Thursday, December
21, 2017
Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our
ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final
days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an
inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The
Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he
sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat
down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. This
shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him
is greater than their names. Hebrews 1:1-4(NLT)
If there is one common theme I have encountered over the years serving as
a pastor, it is that where is God
kind of question. People with faith, but
struggling because of some tragedy or unexplained burden…or people without faith
and trying to be brave, whistling in the dark because they’re afraid God really
does exist, and they missed Him, always seem to default to the apparent absence of God
theory. After all, they reason you can’t
see Him; so if He actually exists, He just doesn’t care enough to care for me.
But that is reasoning which ignores the facts. Consider the Biblical evidence; when Adam and
Eve sinned it was they who
hid themselves from God, not the other way around. Ever since, says the writer of Hebrews, God
has been reaching out to us humans by many means, including inspiring prophets
to warn us to get right with God. And,
when all efforts of deity were rejected by humanity, God laid aside the prerogatives
of divinity and personally took on human flesh, reaching-out to us with the
gift of His only Son.
This is not an absentee God who is uncaring;
this is He who moves ever closer!
The inquiring mind would ask: Just
how close does He want to
get to me? The answer is ever
constant: He comes as close as your invitation…and not a millimeter closer!
The naturally-following thought in this line of reasoning is always a
tough one: If God wants to come close, what’s going to happen if I say OK? What if I invite Him to come really close…all
the way to that being His thing? Do
I have to become a preacher, or go to Africa as a missionary? What does He want to do with me when He gets
close?
The short answer here is incredibly simple and complex at the same
time. The simple part of the answer is love; when He gets up close
He loves you! The complex part is that “love”
means He does what is best for you.
Nobody can predict what that means, including you – and that’s where
trust comes in. Trusting God to love you (meaning He always does
what is best for you), is placing everything in His hands.
It’s called faith.
For You
Today
If
in the faith department you’ve been circling the airport looking for a good
place to land, and you’ve never managed to get the wheels on the ground, here
is a little guidance beam to bring your life onto the landing strip:
‘Ever closer’ means He wants to live IN you and have YOU in Him!
He’s waiting for your invitation.
