August 26, 2011
Sinker
There are times when I seem to be having one tumultuous situation after
another and I find myself asking, ‘What
next?’ and then telling the Lord it would be nice to have a one day reprieve
where I weren’t bombarding Him with prayer needs. The reality is that it’s
during those stressful situations that I depend more fully on the Lord, rather
than depending on my own abilities. I think many of us are a lot like Peter
walking on the water…we have to be sinking before we cry out, “Lord save me!” (Matt 14:30b NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----I don’t want to disrespect the sense in which you mean, “...rather than depending on my own abilities.” That God participates in our lives makes us partners with Him in negotiating the corners, bumps, and potholes of our routes through life. That we are a partner does not make God’s involvement superfluous. That God is a partner does not make our involvement unnecessary. That we must, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding,” (Prov 3:5 KJV) does not mean we must empty ourselves of understanding. “To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver,” (Prov 16:16b RSV) and “...a man of understanding walks aright.” (Prov 15:21b RSV) The difference between the perfect life of God’s heaven and the busted life of this imperfect place is vast, but both require us to have and use abilities as responsible, understanding individuals. God gave man what he asked for at the forbidden tree - to have God’s place also in the taking care of our personal selves and neighbors. So they are now our hands which must arrange the conditions for our food to grow and build the structures to keep us warm at night. Without the doing of our part there is no having (a basic life principle which Progressives and thieves alike deny.) And the greater our abilities to do, the greater the things we can have.
-----But that is such a small part of everything else necessary for us to have what we need. The very existence in which we live our physical lives is held together in Him. The natural system of seasons, days and nights, rain and shine, gravity and inertia, and energy and matter is ordered, set into motion, and maintained by Him. It cares not that we even exist. Motion, and therefore change, flows through and around us like an unstoppable river, just as He called it forth. And the vastness of it which needs not our involvement overwhelms to near meaninglessness what of it does need our involvement. But that part of it which needs our involvement is also our own life’s possibilities. Only our own involvement in it makes our lives actual. God has shaped that part to be manageable by our own abilities. And He expects us to use those abilities as our involvement. But fortunately, God’s love participates in this shaping such that when things will overwhelm abilities, He is not disinclined either to refine further their manageability, or to refine more our ability to manage them. Either way, it will be the motion of our own hands within the great river of motion by which the tiny eddy of our own personal life will be stirred. The more our hands stir by understanding learned from Him, the stronger will be our own eddy.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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