I spent the first day of my Spring Break car shopping. after dragging mom and Shane across town with me I made a pro con list and thought about my decision for several hours. Mom was on the phone with Aunt Judy, and I overheard her saying, "I think she wishes her Daddy was here to help her with this."
I sat back and thought about it and while yes I would have loved to have Daddy's perspective, I didn't need him here to deal with it. Why... because he gave me all the tools I would need to make that decision. When I first started thinking about buying a car, back in December, the first thing I did was go buy a Consumer Reports magazine... because I know that's what daddy would have said to do. So... I did months of research I test drove my top 2 cars twice, I got the opinion of others, and finally I just wrote out my thoughts. ... and I made the decision, and I'm happy with it.
Kind of like God... you know??
He gives us the tools to make decisions,
we just have to do it... and be happy with it.
Also during Spring Break I was trying to help mom find some tax stuff, and I ran across a random light blue spiral bound notebook. All that was in the notebook was something daddy wrote... it was not titled, nor did it have a date on it... but as always, it has a good point. I hope you enjoy it and can learn something from it like I did:
Is God always there? Always patiently, quietly waiting to come to your rescue at your convenience? Don’t be so sure. Yes, He’s always there as He is everywhere, but will He always come riding in like the cavalry to save the day?
Have you ever had a flat tire and in changing it find your spare is flat? Guess why it is? Yes you had “faith” that it would always be ready when needed. Ready to come to your aid, and it was except for the part you were supposed to maintain. The air. You didn’t and now you’re stuck.
Lots of times we treat our Master as we do that spare tire. Always thinking we’ll be immediately rescued when the inevitable crisis arises, only to find we’ve failed in our responsibility to the relationship.
In Isaiah 55:6 scripture tells the people to: Search for the Lord “while He may be found.” Make your request “while He is near,” indicating that God is not always easily accessed. Is this surprising to you? Then read on… The next verse tells those people who are having trouble getting through that they should “return” unto the Lord, and He will have mercy, that He would abundantly pardon. Verses 8 & 9 explain why we can be so mistaken in our assessment of God.
His thoughts are not like ours. His ways are not like ours. They are higher. That’s why God’s plan for our lives seldom make sense in the early stages. Only after we begin to see results of following His instructions to we realize how wrong we are and how right He is.
In Ecclesiastes the Bible warns us to Remember out Creator in our youth. Before responsibilities, liabilities, discouragements, and age make us “hard to reach.” (the evil days) After reading the entire chapter it seems to say: Develop your relationship with God “while you can.” As life goes on it will become increasingly difficult to do that.
In Hosea 10 verse 12 you’ll find this. It is time to seek the Lord till He comes. Hosea is informing his nation of the consequences of putting other things before God (idolatry) in their lives. I think that situation can apply to us today, don’t you? He tells them to break up the fallow ground. That that has been allowed to sit idle, been ignored, or even neglected. The prophet instructs to keep searching till He comes, indicating that it could be a while. That God may not jump at the chance to be a part of your life again. You see God has this standard that we apparently don’t take serious enough. He has to be first or He won’t be anything! God won’t play second fiddle to you, your hobbies, family, job, money, family, church, or anything else. You’ll play by His rules or He won’t play. Period!
Now once you get past that there are some lessons He wants us to learn regarding these statements.
#1 God may not always be found.
#2 God may not always be near.
#3 Your access to God may not always be a smooth, unobstructed path.
Communion with God requires:
#1 Your desire and commitment
#2 God’s presence
#3 Maintenance of the relationship.
If God’s not as near as He once was… Guess who moved!
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