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Do you ever wonder why God appears to speak so clearly to
other people about your own situation? In the early days it seemed like I was
the only one who did not know God’s will for Gail and her cancer. To be honest, I did not
know what to pray for and whether the course of treatment we were following was
the right one. It was starting to get me down.
One morning, therefore, I strode into my office, closed the
door and vowed to stay put until I had heard from God. So there!
In my office, I have this ESV Through-the-Bible- in-a-Year Bible. Each day of the year is marked
in the margin, indicating which passages to read – an OT reading, a psalm, and
a NT reading. This way, you get to read the OT once a year and the psalms and
NT twice. I started early last year, and I am currently on September the 13th!
It’s a good thing my eternal security doesn’t rest on this.
Anyway, I decided to do what I usually do when I first sit
down at my desk in the morning. So I picked up the ESV Bible and read the
psalm. Then I turned to the OT reading, which was in proverbs ... chapters 3 and
4. The title of Chapter 3 jumped out at me: “Trust in the Lord with all your
heart”. God had already been talking to me about trust through Psalm 84 (see my
previous blog), so now He had my attention.
I began reading. I knew what was coming. Perhaps you do to. In
verse 5 and 6 it says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean
on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and He will make
your paths straight”.
So I was on the right track. God had already been teaching
me to trust Him in our situation. Further, my make-the-present-moment-count-for-God
paradigm (previous blog) could be paraphrased “in all your ways acknowledge
him”.
But I could see one more step that I needed to take, a step
towards solving my original conundrum. I needed to begin seeing our situation
through the lens of divine understanding. I would still be using my own “eyes”,
but I would be looking through glasses provided by God.
But how could I enter God’s understanding of our situation –
especially His specific understanding? Hmm ... I carried on reading. It wasn’t
long before I found the answer in verse 32, which says that “[God] takes the
upright into his confidence”. It would be hard to describe how these words
touched me the moment I read them. God takes the upright into His confidence.
He confides in the upright.
Cheers for now -Ian
Good post. Question: is it possible for those not afflicted to have more faith about an outcome than those who are in the teeth of the trial? I have wrestled with this. I believe that it is possible. However, it must not come across as arrogance - i.e. a dead certainty that I have insider knowledge which the afflicted can't possibly have. Your ordeal has shown that God has truly taken you into his confidence in a way he could never had done with those of us on the outside.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, why did Jesus only take his closest Disciples in when he went to see Jairus' daughter? Euguene Peterson's translation says that the whole house was thronging with mourners and "casserole carriers" i.e. our traditional posture wrt. trials is to acquiesce - say it's hopeless but to nonetheless try and apply some sort of salve. I believe Jesus was saying that the miracle required a small inner-core of believers who were likely to see it the same way as he - no matter how well meaning.
A good question, Brian. I wonder who had more faith for healing - the paralytic or his friends who broke through the roof to get him to Jesus?
DeleteI agree. It is difficult to hear God in the midst of crisis, and often others hear what you are unable to hear.
I think God put me in a church body because I need the spiritual gifts that God has given to others. If I could access everything God has for me without receiving it through the body, then I would not need the body. But God did not set things up that way. We need each other.
Interestingly, the "casserole carriers" are exercising their gift of service and hospitality as much as those that have the gift of healing, faith or prophecy.
One of the ways God "took me into His confidence" was through the input of those that TRULY prayed and "listened" on our behalf. Those with the relevant spiritual gift and maturity. Your picture, for example, added to and confirmed what Gail had already heard from God in her prayer time on the same day.
I guess that the events described in this blog came about because I was feeling overwhelmed by the need to make difficult decisions regarding treatment. I thought that since Gail and I were the ones who had to make the decisions, that God should be guiding us directly, rather than through others.
As it turned out, He did both, which helped us to filter out some of the advice that 1) was given in good faith but perhaps was not applicable to us; and 2) came from those without gifts proven over time. Further, I noticed that some people were possibly giving opinions based on their own knowledge or experience rather than time spent in prayer.
No matter how well meaning the others might have been
ReplyDeleteThanks for the response...good point about the casserole carriers - I guess you've highlighted a passive/aggressive attitude towards them - I just don't like other people's casseroles!! (more to that story than I'm letting on!!)
ReplyDeleteClearly you do not belong to Harvest Church, Brian. Every meal we've had delivered has been scrumptious and a great blessing!
DeleteI have seen it time and time again, when men of God have trials people descend like vultures as well wishing as they believe they are being every one wants to be the one who heals the pastors wife or comes with that special word of knowledge. I have seen men of God in more anguish over not hurting peoples feelings and simply just being pulled a thousand and one different directions.
ReplyDeleteBrian you brought up Jairus' daughter Sometimes Jesus used different things to prove God. But what I believe He was doing was knowing that His disciple were struggling with life (they had just come off the sea where they thought they were going to die because of the storm and had accused Jesus of not caring if they drowned Mark 4:38) was closing the door on all the masses of people and have an intimate moment with His closest and dearest and let them know that He has their back (we serve and amazingly personal God).
I have seen it happen time and time again with men of God in time of trial and I suspect that is what Ian is elegantly and politely saying. His amazing God reached out simply closed the door on all that is around and about him and said my son I have got your back, come closer in to Me and then proceeded to have an amazingly intimate moment with him.
I'm not sure why (probably what Ian is meaning by verse 32 He takes the upright into His confidence) but usually at those moments God shows you something awesome something mind blowing that even words struggle to put into words or gives you an understanding that you simply shouldn't understand. Sometimes you want to tell people about it and sometimes like Jesus said to Jairus family and His disciples don't speak of this to anyone (its your special moment with God). But the important thing is that closeness to God and if Ian has experienced that and can inspire and encourage others to draw close to God like that then Harvest and everyone around him will be blessed beyond measure by it.
Thanks, Nev. We have never had the impression that people saw Gail as a potential spiritual "trophy". And, yes, God did touch me in a special way that led to peace and confidence.
DeleteI'm uncomfortable with the "man of God" title :-)
Hey Ian did my comment come through? Dave
ReplyDeleteI don't think it did, Dave.
Delete