Do It Again

"I would rather believe the craziest scenario is solvable and see God Work in it than to stand there and watch the same dry grass sway."

SOME DAYS YOU BAKE BREAD and paint rainbows. Some days you push boulders out of your way. Some days you eat cookies. Some days it’s dry toast. There are days of sunshine, days of rain. (Sing it.) What is our perspective? Do we see mud puddles as in our way or as an abundance of rain? Hold up a bottle, not quite full. Is that enough or is there room for more? Because only when the rim overflows do we find God’s heart for provision. On that day where the boulder sits in the path, should we cry over its presence or rejoice because now God’s going to show up and pulverize it?

In the story of Ziklag, David’s two wives and the wives and children of his people were taken captive by the Amalekites and the town burned to the ground. Overcome by their grief, the people wept bitterly and talked of stoning David over it. David had a choice. He could stay in that place and make excuses for his inaction, beg for his life. He could stare hard at the size of the Amalekites and give up. But instead, it says, “David encouraged himself in the LORD his God” and then prayed. He asked the Lord for God’s perspective. Yeah, things were bad, but the same God that had enabled the young boy, David, to kill Goliath with only a slingshot and a few stones, would recover all that was lost. (Story in 1 Samuel 30).

That is God’s heart. Where the enemy has come to steal, kill, and destroy, God is our recompense and recovery. Where the enemy spits out nothing but lies, “from now on you’ll only eat toast,” God has set a smorgasbord in front of us, a table of abundance right before all which has tried to starve us to death. In the midst of Egypt, while the Egyptians fought off frogs and lice and flies, while their water became blood and darkness descended around them, the people of Israel prospered. Their land had light. Their crops suffered no hail damage nor pestilence.

Which is more effective? To seek perfection, “God only moves when life is A+” (in which case why does He need to move?), or that in the midst of turmoil and trouble, when it especially can’t be done, God shows how much God He is? Should God use a couple 100 years of age to start a nation? Should He choose a virgin to carry His Son? Does the God of heaven plan to return to earth with a trumpet and a shout and catch away the church? Which is less impossible?

There’s nothing He CAN’T DO. Say the entire church world accepts this. God can do anything. There’s nothing He WON’T DO for us. And here’s the sticking point. But here, also, is our point of faith. What we choose to believe of Him is what we will see Him do. The enemy brings in discouragement and denial and labels it “common sense” or “good judgment.” He brings in compromise, “Well, maybe this little bit, God will do for me, but not all of it.” People speak doubt in our ears. And we roll around in guilt. We’re not good enough. We messed up too much. When none of that is truth and all of it stands in our way. I would rather believe the craziest scenario is solvable and see God work in it than to stand there and watch the same dry grass sway.

Some days we plant flowers. Some days we pull weeds. Some days the bills come in the mail. Some days we discover treasure in an open field. There are beach days with blue skies and ocean waves. And also hurricanes. Jesus promised there would be wars and rumors of wars and famines and pestilences and earthquakes, but He also said the end would not come because of them. The end of all things will not come until the gospel is preached to the entire world. He is the beginning. He is the ending. All of it is already written and our part in it. He is the God of all hope. He gives us joy and peace in believing, and His desire for us is to be so surrounded by Him that whatever seems to be casting the shadow of death in our view pales in the light of His fullness within us.

When God is bigger in your view than the work or words of the enemy, then there is nothing you cannot do and do it with peace of mind and a joyful countenance. With patience. Because the God who has done what cannot be done will never fail. And I, for one, will be there to see it.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

I want to remember December 7th for PEARL HARBOR DAY and the FIRST DAY of HANUKKAH.


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com