Democrats-Republicans; Calvinist-Armenian, etc.) instead of a balanced one.  Truth is actually found in the tension between two opposites, not in the extremes.  Without the balanced perspective, God’s ways could appear a bit bipolar in what He is going to do with His people (Jews) and believers today.  

Isaiah begins in chapter 1 sharing a vision he received from God how the people were religiously going through the motions of spirituality, but their hearts were falling short of authentic worship.    In the third chapter he prophecies how God is going to bring painful judgement on their sin.  In chapter 5 he says how God will “lay it [His vineyard – Israel] waste.”  He repeats this in chapter 22.  But by chapters 26-27, he prophecies of God opens the Jews’ eyes and turns their varied levels of captivity into deliverance by bringing the now authentic God-following Jews into the millennial reign of Christ on earth.  This overview of Isaiah’s prophecies gives us a clue into God’s ways with us today.

I’ve often wondered what happened to the scores of Jews who died while in their stubborn, adulteress condition, if in the end, His people will return to Him and then be able to live in such a kingdom of God?  If they were insincere Jews who spoke of Jehovah as their God yet were only going through religious motions, would they end up in God’s heaven?  Today what we struggle to understand is the wide chasm between insincere churchgoers (similar to insincere Jews) and those with a passion to really know and serve Christ.  Will God be so gracious that all who call themselves Christians will end up in His heaven?  What does the Bible really say about this?

God is not bipolar!  He is both awesome in love and in severity.  Paul, a New Testament writer unveils God’s ways by writing Note then the kindness AND [my emphases] the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off (Romans 11:22, ESV).  He also wrote For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt (Hebrews 6:4-6. ESV).  Jesus even taught but the one who ENDURES [my emphases] to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:13, ESV).   The point is, God’s promises were/are for the authentic God-following Jews and authentic believing Christ-followers today, not everyone.  This shows the mind-boggling fact that just as God separated the Jews in the past, He will separate Christ-followers today, not based on one’s heritage, knowledge, rhetoric or behavior, but rather upon their hearts’ passion for Him.  In both cases, when they chose to let their love for Him determine their choices instead of their own rationalizations, they enjoyed God’s incredible tender love and protection.

It is fascinating to note that even when the essential element of vital desire for God (not His gifts) was at its lowest, He relentlessly pursued His people even allowing them to suffer great loss.  But at the end of time, their desire for Him will finally return and He will lead them into the millennial reign of Christ.  His ways never change.  Hopefully you can better see how, out of great love for us, He can be both kind AND severe.  He responds to us not based upon our heritage, knowledge or legalistic behavior but rather upon our expressed, persistent desire for Him and His truth.  Have you been making your daily decisions on God’s severity OR His loving kindness OR on His both/and nature?  God is not as interested in your perfect behavior as He is in your perfect heart towards Him.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30, ESV)  By basing your daily decisions based purely on loving God with ALL you will come to naturally bear the most joy, peace and fruitful life. 

I have been recovering from my unexpected open-heart surgery.  I’m trying to learn through this experience rather than try to control it (as if I could!) or fight against it.  I have a sordid track-record in my responses to God’s calling me to do what I really don’t want to do.  To me, this is as much of a spiritual journey as it is a physical one.  He has been opening my eyes to see things about myself and His ways that I’ve not observed before!  I will attempt to share one in this blog.  

In my reflections through Isaiah, I was stopped in my tracks when I read LORD, you will grant us peace; all we have accomplished is really from you. (Isaiah 26:12, NLT2) This is a very loaded verse!  Each of us want His peace in our daily lives, especially with the clutter of so many voices speaking to us and so many plates spinning at the same time.  Our experience with His peace crisscrosses back and forth across the line between control and chaos.  I suspect if put on a screen, that back and forth trip would look like a heart monitor constantly jumping up and down. The ironic thing is, Jesus is the Prince of Peace and came to give us His peace.  As believers, we have a level of peace others may not have, but we would be very hard pressed to say we always experience His peace every day of the week.

The Spirit inspired Isaiah to write Lord, you will grant us peace–note the future tense.  In the midst of that, God wants His peace for us (although this certainly isn’t always an external peace), and it is intended for us to have this peace.  His peace has already been arranged for and released.  What keeps most of us from literally experiencing His inner peace is revealed in the last part of this verse, which is most revealing.  Isaiah goes on to say, all we have accomplished is really from you.  There appears to be a most humbling correlation between our recognition that whatever we do is actually only Him doing it through us, and the actualization of Him ordaining peace for us.  In practice this would mean what righteousness happens in our life is largely there not because of our efforts or way of thinking but because of God’s initiative and workings.  This reminds me of Jesus’ word, The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground.  Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens (Mark 4:26-27, NLT2)   The only role we have is perhaps even naively agreeing with and submitting to whatever drawing He works in us towards Him and His righteousness.  While this most certainly deserves your continued prayerful study, this blog will not permit me to expand on it with you.

How is it then we perhaps even naively agree with and submit to His working within us?  The answer to that is found in the results to an authentic spiritual rebirth Ezekiel describes in verses 36:25-27.  The defining result of salvation is, I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.  Plainly put, an authentic believer will not be perfect but will have a STRONG DESIRE to follow God’s decrees and regulations in contrast to his/her own preference or anyone else’s.  Like a child learning to walk, although he/she may fall, he/she has a strong enough desire to get up and again try to take steps forward.  Over time, desire for God overpowers independent thinking and falls decrease as maturity increases.

There is a direct correlation between a person having a desire to follow God, taking steps to do so and experiencing His peace his/her world of continual external chaos.  And at the end of the day, God will have worked His incredible works through that person.  BUT it is essential that that person recognize it was God’s Spirit, not his own efforts, ingenuity or talent!  That means the more we relax and follow the DESIRE the Spirit put within to follow Him, not only will we experience a greater fullness of His peace but also be a part of Him working the supernatural through us.

In our first year in college, Connie and I knew each other enough to go on dates.  We knew each other much better after we married.  Now after 52 years of marriage, which includes weathering some serious storms together, we definitely know each other.  This is like knowing God.  Our trust improves the more we experience with Him and how intimately we get to know Him.   

One indicator of the depth of one’s relationship with God is how a person responds when God does something they don’t expect or don’t agree with.  Their response reveals how well they know God’s character, wisdom, knowledge or ways.  The closer they are to Him, the quicker they trust and obey Him. 

These were God’s instructions to his prophet Elijah, “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan (1 Kings 17:2-3, ESV).  Elijah had just finished obeying God’s instruction to brazenly tell the king there would not be any rain or even dew until he said it would happen.  That took guts and sounded very presumptuous!  Only a crazy or a heavily anointed person would do that.  After stepping out to do that, the same God who told him what to say to the king, now tells him to go hide!  What?  What happened to his heavy anointing after courageously doing God bidding?  If he didn’t really know God intimately, his pride after doing such a thing could have more easily motivated him to disobey God’s blatantly strange command.  But knowing God as he did, he lovingly obeyed.

What is more, God told him to go hide by a brook not a river where water would flow year round. Brooks can dry up overnight!  God commanded ravens (not known for their sharing of food) to feed Elijah.  Then the brook where God told him to go dried up!  That too is a strange thing to happen after God told him to go there.  However, the Spirit had provided another place to feed Elijah in Zarephath.

We can only speculate, but knowing a few of God’s ways, He most likely didn’t want Elijah to become distracted by His provisions while hiding by the brook.  He wanted Elijah to remain focused on obeying Him, even when his situation and new command didn’t make sense.  What separates a spiritually mature believer from an immature one is how they respond when life doesn’t make sense.  The mature person will love, trust and obey even if it sounds insane and most certainly goes against one’s preferences or emotional need for security. 

In the last week, much to my surprise, I’ve encountered heart problems that require open heart surgery. This discovery even surprised my cardiologist who did my heart cath.  What has been amazing to Connie and me, knowing this will mean a major change in lifestyle, is we both have a strong sense of God’s peace.  Our soul has responded with natural curiosity and some angst, not about the surgery but to what will happen after the surgery.  We both are fully aware our peace is a gift from God—but has also flowed naturally out of a continued growing relationship with Him.

Knowing God is a lifelong journey.  How have you responded when He led you in a very strange and confusing path?  Your response gives you a clue as to where you are in your faith journey.  If you find your responses have not been as healthy as you would like, it is God’s grace to let you know your condition and is now watching closely to see if you will change your lifestyle to more passionately pursue Him or let that awareness pass and go on with life the way it has been.  I pray whatever He asks of you will reveal what He wants to do in your spiritual life, and you will chase after Him.

Freedom has been Americans’ main theme and most important value.  It is our national anthem.  It seems that when a society gives people more freedom, they are considered to be more culturally advanced.  Many have now come to believe that no one should be allowed to tell another what they can or cannot do.  The idea of doing things for the mutual betterment of all has been buried under narcissism.

But exactly what is freedom?   Should a child have freedom to kick and bite his teacher or an adult have freedom to abuse or bully others? Does a mother have a right to abort her baby while the baby or even the father has no rights?  Does a common laborer have no recourse when he/she is forced to pay more money for health insurance because a group of politicians passed a misguided or poorly written law regarding health insurance?  Do protesters have a right to express their feelings when causing mayhem in the streets breaking into stores and burning cars?  Where does one’s freedom begin and end—or does it?   Does such freedom really produce great relationships and create a trusting society?

Freedom is wonderful…and destructive.  Jesus did say, if the Son sets you free, you are truly free (John 8:36, NLT2).  But is that the same type of freedom clamored for in our culture today?  The biblical idea of submitting to following Christ to gain true freedom is a paradox.  This becomes clear when compared to an alcoholic or addict in bondage to his/her addiction – the result of his/her passion for so called freedom.  Most of us have friends or relatives who are in bondage to something that is slowly destroying them. 

Most Christians understand and accept Jesus’ freedom is different—until it comes to how they manage their money, eating habits or insecurities as evidenced in their varied antisocial behaviors.  Christ lived and died to set us free…to live a God-fearing life designed so we can enjoy His joy, His peace and His authentic freedom.  But in order to enjoy those incredible, tangible delights, we must submit another freedom that we cherish.

Several years back the Holy Spirit called me out of my delusion by asking me to take a position I personally did NOT want to take.  I literally experienced 24 hours of the most traumatic anxiety I had ever experienced.  After reluctantly accepting it, it took me about a year and a half before I finally stopped my passive resistance to my step of obedience.  I’m ashamed to say my fight wasn’t as much against the assignment as it was against what I deemed as my rights/freedom.  God was patiently merciful while I wrestled my way through my tirade.  When I finally calmed down, He allowed me to see what He would do through me.  I finally embraced it, and today, I see the foolishness of my misguided desire for freedom. 

Jesus was most miserable when He was fighting with His human desire to avoid the cross.  He was so miserable His sweat was as great drops of blood when He was PRAYING!  But when He finally surrendered and prayed “not my will but yours be done,” He displayed the most incredible courage to endure abuse and His cross.  He then enjoyed the unbelievable joy of Easter morning and ultimately ascended into Heaven to be with His Father. 

What mask have you been wearing to hide your desire for misguided freedom?  Has God been calling you out while you fight as I did to try to justify your God-given right to have this freedom?  But is the inner battle between your freedom and God’s calling worth it? 

One of the more impacting books I’ve read in the last 40 years is “The Kingdom of Self” by Earl Jaybay.  He was a clinically trained chaplain at a renowned psychiatric clinic who worked with a lot of addicted people.  He found their biggest problem wasn’t their addiction; it was their false belief they had the power to control their addiction!  Their continued freedom rested on whether they continued to live a life of surrendered lifestyle.  Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous found the same thing to be true.  Freedom from alcohol was when addicts live out submission to God’s authority, whom AA later called their higher power.  It is like Jesus taught us to pray, Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10, ESV).  

In college, one of my favorite songs was the Sammy Davis Jr. song “I Gotta Be Me. – I’ll go it alone.”  It is all about me.  As humans, we don’t want anyone’s help unless they will make me feel better about me—even if it is only for a few minutes.  History has shown that a world based upon selfish thinking only results in wars whether they be between nation, husband and wife or even pastor and parishioner.  Being king of our life is not as good as we imagine. 

A paradox sounds ridiculous but is a hidden truth.  It is a quirk in logic that demonstrates how our thinking sometimes goes haywire, even when we use perfectly logical reasoning to get there.  The Bible is inundated with paradoxes.  A classic one is Luke 9:23-24 (NLT2) [Jesus] said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.  If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.   Earl Jaybay found this be exactly true for those he worked with.  Yet is goes against every fiber of our culture today.  The prevailing attitude today is, “I can do and be whatever I want, and you’re an idiot, bigot and graceless if you try to stop me.”  A recent news article reported a high school football player head-butting an official — sending him flying backward, all because the referee threw a flag on his selfish choice.  He had to be restrained in his intentions to do the same to another official.  

There are two kingdoms in your life that are in conflict, the culture of this world and the culture of the kingdom of God.  Every hour you and I breathe we must decide whether we are going to choose to follow our selfish desires (kingdom of self) or what God says in His word it the right way (kingdom of God).  Those decisions can be about our sexual feelings, our eating or spending habits, how we treat others (especially family), or what we watch or read.  Paul described it this way, So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members (Romans 7:21-23, NIV).   

Consider the most recent inner battles with which you’ve been wrestling.  Our Lord is watching you wrestle and is cheering you on to follow what He has instilled within your spirit to be the right choice.  Each choice you make to deny your selfish ways is a step towards becoming more like Jesus who lived in the world (kingdom of self) but was not of this world (kingdom of God).  I have personally gone through extreme agony wrestling with my way or God’s way.  While it was mental and emotional torture to go through, I have no regrets for choosing His way. 

I recently turned 73 years of age.  I’m now exchanging physical strength and stamina, memory, mental focusing abilities and certain capacities for a significantly improved relationship with my God and a much greater perspective of God and life.  I left college thinking I knew most everything important for life and ministry.  But after being a few years in ministry, I realized I knew very little, and my knowledge and wisdom were misguided and only a little more than naïveté.  I thought I loved my bride, Connie, but now clearly see that love was a drop in the bucket compared to mature love.  Living life has a way of changing how we think and respond. 

God also transforms our spiritual perspective over time.  In my recent reflections in Isaiah, I compared Isaiah’s perspective of God in chapter 6 with his perspective in chapter 25.  In chapter 6, God’s presence frightens him which is indicative of a lack of relational closeness.  By the time he writes the prophesy in chapter 25, in contrast to being afraid of God, there is now a sense that he has a different relationship with God which has led to warm praise and exaltation of Him for the wonderful things He had done as well as the wisdom and faithfulness He had made evident. 

This comparison caused me to wonder to what extent I have allowed the Holy Spirit to transform my relationship over the years and thereby my perception of Him.  Is my worship warmer and more heartfelt, or does it now have an impersonal, ritualized tone to it?  I’ve learned from experience that I am not always yielded and therefore fail to learn as much as He has planned for me to learn in first grade, or subsequent class, so I must take the class again.  I have also observed that pattern is true for far too many believers.  Sadly, I’ve also noticed some seem remain for decades in the spiritual elementary grades. In the last church I served, a professionally created church survey revealed there were those who had been in those early elementary classes for 25 years!   In that light I must seriously consider how much I have allowed the Spirit to transform me.

How about you?  How much have you been taking initiative to work with the Holy Spirit’s efforts in transforming you into the likeness of Jesus Christ?  Paul pointed out a believer’s goal must be to grow until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13, ESV).  THAT is a high standard!!  Do others see you thinking, doing and responding as Jesus did while walking in his humanity on this earth?

As a child I remember putting marks on a door frame to identify how much I had grown.  It felt great just to see I had grown half an inch.  It took at years before reaching my full physical stature.  The Bible uses physical growth as a metaphor to spiritual growth when it uses the terms “babe, little children, young man and father.”  Looking back at the life-changing, paradigm shifting milestones in your spiritual growth, in what specific areas have you allowed the Spirit to transform you from one stage and to another into His likeness?  From what I have observed in scripture, a motivated adult can move from spiritual birth to the early stages of maturity in 3-5 years.  After that spiritual transformation looks more like grad school.  If your spirit has not been transforming as quickly as it should know this; a) God is very eager to help you grow, b) you may very well need to realign some hardened areas of your thinking that have led to your spiritual stall, c) the result of that realignment will be a fresh flowing relationship with God.  I know from experience the growing experience will be marked by deeper peace and greater joy.  

Is the life Jesus lived on earth the type of life you would like to live in your world today?  All believers admire His character, virtues, powerful deeds and words and want to imitate those elements.  What is often overlooked is His journey included rejection, harsh criticism or harassment from religious leaders, and all-night prayer time before his arrest; the parts of which developed the courage we esteem.  Which aspect of His life is it that you want to imitate?  The miracle power or what He learned through suffering? (Heb. 5:8) Does it all come in the same package or do you think you can be selective?

To be very transparent, I’ve been known to selectively pray His prayer, “May this cup pass from me,” when facing overwhelming odds.   While I avoided praying the last part of His prayer, “nevertheless, not my will but your will be done.”  The most physical and spiritually traumatic moment I’ve experienced was when presented with a challenge of what I had classified as a distasteful assignment.  The Spirit very forcefully asked, “Are you saying you will NOT do this?”  Excruciating as it was to submit to Him then, I now see it was a necessary choice in order for me to see the incredible victories that would follow.

I’ve come to believe that when a person prays for an easier life, his/her prayer is misguided—unless the person wants to be a wimpy believer—if there is such a thing.  If we want to be a stronger person than we are, we must to pray to that end and not be a whiner when we encounter mountains in our path.  Christ will not lead us to greatness through an easy or self-indulgent life. An easy life does not lift us up, it only takes us down. Heaven is always above us, and we must continually be looking toward it.  Paul wrote Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong (1 Corinthians 16:13, NLT2).  

God calls us out of the survival lifestyle that has become our norm into a life of even greater discomfort where we are less able to control our circumstances.  He did this with Joseph, David, Gideon and scores of others.  Gideon was managing to survive by hiding while beating the hulls off heads of wheat in order to feed his family.  In that most deplorable condition, God called him “a mighty  man of valor” (Judges 6:12) then called him to save the Hebrews from their intimidating and contemptable enemy with only 300 men and paltry weapons.  That sounds to me like an invitation to go from an abysmal lifestyle into a death defying one. If you fast forward, you find because he stepped out into the terrifying, uncomfortable life, God empowered him to do this remarkable miracle we remember still today. 

Phillips Brooks, an Episcopal preacher who served in the mid-1800s said, “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle.”  Moses told the Hebrews, The LORD will hand over to you the people who live there, and you must deal with them as I have commanded you.  So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. (Deuteronomy 31:5-6, NLT2).  God challenged Joshua and many others through history in a similar way.

With all the mass murders in the news, we live in perilous days when those around us desperately need to hear God’s word spoken to them and see a real man or woman of God.  God is calling each of us out of our comfort zone to be courageously willing to position ourselves to lovingly offer hope and truth to those who have lost their moorings. 

It is hard work and difficulties that ultimately lead us to greatness, for greatness is not found by walking on a smooth path laid out for us through a romantic walk in the meadow. It is found by taking initiative to follow His whisper in our innermost being to the life Jesus lived.

I tend to get impatient at traffic signals, in checkout lines, when people are late for meetings, or the answer to my prayer doesn’t come when I would like, etc., etc.  A recent Barna survey showed most of us struggle with impatience.  As the survey reported, patience scored as the second lowest practiced virtue in Christians today.  Only self-control scored lower. 

In the midst of that, the Bible says Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices (Psalm 37:7, ESV).  We know that King Saul’s impatience brought God’s judgment upon himself (1 Sam. 13:8-14).   I shudder to think of all God’s promises and learning opportunities I’ve missed because of my impatience in getting things done.

The stunning part is the Bible says So the LORD must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the LORD is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help (Isaiah 30:18, NLT2).  Really?!  I thought I was waiting for Him when actually He is waiting for me!

Why would He wait for us?  This offers important insight into His ways.  He is like the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen (James 5:7, NLT2).  As a farmer or gardener waits for his grain or her veggies to ripen, God too patiently waits until the seed of His purpose for us ripens.

The Bible explains He waited until the fullness of time had come, [then He] sent forth his Son, born of woman… (Galatians 4:4, ESV).  He has a purpose we can’t see or understand that must ripen before He moves on.  Revelation 14:15 and 18 record that although God sees the hearts of men are evil, He waits for them to ripen before He brings judgment.  So why should we be surprised that He waits for the righteousness planted in our hearts at salvation to mature in such a way it changes us into the likeness of Jesus Christ?  Paul explains He has predestined [a believer] to be conformed to the image of his Son(Romans 8:29).  He planted His life in each believer and then waits for each of us to allow His Spirit to change us from the inside out. He also explains we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV).  So, if a person isn’t being transformed into His image as He has purposed, it most likely is because the person isn’t spending time waiting in His presence beholding the glory of the Lord which is when His Spirit brings about the metamorphosis.   He is therefore waiting for us to make choices to spend extended time with Him in His Word, so He can finish that phase of His purpose in and for us. 

Accepting the truth of His waiting on us will renew our motivation and inspire us to wait in His presence.  It will also empower us with confidence that our waiting will never be in vain.  He wants to answer our request to be made like Him more than we even desire that to happen. 

Has your waiting on God been misdirected?  Have you been thinking God has been holding out on you when in fact He has been waiting for you to take time to marinate in His glory, so His Spirit can finish His purpose for you?  Your fullness of joy will be enhanced as you wait in His presence.  Doing so will also transform your desires and prayer which will result in them being fulfilled sooner.