THE STRUGGLE OF TRUST
THE STRUGGLE OF TRUST
Lord of all creation, You made us for Yourself, and You always take pleasure in granting us every good and perfect gift. Your Word is trustworthy and Your promises are sure. In spite of this, I struggle with trusting You enough to surrender to Your better way. I often succumb to my own devices and desires, foolishly hoping that I can successfully order my life without conscious dependence on You. When I rebel against Your goodness by choosing my will above Yours, I only grasp dust and ashes. Give me the grace to believe that you really do know what is best for me and that I do not. May I cling to Your character and rejoice in Your pursuit of me. I thank You that in spite of my waywardness, You never let me go. May I honor You so that my influence on others will be for their moral and spiritual good rather than their detriment.THE PROMISES OF GOD
The Rest of the Story 2 Kings 19:25
There are two sides to every story. First, there is the side that is obvious to any-one with eyes and ears; the side that gets reported in the papers, broadcast on the evening news, and debated on the talk shows. Then there's the other side, the real side-God's side. It is not always evident because it happens in God's do-main, the realm of the unseen. His side of the story can be discerned at times by those who have "eyes to see and ears to hear" (see Ezekiel 40:4; Matthew 13:15-16), but often not (see the story in Daniel 10).Had the presses been rolling in the eighth century B. C. they would undoubtedly have printed a story about an Assyrian king who seemed to be wielding a sig-nificant amount of power in his day. His side of the story appears pretty impres-sive (much as many stories printed in our day). Within the space of three sen-tences he uses the personal pronouns "I" and "my" eleven times (Isaiah 10:13-14). By his account, he removed boundaries of nations, subdued their kings, and plundered their wealth like taking eggs from a nest-and not one kingly bird chirped or flapped its wings in protest. His side of the story makes a good read, and history appears to verify that he was in charge (2 Kings 19:11-13). Until, that is, you hear the rest of the story.
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had added Jerusalem to his shopping list of cities to acquire. To intimidate Hezekiah, king of Judah, into giving up, he rehearses the press releases about his past victories. Then Isaiah delivers to Hezekiah God's side of the story: "Don't worry Hezekiah. I planned all of Sennacherib's past vic-tories eons ago for reasons that don't concern you; he was just obeying my word. But my purposes don't include him destroying Jerusalem. In fact, I'm going to destroy his army in one night" (2 Kings 19:25, 35-36).
We may not always know, when we would like to know, the purpose of God's words. But this we do know: Regardless of how our side of the story appears, it is God's side that matters in the end.
God's Promise to You: "My purposes, through my words, always have the final say."
THE PURSUIT OF GOD-PART 3
Following Hard After God
Making First Things First
My own conviction is that we come more and more to that which we aspire. That is, what we long for, what we desire shapes who we become. So, we return once again to the opening question, "What do you want more than anything else in the world?" Solomon was asked that question by God and assured that whatever he chose, God would give to him. He could have asked for wealth, or longevity of life, or victory over his enemies. But he asked for none of those things. He simply asked for wisdom, that intimate knowledge of God that strengthens one with the skill to guide and govern people in a way that pleases God. And so, because he chose intimacy with God over wealth, long life, or power over one's enemies, God gave him what he asked for, and then threw in the other things as a bonus.It's the timeless principle of the first and second things. If you pursue the world you'll never find God, and you won't actually find what you're looking for in the world either. For example, if you pursue satisfaction apart from God, as an end in itself, you'll never be satisfied. However, if you pursue God first, then you will find intimacy with the Father, and secondly, the deep satisfaction He knew you also wanted. Pursue Him first and the best of this world will be given to you.
Since God is a person, our pursuit of him is best understood in the language of an intimate relationship rather than the language of a deer hunt. Knowing God cannot be achieved in a one-time encounter as in "I came to know Jesus at a certain time and place." It is not a matter of "I hunted for him; I found him; I'm finished." In fact, I grew up in a subculture where the tradition of giving such testimonies was common. I recall an elderly gentleman who would stand and talk about how he came to faith in Jesus 40 years earlier and then would sit down. Then another person would stand up, give a testimony of coming to faith in Jesus 25 years ago, and then sit down. And on it would go, week after week. But afterwards the question that I was left with was, "So, what has happened since then?"
In other words, these people spoke of their faith journey as a search for God that had been concluded 15, 25, or 40 years ago. And everything since then seemed to be totally irrelevant to them. Is there no connection between what happened long ago and what happened in their life today? Is there no difference between that first step of faith and their walk of faith today? I'm clear on what God did back then, but what is He doing today? But I sat silently and kept the question to myself - until now. And so I ask it of you, as does Tozer, as does your heavenly Father.
The pursuit of God is not a one-step journey. It is a life-long journey. We begin our pursuit with the startling discovery that he has been pursuing us - continuously. And he expects us to respond by pursuing Him - continuously. Tozer emphasizes that our call, our job is to follow hard after Him. While in His gracious grip we are called to pursue him. His initiative toward us carries with it an implicit responsibility. That is, he makes us "response-able" - able to respond. All those who have welcomed His gift of saving grace, also have within them a new longing to know Him better and better as the years progress. And since He is infinite, that pursuit will last throughout all eternity, always as fresh as the moment we met Him for the first time.
The call is for a response of personality to Personality, the response of the created personality to the Creating Personality. Eternal life is not a state of existing forever, but rather being eternally in the presence of a Person. "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God" (John 17:3). Therefore, heaven is not so much about a place as it is a Person. How strange to find people who have spent their whole life avoiding God, yet thinking that they'll someday enjoy being with him forever. For them heaven would be hell.
Spiritual Masters
We see that to have found God is to still be motivated to pursue Him. It is the soul's paradox of love. When you "come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the hear of their desire after God."
Remember Moses and his great encounter with God? Go back to Exodus 33 and hear the radical request he makes of God, "Now therefore, I pray you, if I have found favor in your sight, let me know your ways so that I may know you, that I may find favor in your sight" (Exodus 33:13). How remarkable. He's saying that since his relationship with God is going well, his greatest wish is not to remain where he is, but to go beyond that. He continues his request with the words, "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" (Exodus 33:15-16).
"And God said to Moses, ‘I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and know you by name. Then Moses said, ‘Now show me your glory'" (Exodus 33:17-18). Now that's a mighty bold request to make of God. But God is delighted with it.
"I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will
proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I
will have compassion. But, you cannot see my face, for no one may
see me and live. There is a place near me where you can stand on
a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the
rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I
will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must
not be seen' (Exodus 33:19-23).
"And so God passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, ‘The Lord, the
Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands,
and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin'" (Exodus 34:6-7).
In this exchange between Moses and God, we see that God's glory is accompanied by his
attributes. Who God is and what God does go hand in hand. Moses quested hard after
God and God responded by showing him more of himself.