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On
Earth...
In
Matt. 6:10, Jesus calls us to pray with words like this: "Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." "On
earth..." messages are the reflection of various local writers
sharing common experiences in daily living and then guiding
renewal of the mind and spirit from God's Word. It
is scheduled to appear on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Here Am I, Send
Me
A Trilogy for Triumphant Living
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[November 21, 2007]
There was a point in my life when I began to
focus on my frustrating inability to accumulate enough savings for
retirement. I just could not see how my wife and I could save enough
to retire and live comfortably. Then my circumstances took a severe
turn for the worse.
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I LOST MY JOB.
Worry spiraled downward into suffering and all sorts of
distress as no one wanted to hire someone my age. While I was
panicking, my faith-filled wife was redecorating our bedroom.
(You heard me right.) She seemed oblivious to the direness of
our situation.
About that same time, a wise older sister gave me a gift, a
beautifully scripted depiction of Proverbs 3:5-6. I remember
thinking at the moment that there were a lot of things I needed
more than a picture (like a gift certificate to the local
grocer).
The picture/Scripture was received with appropriate joy by my
wife as it just fit into a frame she wanted to use in the
redecoration of the bedroom. The Scripture was immediately hung
on our bedroom wall such that it was the last thing I saw before
I went to sleep and the first thing I would see when I awoke.
This is what I saw.
Proverbs 3: vs 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And
lean not on your own understanding; vs 6 in all your ways
acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.
One morning I awoke and there it was, as always. Except on
that morning I could not stop meditating on the Scripture. I
suddenly realized that contained in those two verses is a
“ Trilogy for
Triumphant Living.”
Specifically:
1. Trust in the Lord with all
your heart. The phrase “ all
your heart”
made me pause. The writer was obviously expressing the type of
overwhelming love that puts God before self. This same type of
total love was expressed by the writer of
Deut. 6:5: "Love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your
strength." Loving God the way Jesus loved us is the goal.
The sequence of events is:
God is the fountain of all good.
He has made us intelligent creatures
dependent upon himself.
He requires us to be conscious of that
dependence.
He commands us to believe his promise and
look for its fulfillment.
And to do this
without doubt, fear or distrust: "with our whole heart."
2. Lean not on your own understanding. The verb
"lean" is used here as a "don't." Don't depend or lean on your
own ability to understand. For me this has been the most
difficult to assimilate. If, during your whole life, one relies
on his intellect and ability to reason and deduce, giving that
up is a big deal.
The fact that our own deductions seem to make so much sense is
contrasted to the awareness that sometimes God's plan doesn't
seem to make any sense at all. Sometimes God's way of doing
things makes about as much sense as "spitting in a blind man's
eye." Losing my job without cause made absolutely no sense to
me.
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Holding on to our own understanding of things is at the core of sin
because it goes to the notion that I can be like God and make my own
decisions. My learning how to "lean not to my own understanding"
involves waiting for God, waiting to see God move, controlling my
impulsiveness to decide, and having a time and a process to talk and
to listen and wait for God to speak. When God speaks to me, it is
usually after a time of private prayer or mediating on Scripture,
and he speaks to my heart. I cherish those times.
3. In all your ways acknowledge him. The first two
instructions are reinforced in verse 6 by the instructive
to acknowledge him. Complementary to relying on God rather
than your own sense of things is to then acknowledge that God is the
driver in your life, that he gets the credit for planning
your life.
God is not a God of coincidence or happen-chance. God has a plan! He
did not set the entire cosmos in motion to sit back and wonder where
it would go. He has everything all planned for all time. God has a
plan for our lives, and it's a good plan. Giving God the glory
should become a part of our public vocabulary.
So the "Trilogy for Triumphant
Living" is:
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Trust in God with
your whole being.
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Don't try to figure
out things with your own sense of logic. Wait for God.
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Give God the credit
for who you are and where you are going.
If we follow the instructions, God promises us a fantastic
blessing. The blessing promised is, "He will guide your path." In
one translation it says he will "set you on a straight path." Think
about this wonderful promise. God, the creator and sustainer of the
universe, will be the one directing where you should go. Incredible!
The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years. Scholars say
if they had taken a straight path, their journey would have been
over in 3 1/2 weeks! When it comes to accomplishing the goals of
your life, are you on the 40-year plan or the 3 1/2-week plan?
More and more, I am allowing God to guide my path, to make my
path a straight path, to make my way easy. When I lie down at night,
my sleep is sweet. (Proverbs 3:24)
Eventually, I joined my wife in her business, and it is now
flourishing to the point where I no longer worry about our future
security. What looked like a loss turned out to be a wonderful
blessing. My wife and I enjoy our business together and have time to
support a local ministry.
God, I am not sure what tomorrow holds, but I
plan to trust you with my
entire being and continue to let go of my need to understand. I am
going to daily praise you and give you the glory in all that I do,
and then, God, I am going to hold you to your promise. Please just
tell me where to go and what to do because I know you will send me
down the right path.
[Here Am I, Send Me]
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