“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (
“If you go to live in Israel, I am so totally going to come visit you,” exclaimed a wonderful surrogate daughter of ours.
“I totally want you to,” I replied. Then, “Elohim,” I began to think, “how will all this happen?” So the trouble of the double-minded me surfaces once more.
King David and Solomon had the same problem, as did Jacob, Paul and Joseph, when he experienced his dreams, as well as the disciples when they realized the power Jesus had available at His hand and started pre-planning and envisioning their roles in His kingdom.
I’m guilty, too, of wanting to assume I know how things are going to unfold. After all, God and I agree on so much.
If that were so, if I so easily could predict His plan, why has my life been such a roller-coaster of events, good and bad? Why did I not foresee the obvious opportunities or heed the warning signs predicting catastrophe? Now, looking back, they seem so laser-clear to my repentant soul.
If it had been my plan prevailing, I wouldn’t have recovered from my first marriage failures as a husband. I never would have experienced the rebuilding of my life and been gifted to learn a new career using a skill set in financial planning I never believed I possessed.
If I had grasped the potential of all those redeeming moments, I would not dare have predicted I once again would lose my career livelihood, being humbled into bowing at God’s alter to admit my total dependence on His provision. At that low moment, I certainly would not have, in my wildest imagination, predicted that my wife and I would be offered the opportunity to go to Israel—God very obviously providing the means (ours being so pathetically meager).
I guess what I’m getting at is that I’m trying to give up on predicting future circumstances. Yet certainly I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater: I hear God calling strongly that we are to go back to Israel. I look at the headlines of strife and turmoil—potential war in the region—and shake my head, thinking once again, “How will all this happen?”
It will happen because God has designed it to happen. It will happen when He deems it appropriate, and it will be for His glory, not mine. It will be obvious when that time and purpose are ready to be set in motion because everything will fall perfectly into place. The challenge will be to keep up with God’s breathtaking intention as the groundswell of other followers will respond in words similar to our adopted daughter’s exclamation. Their hearts will shout, “I am moved by these events and by this example in ways I don’t understand and can’t explain.”
God, as always, will amaze us by evidence of His Spirit surging forward.
In my own strange way, I’m comforted, Adonai. I don’t (and won’t) have to do any of the true heavy lifting. My job will be to run as quickly as I can to keep up with You, shrugging my shoulders all the time and telling others along the way, “I don’t know how, I just know Who. I believe in the power of the One True God.”