Monday, August 17, 2015

Go Without - Because You'll Never Go Without

Abraham, go from your father's homeland without knowing where you're going (Genesis 12:1).
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Lot, go from Sodom without anything but your wife and daughters (Genesis 19:12-17).
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Mary, go into pregnancy without a husband or a 'reasonable' explanation to offer to people (Luke 1:26-38).
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Apostles, go on mission for me without bread, money or extra clothes (Luke 10:4; 22:35).
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You on the rooftop, go from your home without going inside to get any of your possessions (Luke 17:31).
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Beloved Son, Jesus, go to earth with nothing but a mortal and frail infant body.  

The followers of YHWH are often called to do some seemingly unreasonable things as they live with Him.  He's an independent thinker, you know.  He has certain ideas about what ought to be done, and we 'reasonable' human creatures hear of them and say, "That doesn't make sense!"  [This reaction would be humorous if it weren't so arrogant.  At a certain point we have to come to the realization that there is a difference between saying, "I don't understand that," and, "That doesn't make sense."  In the first case, I am admitting that I lack something.  In the second case, I am declaring a fault in the other.  When dealing with God, it's always wiser to admit your own lack than to declare a fault in Him!]

When you live with a person like YHWH, you have to come to grips with the fact that He will often do things and call you to do things that do not make sense to you.  There will be many ideas He has that make sense to Him and to those beings in His universe who know more and better, but that don't make sense to us.  What now?  Do you trust His understanding or yours?  Do you go and do, or do you stay and question?  Do you humbly accept His authority to command, or do you arrogantly appeal to your perceived right to understand?

The person who has come to trust Father God can obey in quiet submission because that person knows that He is competent, kind and wise.  That person knows enough of God's promises (and of His determination to keep them) to maintain a steady confidence that they will be ultimately and persistently well as they obey His call.  "If I go where He calls without taking what I'd really like to have as my security, then He'll make sure I have what I need in each leg of this journey."

Do you have absolute, steady, and patient confidence in your Father's careful provision for you?  Do you really believe your Master Jesus when He tells you that you are worth much more than the many sparrows which your Father tenderly cares for?  Are you convinced that He has assigned you a vastly greater value than the flowers in the field which He personally clothes in beauty? (see Matthew 6:26-30)

For most things in life, you ought to be wise in planning and making thoughtful provision for what you can.  This is good stewardship of God's kingdom resources.  Remember, though, that there will be times in most servants' lives during which God makes a move that is out of the ordinary and utterly unexpected.  He will call His people to be risky, daring and adventurous because defeating an enemy like Satan and dismantling a kingdom like his takes extraordinary measures.  God has proven to be a creative, outside-of-the-box and out-of-the-ordinary thinker.  Will you join Him in what He's doing even if it strikes you as a little reckless?  A little foolish?  A little risky?  Trust will move you to go where He leads and to, like another daring servant, say, "I am the Lord's servant; may [His] word to me be fulfilled" (Luke 1:38).

You are well, and you will be well.  Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.  He knows what you'll need before you'll know.  He is perfectly capable.  Perfectly capable.  Whether you are or are not perfectly capable is entirely irrelevant to the question of your obedience.  When your humble willingness and His perfect capability embrace, the result will be an adventurous and powerful life with the Living One that is marked by present and eternal blessing that only our Father could think up for us!