In a recent update, I shared how I’m often tempted to be impetuous:
I’m so like Moses. Impetuous. Wanting to take things into my own hands.
(Granted, what Moses did wasn’t condemned . . .
Acts 7:23 “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand…
. . . yet God had a much more grand and glorious plan to rescue His people from Egypt.)
I look on others’ burdens and I want to do something: to say something, to write something . . .
I get impatient . . .
I’m impetuous . . .
I’ve gotten into trouble time and again for jumping ahead of God . . . (you think I would learn).
On the other hand, I’ve been abundantly blessed by God whenever I’ve bent my knees and bowed my neck and waited on Him and in prayer . . . (you think I would learn).
So often I want to do something, do anything . . . but pray.
I’ve been itching to speak, to write . . . but God has continue to check me . . . and call me back to the closet, back to prayer.
That post was focusing on how God wanted me to be patient, to wait on Him and to pray more. That’s one way God has been checking me.
But there’s another way God continues to check me.
I think it’s best summarized in John 11:
1 Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) 3 Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. 4 When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 6 When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
Did you catch that?
When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he left the place where he was.
No, no! It doesn’t say that, does it? Instead we read
When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
We so often think of Jesus as coming to the rescue as soon as we call. Kind of like us calling 9-1-1. Well, yes and no. Yes, He does hear when we call, and He delights to hear our cries, and He does begin acting as soon as we cry (might we say He is acting before we cry, as He is the one drawing us to cry out to Him?). God knows what we need before we need it, but Jesus doesn’t necessarily respond or act in the way or in the time we might think. God’s plan is far, far bigger than what we might imagine and far, far beyond what might make sense to us.
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Isaiah 30:18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. 19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee. (I’d encourage you to keep reading that rest of the chapter.)
God is God – and we are not. Isn’t that the lesson God continues to teach us while we remain here in these fleshly bodies?
God’s thoughts and God’s ways and God’s wisdom and God’s knowledge and God’s timing and God’s workings are all about God and God’s glory…
So it must be with each of us as we seek to minister in God’s Name.
There are times when the LORD is waiting to be gracious to another soul that He will call us to wait (or, like Jesus, to have us abide two days still in the same place where we are). God may very well have us abide for a time before we visibly move, before we go to Bethany, so to speak, to help out a friend in need. (Note there: I said visibly move. I think we can correctly presume that Jesus had already been moving in prayer toward His Father’s throne, for He was absolutely certain of the will of His Father in this situation and He felt no hurry to leave the place He was at that time. In the same way, as soon as we hear of or see a need, we can begin moving in intercession for that soul.)
For those of you who take Christian ministry seriously (I mean that in the broadest sense of the word, i.e. – we are all called to be ambassadors; we are all called to encourage one another daily, to admonish one another, etc.), when we hear of someone in need, isn’t our natural response to move, to go and do something? To write a comment. To answer that message. To say something. Don’t we sometimes end up like Moses? Or like Peter? Or like Abram and Sarai? Don’t we so often end up jumping ahead of God just because we think we have to do something, to do anything? Have to. Do we really have to? Aren’t there those times when we react out of our own will without even pausing a moment to ask God in prayer what His will is in the matter?
Honestly, if we were in Jesus’ place and had heard about Lazarus’ sickness, wouldn’t most of us be sorely tempted to pack up ASAP and head straight away to Bethany? Yet we don’t see our Lord doing that, do we? We see Him content to wait on His Father’s timing because He had an eye to His Father’s glory.
We also have to see that Jesus loved Lazarus, Martha and Mary. He loved them…and yet He waited.
Just because we hear of or see a need doesn’t mean God wants us to move immediately.
Just because we hear of or see a need doesn’t mean God wants us to do anything at all.
Love for others sometimes means we will wait like Jesus when God is calling us to wait. (It may also mean not doing anything at all; that wasn’t the case in this incident, but it may be the case with us – more below.)
Love for God and God’s glory means we will wait like Jesus when God is calling us to wait. (Again, it may also mean not doing anything at all. We need to seek God and what is to His glory.)
There is a time to arise and go, but there’s also a time to abide still in the same place. May God clearly lead each of us in this.
On my other site I’ve mentioned that one of my “strengths” is restorative. (Um, sorry, I can’t find that post. Grrr! One of my strengths is not organization, I’ve concluded. 
) Anyhow, the bottom line means I want to restore things. To fix things. To make it all better.
That’s a very noble ambition, and it is rooted in the character of God.
The fall has wrecked everything, and God’s plan in Jesus Christ is and has always been to bring restoration to this broken world, along with all its broken people. Our God is a God of restoration and renewal and redemption. Amen.
When I see a problem, or when I see a friend hurting, or when I read of someone struggling, I want to be God’s instrument of restoration. (Even unbelievers have the image of God planted in them to some limited extent and they have similar desires. In much the same way, even unbelievers are grieved when they see people struggling and hurting, when they see the brokenness in the world, but, of course, they aren’t seeing the problems through God’s eyes and they aren’t relying on heavenly supplies to do anything about it and they certainly aren’t interested in the glory of God being done in all that.)
That God-given desire in me to restore is a good desire, but since that desire has also been tainted by the fall, it must be sanctified – it must be walked out in the Spirit. In other words: not my ways, not my thoughts, not my wisdom, not my power, not my timing and not for my glory. As I minister it must be done according to God’s ways, God’s thoughts, God’s wisdom, in God’s power, in God’s timing…and always with an eye to God’s glory. That’s a mouthful for sure, but I trust you get the idea.
In short: the best efforts wrought of my own flesh are never going to please or glorify God. In the end, ministry isn’t about results, it’s about God getting glory.
I did have some other things here, but I’ve decided to break off the rest of that and include it in a second post here…
Related:
I’ve been reading through the “Memoir and Remains of R. M. M’Cheyne” by Andrew Bonar. I’ve already posted a couple times on the book at tent of meeting (see here and here). Some of you know how much I appreciated reading through “George Whitefield’s Journals” and how I look to Whitefield as an example and for inspiration (of course, knowing full well, that we need to take care not to idolize others nor to set ourselves up for a sense of inadequacy as we compare ourselves to others). I have to say this book and the life of M’Cheyne rank right up there with the Whitefield and the Journals.
Recent Comments