“Love Does”, here’s more from this interesting biographical book from Bob Goff:
“I used to think being a believer was enough, but now I know Jesus wants us to participate, no matter what condition we’re in.”
What He wants us to participate in is the relationship we were created for. The most intimate one of a kind loving relationship you could possibly imagine. There is no reason to wait, no need to “get right”. He wants you right now just the way you are.
While the difficulties that come our way draw us closer to God and help to develop an intimate relationship with Him, He wants to be much more than the Superhero that swoops in when times are tough, solves the problem and flies off into the sunset. His true desire is to be invited into every aspect of our lives. There is nothing we encounter in any given day that is too small for God. He really wants to be involved in everything.
This is also known as deism. Deists hold that reason and the observation of nature indicate that the universe is a product of the all-powerful creator. They typically reject the supernatural and don’t believe God involves Himself in human affairs. Essentially, their take is that God set the world in motion and is letting it play out however it may. This is also known as the “Clockwork Universe Theory”. You would think that scripture would be a good tool for discussion with deists, especially as it relates to prophecy and historically documented miracles. However it’s the apparent inconsistencies in the writings that have led many deists to their position. Tomorrow we’ll continue looking at the deist point of view and from there to some reasoning ourselves.
The providence of God refers to His activeness in creation. There’s His general providence, which describes the way He upholds the natural order of the universe. And there’s His special providence, which is His incredible involvement in our everyday lives. The important thing to keep in mind about God’s special providence is that we have a part in it. It’s our choice as to how much we allow God to be involved. Isn’t it peculiar the gigantic things we take for granted everyday like the air we breathe, and yet we don’t trust Him with the little stuff?
There is something we can do. Just like Adam and Eve, we get to choose. It’s a choice we need to make throughout our day, throughout our life and the choice is to let God be involved. He wants to be there every step of the way with us. Too often it’s only in the hard times, we draw near and receive healing, we’ll get filled and then we take it on our own from there only to find ourselves hurt and empty again. The Lord wants to keep us topped off all the time. It’s up to us to stay connected.
There will always be people around that take advantage of others in order to get what they want or what they think they need. This demonstrates a lack of trust in God to carry out His promises. They believe that in order accomplish their wishes they have to do it themselves, usually at the expense of those around them.
When we are trusting and experiencing God’s infinite love for us, there is no way we can keep it all for ourselves. The very nature of love is giving. His love is realized through intimacy with Him and one of the results of that intimacy is the ability to know when, how, and with who we are to share. Like we said yesterday, there is nothing more exciting.
There’s nothing better than being used by God to share his love with others. It can be as simple as a kind word or as involved as digging in with someone when they are going through a rough time. – Few things hurt as much as being used by people.
The Better Thing 