01/25/2023
This morning I am examining my life to determine if I am presuming to know when and how God will enter into my affairs. I am trying to decide if I am attempting to control my circumstances, or if I am trusting in God. Have I been limiting His access to my life without fully realizing that He will interact with me at His good pleasure?
God doesn't need our permission to enter into our lives; He is creator, father, friend, and His involvement with us is at His good pleasure.
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Philippians 2:13 KJV
I have mentioned before that I had a near death experience as a teenager but what I didn't tell you was how I was saved. I had been swimming all day with my Boy Scout troop in a lake near my home. Late in the afternoon I was tired and wanted to go back to our campsite. I jumped off the float we were on and began to swim towards shore... but I was too exhausted to make it. I started sinking to the bottom of the lake when suddenly I was filled with the most incredible rush of peace and joy. I felt as though I were surrounded by God... in a spiritual bubble... and the exhilaration was indescribable. At that moment, when I was yielding up my life, I heard a voice say "stand up!" and I slowly came to my feet... I was within a couple of yards of the shoreline. I had been instantly transported, and my lungs were free of water; God had chosen to act without my knowledge, without my asking... at His pleasure.
This is an extreme example from my life, but it is true, and illustrates that God engages as He wishes; when He wishes. I went years without understanding why He saved me that day. I was a Christian, but far from devout; there was nothing special about me that anyone could see, and yet He chose to save me. It couldn't have been random, so why? He saved me because it pleased Him to do so. He saved me to work out His will in some future fashion. He saved me to reach out to others.
“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,”
Galatians 1:15 KJV
We never know when God will make Himself known in dramatic fashion. He may do it in response to prayer, or then again, He may act alone to fulfill His will; a will that may or may not be known to us. Have you been in situations where death was imminent and yet you survived? Maybe a car accident or some other situation? Did you think it was just good luck? Oswald Chambers writes about being prepared for God's entrance...
"Keep your life so constant in its contact with God that His surprising power may break out on the right hand and on the left. Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes." - Oswald Chambers
As Christians we should never be surprised when the Lord shows up in a bold way. Sometimes however we are so wrapped up in the world, or our own self-control of things, that we miss Him when He reveals Himself. We find ourselves asking "was that just happenstance, or was it a God moment?" We should stay attuned to The Father so completely that there is no question.
In my experience on the lake, He removed all doubt that He had visited me by doing it in grand fashion. He took away my fear of death, and instilled in me a thirst for Him. I found myself longing to feel His presence forever, yet I missed the explanation of His reason for saving me. Not all interactions with God are on this scale; many are so subtle that we must be paying close attention or we will miss them altogether. They are like tremors as opposed to the full blown earthquake that I experienced in the lake. Are we listening, feeling, watching, and smelling? Are our spiritual sensors deployed and functioning at all times?
Prayer:
Father, help me to stay attuned to your constant presence in my life. Let me realize the small tremors as well as the major movements you make. Lord, you move in and out of my affairs at your pleasure and I pray that my actions don't prevent me from knowing you are there. Let me please you always Father, and let my life remain open to your pleasure and will. Father God, you hear my prayers and answer my call, but you also move in my life unannounced, and with all knowing, to work your good will... never let me miss your coming and the loving work you do for me when I don't know to ask, and can't see the road ahead. I thank you for finding pleasure in me and my life.
Rich Forbes