unemployment (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)

We tend to think that unless we ask the Lord for help He does nothing.  How can that be true?  He spins the world; did it ask to be spun?  He feeds the birds, did they ask for a worm to be created that day?  He sets your lungs billowing.  Did you ask to breathe last night?  He causes sleep and wake to come upon all.  Do they need to ask for either?

The problem with our understanding of God is that we tend to think of Him as a remote individual who is not immediately in charge of all things.  He saw what you needed before you were born.  He knew what was going to form your mind as you grew.  And, rest assured, He understands the dynamics of sin among men.

We cannot perceive where a certain set of sins will lead.  Sin is chaos.  Yet God knows.  Why else does He proclaim that all sin leads to death?  Jesus holds the keys to life and death.  He knows how to open one and shut the other.  He knows how to bring a man from death to life.  And He knows how to bring a man from life to death also!

So let us be wise and remember that God is not some kind of idle power house.  He is vividly active among men and angels.  Nothing escapes His attention.  And He sees farther down the road than we often give Him credit for.  Trust, do, and trust again.  If you have been blessed to know that Jesus is the Son of God, you are also blessed to be guided in all you do.   Employ your faith (that faith which God gave you to accept His Son as your Lord and Savior).

God does as He pleases.  Just sit and wait.  Do what is right.  Give Him all Glory for everything you encounter.  He will move for such people.  He will protect your faith.  He will move around you and in you to create a kind of person He can be pleased with.

Did Jonah ask for the shade God provided?  Did Nineveh ask for the message of salvation that was brought to them?  Did the Israelites love Jesus when He appeared to bring them the message of repentance and hope?  Yet God moved without having been asked.  Did any of His followers ask God the Father to have His Son crucified?  Yet God’s wisdom was moving among them to accomplish just that.

Did the Israelites ask for slavery?  Yet God brought it upon them so that they could be witnesses to His Majestic power to save.  What has come upon you?  Why do you balk as if you don’t deserve it?  Aren’t you surprised at the things God does for you all day long?  Endure!  Remain a person with a clean heart, mind, soul, and hands.  Just wait.

__________________________

I re-read this message and ponder what “is” in my life.  I am struck by how we expect something from the Lord when we are but His servants.  What an amazing sort of place God has set us to abide in.  Cast about with every form of evil, we are expected to understand and obey.

It is not hard to obey.  It is hard to strain at the restraints He has placed on us all.  It is so very easy to let Him be King.  So why do I constantly look to be useful?  He alone is useful.  And as we serve Him by remaining at the ready we become useful.  It’s as simple as that, isn’t it?