To be in Christ is to
submit to the conforming pressure of God’s fingers as the Master Potter molds
and shapes each of His children into a unique predetermined vessel of honor,
perfected and fit for Kingdom use. Difficulties, what Paul called our momentary
light afflictions, are the fingers of God preparing us for the glory of
eternity with our Daddy. We are being made ready by the discipline of the
present crucified life.
We don’t need “The
God kind of faith”, scripture twisting that belittles God, for God neither has
nor has need of faith – He is God don’t you know! What we need is simple loving
faith that wants God Himself for Himself, trusting He knows best and will
complete His perfecting work in us. Listen to the great faith of Job, the
blameless one, see his life and hear his words: “Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him.”
Faith is willing not
to have what God is not willing to give, and it does not insist on an
explanation. “It is enough to know His promise to give what is good, He knows
so much more about “good” than we do” (Elisabeth Elliot). God rarely gives us
toys, which “moth and rust destroy”, that pull our time, focus and energy away
from Him. He gives us transformation so we can satisfy our earthly desires with
His heavenly treasure.
God is using His
wrecking ball called life to destroy the pillars of our independence one by one
until we have no choice but to depend on Him. There can be no faith worth its
salt until we really believe in, trust in and depend upon Him, not in our
chariots but in His faithfulness to never leave or forsake us. Beyond the
power-points and song lyrics divine reality is beckoning us with every swing of
the wrecking ball.
When “BAD” happens remember:
Beyond the unanswerable why is an unfathomable God with an indisputable love, who
has never left your side. He not only endured the agony of the cross but
foreordained it. Surely when the veil in the temple was torn, somewhere in the
great expanse of the Father’s heart a tearing occurred. Only God can bind
immaterial wounds. Only God can heal wounds of the heart. Only God!
God is not an
uncertain God. He is purposeful and very intentional, constantly confronting
our complacency, weak faith, independence and misplaced love. The corrosion of the
world and our old nature dims the radiant brilliance of our Lord’s indwelling
life. God compels us with difficulties which compel us to Him. There is
absolute certainty in His commitment to our transformation into “children of
light.”
God loves us to much to leave us the way we are, and He paid too high a
price to settle for our complacency. His mission: “You shall be perfect.” The
Father’s wooing call is a two-edged sword that meets willingness with love
surgery, paring the callus from hardened hearts. Our volition is the key to
transformation and establishes its pace. Constrained by His love, we are conformed by
degrees into His inward likeness.
CONFORMED BY THE
FINGERS OF GOD
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