Tag Archives: God works

JUST TRUST

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JUST TRUST

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” Romans 8:28-30.

How rich with meaning and promise these words are for God’s children!

With confidence in the character and faithfulness of God, Paul declared, “We know!” How did Paul know? Revelation, faith and experience! That’s how we know anything about God and His ways. Some only have revelation knowledge. They read the information contained in God’s Word. lt lodges in their brain as something they remember but it makes no difference to their lives. This goes no further than knowing about what God has said about Himself and His ways.

Others may go a little further by believing what they have read and giving assent to it as the truth. However, until they act on it, it remains nothing more than information but, when belief becomes action and becomes personal experience, like Paul, they can say, “We know!”

Hardships and trouble come to all of us. They are unavoidable, but the way we interpret and respond to them makes all the difference between stress and rest. Paul rested in God because, through experience, he had learned that God was able to bring good out of the worst of situations. It all depended on his perspective on life. Like Joseph said of his brothers, Paul was able to say, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

Of course, it all depends on our attitude to God. If we view Him as an enemy, we will blame Him for everything bad that happens to us. If we recognise Him as our loving Father, we will wait and look for the good that will eventually be revealed, even in the worst of circumstances and we will understand the motive behind the situations He allows us to go through. He’s got a plan.

So much of our old sinful nature still clings to us. It must be chiselled away through tough experiences which drive us onto God’s mercy. Like little children, we take shelter in Daddy’s lap. We learn that the temporal things of this life, possessions, activities, useless baubles and trinkets that decorate our lives and act as distractors, cannot support us when we are in physical or emotional pain. We need the comfort and love of our Abba to give us strength and reassurance in our suffering.

We learn to value the things that really matter – people, family, relationships, friendship, love, tolerance, forgiveness, patience, generosity, peace – and loosen our grip on the transient things of this world. God wants a family; sons and daughters who are like His Son Jesus. The raw material He has to work with, His new-born children, is not anything like His Son but, through the process of discipline and moulding, He slowly transforms us into the image of Jesus.

The outcome is sure because it is God, not people, who does the moulding. He shapes us according to His blueprint, His son, secure in the knowledge that, from His perspective, the work is already complete. When He predestined us, He had sons and daughters in mind. When He called us, He could see the end result. When He works on us, we are already innocent because He justified us through His Son’s death. As He crafts us, he can see Jesus mirrored in our faces.

What more can He do than He has already done? What does He want from you in return? Trust! Just trust! Instead of kicking and screaming, biting and scratching whenever life tightens its grip on you, just be still. He is at work in you. He will never do anything to hurt or destroy you. Since He loves you, He has a goal – to set you free from every destructive way so that you will become as beautiful and glorious as His own Son.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Follow The Blueprint

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FOLLOW THE BLUEPRINT

“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:12, 13.

Now Paul, just what are you getting at?

Verse 13 can be confusing if we don’t have the overall picture. It almost sounds as though he is telling us that we have to save ourselves. Is that what he means? Not at all! We are self-made people, nor are we passengers on a yacht that is sailing away into the blue. We are to be active participants with God in the outworking of what He has done.

It’s a bit like doing a piece of embroidery or baking a cake. You have the picture of the completed article in front of you; you have all the materials or ingredients to make the item. Now you have to follow the pattern and make the object according to the directions until the finished product accurately resembles the picture. The big difference here is that the original Designer is in you, instructing, guiding and energising you to make the object exactly according to the blueprint.

On top of that, the Designer guarantees that, because He is working with you, you will get the job done to its completion. Unlike the piece of embroidery you are stitching or the cake you are baking, He does not leave you to flounder on your own. He is there every step of the way to ensure that the end product is an exact replica of the original. This sounds like an impossibility, doesn’t it, except if we use the key.

What is the key to the success of this enterprise? This is where we come in. There is something we have to do that God cannot do for us. Obey! If we try to follow the pattern without the step-by-step directions on how to make it, we will end up with a mess. Obedience is not about who is watching. Paul said, “Don’t only obey God when I’m there to watch you. Obey because God is there, leading you on to become what He started.”

What, or rather who is the blueprint God has given us to follow? It’s Jesus of course! That’s why Paul joined his beautiful song about Jesus and his instruction to obey with the word “therefore”. Everything God does for us and in us is based on Jesus. He is our  pattern and He is the guarantee that we will be just like Him when God has completed what He has begun in us (Philippians 1:6).

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labour in vain.”  Philippians 2:14- 16.

Paul gave us a second key to this maturing process – praise! He expressed it negatively, perhaps because he was familiar with human nature, or perhaps he was referring back to the Israelites in the wilderness who were so full of grumbling and arguing that they were eventually disqualified from entering the Promised Land. If we are grumbling and resisting God’s working in us at every turn, we will certainly not have an attitude of thankfulness and praise.

Knowing ourselves and how full of impurities we are, how can we ever be blameless and pure in this life? God is not looking for perfection but for the attitude and intention of our hearts. We may not always get it right but in which direction are we facing – the same way as God is facing, towards Jesus – or are we straining against Him in the yoke to go our own way?

King David gives us a clue, surprisingly enough since he did not have all the knowledge and understanding we have with God’s fuller revelation of Himself in Jesus.

“Vindicate me, Lord, for I have led a blameless life; I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.” Psalm 26:1.

His prescription for a blameless life was simple – trust in the Lord. That also means a pure heart – unmixed with confidence in any other thing. When we have divided loyalties, God and ourselves, we will not follow God’s pattern and we will not become what His blueprint has set out for us to be.

So Paul said, “Listen to God; do what He says, and you will become exactly like His pattern, Jesus!”

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.