We must at this point, be reminded that we cannot merit the favor or grace
of God. He freely gave His grace in giving His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ
as a substitute and in propitiation for our sins. We cannot merit His love either, because
while we were yet sinners, He loved and gave His Son for us, to die in our
place, and to satisfy the justified wrath of God. Whatever we do, His love for
us cannot and will not diminish. His love for us is not determined by our
conduct, it is determined by who He is, Love.
But does this absolve us of any and all responsibility? Not at all. We have
to enter into, and take hold of that which He has done for us. In that we cannot do this naturally, He has
given His Holy Spirit to assist us in entering in. So, what exactly is our
responsibility? We have to accept the
help of the Holy Spirit by faith and with humility. Humility because our nature strives for self-sufficiency
and independence. We have an “I can do it myself mindset.” To enter into a
relationship with Christ however, we have to shed our independence and
self-sufficiency and wholly lean on Him. This requires humility. We have to
admit to our helplessness and hopelessness. If we don’t see this, we won’t see
our need for Him and so we will not lean on, or place our trust in Him.
Also, let’s not forget that we are discussing why it seems that God is not
answering our prayers and His children are seemingly in endless dire straits. It
seems we pray and He doesn’t answer. Well, God is not a 7-11 we can run into at
a moment’s notice to pick up a grocery item we overlooked when we went grocery
shopping at Walmart! Yes, He said we should come with boldness to the throne of
grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. But we
don’t run in there to pick up items for temporal or material comfort. We go
there to pick up graces for a life more conformed to His requirements and which
will bring us closer to His image and likeness as was His original plan.
God is not to be a plan B, but our only plan. In His mercy, because He is
love, He caters to us when we run or cry to Him after all else has failed. We’d
be saving ourselves a great deal of heart ache if we would go to Him first,
with no plans of going elsewhere. He is
not our 7-11. He is our all sufficiency, our all in all. He is the provider, Jehovah Jirah. He has more than we could ever need and wants
to give it to us. Because He is God Omniscient, and Love, He will not give us
what will hurt us or when it could hurt us.
And herein lies the problem we have with Him.
When I say what will hurt us, we have to remember that our understanding of
hurt and God’s understanding of same differ greatly. When something is inconvenient to our flesh
or nature, we call it bad, but God may call it good, because it usually is that
which He uses to draw us closer to Him. The
early Church Fathers counted it a great honor to be martyred for the cause of
Christ, because they understood that the hurt of the flesh worked a grace into
the soul that could not be attained otherwise.
This is what caused Apostle James to encourage us in James 1:2-4 when he
said “consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or
encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations…so that you may
be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking nothing.”
(AMP)
King David learned to walk with God through his many afflictions and trials
and he acknowledged in Psalm 119:67 that “Before I was afflicted I went astray;
but now have I kept Thy Word.” (KJV)
Prayer
Help me Heavenly Father, as you did with King David,
to understand that my afflictions are as purification and help me to now keep
your Word, in Jesus’ name. Amen.#momomily2013
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