Feb 12, 2014
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you; and when you pass
through the rivers, they will not sweep
over you. When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned…Isaiah 43:2
On Wednesday, February 12th, I drove from home to our church office for a meeting. The drive took me fifteen minutes. I arrived at 12:25 p.m., knowing that the weather forecasters were calling for a significant storm to hit our area around 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. that afternoon. When I entered the office building, the air outside was icy cold, the sky was heavily overcast, but no ice or snow was falling.
Jesus stands ready to help us, but His help is contingent on our absolute, total obedience to His Word, whether or not we agree with it or understand it.
In some way, God requires more than our intellectual faith – He requires our total trust as demonstrated by our obedience to His Word in order to release the miracle. Jesus gave sight to a man born blind, but in order to receive it he had to trust and obey by going to the pool of Siloam to wash. (John 9:1-7) Jesus gave strength to a paralyzed man who had been lying on his pallet for thirty-eight years, but he had to trust and obey by getting up and picking up his mat before he could walk. (John 5:1-9) Jesus healed a man with a withered hand, but before it could be straightened, the man had to trust and obey by stretching it out. (Luke 6:6-10)
What miracle are you waiting to receive? Could it be that God also is waiting – waiting for you to simply trust and obey?
“I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. . . . Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life” (Gen. 9:12-16, NIV).
Even as God spoke, the sunlight may have broken through the boiling clouds and pounding rain, producing a breathtakingly beautiful arch of colors stretching from one peak to another. As God explained to Noah the meaning of the rainbow, surely peace and gratitude flooded Noah’s heart as he knew, based on God’s Word alone, that he was safe and secure.
God gave Noah the sign of a rainbow to symbolize His covenant. When the thunder clouds rolled and the rain began to fall and Noah was consciously aware of sin in his life and the lives of others, he was to look up and see the rainbow. The purpose was not for him to remember God’s covenant but to remember that God remembered His commitment to humanity. And God remembers that He is still committed to us.
Trusting God to accomplish His primary purpose through our pain was eloquently expressed by the widow of Todd Beamer. Todd was a passenger on the fateful United Flight 93 when it was hijacked by suicide bombers on September 11, 2001. He and other passengers overpowered the hijackers, thwarting their use of the plane as a flying missile apparently aimed at the very heart of Washington, D.C. But the passengers were unable to prevent the plane from a nosedive crash into a vacant field in Pennsylvania, so September 11, 2001, was the date of Todd Beamer’s entrance into heaven. Lisa Beamer gave us a snapshot of her faith that is being developed through suffering when she told an interviewer, “God says, ‘I knew on September 10, and I could have stopped it, but I have a plan for greater good than you can ever imagine.’ I don’t know God’s plan, and, honestly, right now I don’t like it very much. But I trust that He is true to His promise in Romans 8:28.”
Thank you, Lisa, for trusting God when you don’t understand why!
At times our understanding is limited. We simply have to trust our heavenly Father to know best. We have to trust God’s silences and respect God’s mysteries and wait for God’s answers.
When we pray for the healing of a loved one, and he dies . . .
When we pray for release from a financial burden, and we go bankrupt . . .
When we pray for reconciliation, and we are handed divorce papers . . .
When we pray for our career, and we get laid off . . .
When we pray for protection, and we are robbed . . .
We just have to trust Him. Trust Him. Trust Him!
