Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Almost...


“Almost” is a trick word. We use it when we don’t want to say no and can’t say yes. “Are you ready?” “Almost.” The true answer is a black or white, yes or no. We either are or we are not ready. Almost is a grey.

Under most circumstances we are comfortable to take much of our lives into the grey. It keeps us from being definitive, from choosing sides, from admitting we haven’t completed the task. Instead of asking how much longer, our kids ask “Are we there yet?” Since we are still traveling the answer is obvious, but we still say “Almost.”

We don’t want answers that state the obvious. We don’t want rigidity, we want things to remain fluid. We want to believe there’s something more, something else. A snapshot of a moment does not capture all that’s going on. It freezes time, which doesn’t really happen, and leads us to believe this picture is all there was. A picture doesn’t show preparation or progress or response. It only shows what the camera saw in one split second. We know there is more to the moment than a split second.

So why do we have such a hard time waiting on God?
Oswald Chambers taught of the “Great Not Yet.” The grey area of God’s involvement—the hope within which we face the next few minutes, hours, days or even years. It is the time from which our prayer meets with God’s response. It is our “almost.”

If God has not accomplished what concerns you, your response should not be yes or no but “almost.” Because faithful is He to do it…to complete the good work He has begun in you.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Living in the Meantime


I am concerned that modern Christians don’t live with anticipation nor expectation that God will bring about change. Like those who told Peter that believing Jesus would return was unrealistic because things had continued like they had since He left and there was no evidence things would be any different.

Awaking each morning to the same conditions you went to bed with, after a while, makes you lose hope it will ever be any different.

But God is not affected by those conditions. He is able to make all things new, to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we expect, to turn our mourning into laughter.

When He does that is immaterial. That He does that is our promise of a new day. Hope is designed to cover the distance from our cry to God’s provision. It helps us live in the meantime.

Today, I choose to live in hope, knowing God is faithful and the provision is on the way!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Don't say change is impossible!


When Sennacherib, King of Assyria, was taunting Judah, he used the oldest fear tactic out there—look at the circumstances. He used actual footage of real life accounts of what he had been able to do to other nations and imposed past history on Judah’s present situation. That’s easy to do. It makes sense. How it’s been is typically how it’s going to be.

He told them how foolish it was to trust in their God since the gods of all the other nations had not been able to stop him from conquering of their lands. And with that being the appearance of what had happened, it would have been easy for them to agree and give up.

However…setting aside the fact that there are no “gods” to help the other nations, our God had not had the final say. Just because someone boasts of his success doesn’t mean he’ll win the next battle. And though Satan has triumphed in the past, doesn’t mean he’s on a role to victory. He’s still defeated even though he operates as though he doesn’t know it.

I saw stuff in Haiti that I felt could never be changed. I saw people living in disgusting circumstances with no hope of getting out. I saw a cycle of despair so well-fixed that it should continue on indefinitely. But I also saw a God who is infinite in His power to make changes.

I also see that same God here with the same capabilities to make changes even though things have been going this way for quite a long time.

When God is trusted, change happens.