For His Glory: 13 Thoughts for 2013: Part 9 Awaken to what God is doing

Romans 13:12-13
The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

"Be up and awake to what God is doing!"

After a week like this week in the news media (Boston Marathon, Kermit Gosnell), it is easy to be discouraged thinking that the evilness of man is somehow winning in this world. That is what I initially think when I look at the news, but then I stop and I'm once again reminded that God moves in the smalls of this world and in His infinite wisdom He remains patient and confident that His ways will continue to turn this world right-side up.

Psalm 11 asks: "When the foundations are being destroyed, what are the righteous supposed to do?" (Psalm 11:3 NIV). This Psalm used to frustrate me because I felt like it left a direct question unanswered in a direct way. However, when I look at it again I see that it calls us to fix our eyes on Him and what He is up to:

Psalm 11 (MSG)

I’ve already run for dear life

straight to the arms of God.

So why would I run away now

when you say,

“Run to the mountains; the evil

bows are bent, the wicked arrows

Aimed to shoot under cover of darkness

at every heart open to God.

The bottom’s dropped out of the country;

good people don’t have a chance”?

4-6 But God hasn’t moved to the mountains;

his holy address hasn’t changed.

He’s in charge, as always, his eyes

taking everything in, his eyelids

Unblinking, examining Adam’s unruly brood

inside and out, not missing a thing.

He tests the good and the bad alike;

if anyone cheats, God’s outraged.

Fail the test and you’re out,

out in a hail of firestones,

Drinking from a canteen

filled with hot desert wind.

7 God’s business is putting things right;

he loves getting the lines straight,

Setting us straight. Once we’re standing tall,

we can look him straight in the eye.

This Psalm solidifies that God is firmly established on His throne and He is well aware of what is happening in the world. The question when we see the evil in the world is not what is God doing about it but rather the question is do we believe that God knows what He is doing when He asks us to love, to pray for our enemies,and to do good even when evil is what we get in return? Does His way really work?

If we answer yes to those questions, it leaves us with one more question - How do we walk this out? The answer circles us back to the end of the first verses Romans 13:14: "Dress yourself in Christ!" Scripture after scripture tell us how to dress in Christ (if you would like a list of 11 of them click on my post called Spiritual Wardrobe). These small choices we make everyday are those investments that yield great returns in the spiritual realm.

I will leave you with a final thought from Henri Nouwen from Mornings with Henri J.M. Nouwen:

The mystery of life is that the Lord of life cannot be known except in and through the act of living. Without the concrete and specific involvements of daily life we cannot come to know the loving presence of him who holds us in the palm of his hand. Our limited acts of love reveal to us his unlimited love. Our small gestures of care reveal his boundless care. Our fearful and hesitant words reveal his fearless and guiding Word. It is indeed through our broken, vulnerable, mortal ways of being that the healing power of the eternal God becomes visible to us. Therefore, we are called each day to present to our Lord the whole of our lives - our joys as well as our sorrows, our successes as well as failures, our hopes as well as fears.

In Christ,