When I knew not what next
His Word went ahead, bulldozing impossibilities
When I couldn’t tell how
His Presence descended, establishing possibilities
When I didn’t know where
His power prevailed, perfecting opportunities
Now in His rest, how do I relax
And enjoy this gift money and labor couldn’t purchase?
A lot of us are so used to fending for ourselves, eating the fruits of our labor or suffering lack if we didn’t worked hard enough. We do not understand grace – enjoying what we haven’t earned doesn’t make sense. Even doesn’t seem fair so we feel guilty if we have to accept favors we feel we don’t deserve. We feel good if we worked for it, we feel better if we earned it. We have become so adapted to the endless hassles of wandering and living off our sweat in the wilderness that when God bring us into the PRomised Land, we are at loss of how to live in this new location, where our fruitfulness is no longer dependent on the intensity or duration of our sweaty struggles.
Relate the conditions Israel faced as they journeyed from slavery into the Promised Land to your situation; fearing the wrath of pursuing taskmasters who didn’t want to lose control over them; contending dangers in the wild as they traveled, wearing their vulnerability on their sleeves; the red sea threatening to terminate their dream of a good life in God’s promised location; rugged mountains beyond intimidating in attempt to discourage and frustrate their progress; and disgruntled occupants and settlers along the way who felt they didn’t have the right to the promised life. On your list, add the inescapable pressures of wandering while wondering how the pilling bills will be paid before trouble erupts and the constant overdraft on your faith account as you slug it out from one day to the other. Add up all these and life is quite a handful.
Some of us have probably lived under these conditions so long that they have now became norms. These struggles have become intimate parts of our daily lives to the extent that the day we walk into Cannan and see/sense them no more, we unconsciously feel like something vital is missing. Concerns over what should have been celebrated as solution of our problems emerge as new problems. Yes, our problem now is no longer how to survive from one day to the other but how to live without the troubles we have become accustomed to.
What is life without the constant pressures that challenge our capabilities? How do you live in a house you didn’t build? How can you enjoy a harvest you didn’t labor for? How do you just fetch and drink from cisterns you didn’t dig? How can you spend each day without a taskmaster chasing you around with whips, cursing and threatening? How can you, who have often had to live on your toes, fending off enemies, just rest your back and close your eyes in such an exulted position and not bother if someone sneaks up behind your back and does what all enemies dream of?
For the majority, it is naturally hard to switch from one mode to the other. And the longer we have lived in a mode (irrespective of the conditions,) the harder it is to switch to another (irrespective also of how pleasant.) If we are not watchful, what was meant for good can become the beginning of new problem. The gifts of God are received by faith. It means that to enjoy it, we need faith to be handy. If we do not keep our focus on God and His Word, it is easy to get carried away by changes in conditions to the point that we miss God’s purpose for those changes. However, when we fix our eyes, ears and heart on God and His word, adjusting and enjoying the varying seasons He brings us into becomes easier. Don’t get rusted in one mold, God is doing greater things but what good is it if you can’t relax and enjoy the gracious gifts Abba freely brings your way? May you enjoy His rest this week and always, amen.
Glory!