BUT GOD... 9 - when But God moments feel like reversals But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away. And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed. (Jonah 4:7, 8 NLT) Why would God do this? This is such an important issue that we are going to be spending two days looking at it. Having rescued Jonah from certain death and given him the words to use to make the people of Ninevah repent, he has given him some shade from the midday sun...and then caused a worm to eat the shade! Talk about The Lord giveth and The Lord taketh away! The truth is that God is more interested in our character than in our comfort. He needed to teach Jonah a lesson - that Jonah could not expect to receive Gods grace for himself (as we saw yesterday) but then have God give out judgement to everyone else. In another context, Jesus raised the same issue by telling the parable of the unforgiving debtor: Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ (Matthew 18:32, 33 NLT) But God was willing to sacrifice Jonahs comfort for the greater good of his growth in character. And his growth in character came as he came to appreciate Gods character...the one who has no favourites, but who loves everyone equally, who makes his grace available to everyone equally. Are you going through an uncomfortable time and wondering why God does not step in and bring about a But God moment of rescue? Consider this: the stressful, uncomfortable time might just be the But God moment! He may be allowing a lack of comfort to forge something more important in your life - growing the character of Christ in you. Jonah needed to understand Gods readiness to forgive. The unforgiving servant needed to understand that you cant expect to receive mercy and grace if you want to give out judgement and condemnation What characteristic of Christ is God seeking to grow in you at the moment? Patience? Endurance? Tenderness? But God moments are less about air-lifting us out of difficult situations and more about forging the character of Christ within us, bringing his solutions to our situations sometimes by changing the situation, but always by changing us. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29 NLT) The biggest But God moment of all is that, despite our fallenness, despite the fallen world in which we live, despite the best efforts of satan, God is absolutely committed to forging the character of Christ within us. The world, the flesh and the devil conspire to mould our lives into a parody of what they should be, But God has a different vision for us. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT) Sometimes we can miss the But God moments because they dont fit in with our narrow definition of what God should be doing in our lives. He should be rescuing us from this difficult, stressful situation, he should be vindicating me when I am falsely accused and so on. And of course he is absolutely committed to our very best - but often the best is not the easiest. Character is forged within the refiners fire. Father, there are times when I simply do not understand why you allow the difficult, stressful situations to continue in my life. I cry out to you to take them away and you do not seem to answer. Could it be that you are allowing the stress and the difficulty to teach me something... to grow something in me? If that is so, please show me what that might be. Change my perspective on what I am going through and forge the character of Christ within me.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 07:43:56 +0000
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