“O great and powerful God, whose name is the LORD Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds…I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
Jeremiah 32:18 & 27
It was 2:30 AM when I woke up to the sound of three snoring dogs, a cloud of dog hair and the negotiation for just a small piece of “real estate” in the queen size bed we all share. In this seemingly, common nightly occurrence, The Holy Spirit made me aware that He was speaking to my heart. With the quiet that naturally accompanies such early hours, I listened, expectantly, to the sweet, loving and tender “voice” of God. Now, you may be wondering what profound and new revelation was contained within His message. Profound, yes, always, because with the Psalmist I say to Almighty God, “What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” However, new revelation, no! God reveals to you and me the truth already available in the Scriptures to teach and guide us in our everyday coming and going if only we are willing.
On this particular night, I had already been pondering a situation in which a life circumstance had been causing conflict to come between groups of people within the body of Christ. Praying and asking The Lord to settle in my own heart what would be His perfect solution, I was pressed to remember the following truth: When confronted with unusual situations, which require we make difficult choices, where do we look for wisdom? Do we use our eyes and look to the culture around us or do we look into the written Word of God? What may appear to be an obvious “right” decision to some, may not necessarily agree with the opinion of others or more importantly, with God. Therein lies fertile soil for conflict to grow!
Throughout history, God has shown time and time again that He is able to do extraordinary things in and through ordinary people. He is not confined within any culture or measure of time. Think of Noah and how totally crazy he appeared to those of his culture as he obeyed God to build a boat. His generation had never before seen rain and yet, in the middle of dry land, Noah was more willing to be obedient than to fit into the current atmosphere! Moses stood at the edge of the Red Sea with thousands of Israelites. With Egyptian soldiers quickly approaching from the rear to round them all up and return them once again into slavery, God told Moses to “move on” and the only place to go was into the water! When he obeyed, the waters parted for them to all safely cross “on dry ground” (Exodus 14).
Then, the most compelling truth of all is that God came into the world Himself, as a helpless infant to a young, unmarried girl. By the culture of that day, stoning to death of the mother would have been the answer to such an “obvious” situation. But God protected Mary, and as it has been said before, the rest is history! (Luke 2).
When human conflict threatens to rip apart the well being of families or friendships it is imperative we search for solutions through the process of prayer and the reading of God’s Word! Individual opinions are as diverse as they are plentiful within the culture of any given generation. As Christians, we must trust God to guide us through our “going out and coming in.” (Psalm 121:8) Our God, within the ordinary does the extra-ordinary!
“He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful, and so that you might always fear the LORD your God” (Joshua 4:24)
Oh Gracious God, give me courage! Blind my heart and mind to anything and everything that might keep me from following the path You have set before me. AMEN
To The One Who defies all reason…He died and yet He lives!