IN A CHERISHABLE THOUGH SHRILL SENSE of paled delight—a joy refusing to take stock of the horrendous reality staring us down right now—we actually wonder:
‘How, God, truly are you going to get me through this?’
In the midst of this problem we get a pungent glimpse of just how BIG our God is.
A few days earlier we weren’t so certain. Emotionally confounded and spiritually vanquished we were the enemy’s captive prey—we felt so pathetic; so far from God’s knowledge of ‘the way through.’
We are perfectly apt at wavering so much in life. One day we’re weak and struggling in our own strength. A day or two later, having wisely sought God—surrendering to his Spirit, we’re strong again, though weak, but paradoxically strong in his strength! Only a Spirit-filled Christian will know and recognise the difference.
This “wavering” phenomenon I know very well. A recent Tuesday featured a pathetic languishing—the Wednesday through Friday immediately after, so positive and Spirit-strengthened, the contrast was remarkable. Just how great is God? Rhetorically, that’s incomprehensible. He is incomprehensible!
When it comes to a time when we literally cannot see a way through the present set of difficulties and challenges, and we honestly ask God “how?” we can suddenly experience a rather weird emotion. This is when we physically smile and laugh at ourselves whilst quaking in our boots—a simultaneous stark and feared bravery, despite the horrible situation. Somehow we believe he can do it.
Whether we’re facing financial hardships, relationship conflicts or losses, or timeline impossibilities or something else, God’s business is manufacturing and proving the miracle true—we know this but seemingly he continually must prove it to us.
“How great thou art,” indeed!
Our souls sing in awed wonder as we recognise God’s role in swathing a path for us. We must have “eyes” for these tricks of grace that see us through. As it is written variously, especially in Romans, though sourced from Habakkuk 2:4:
“The righteous will live by faith.”
~Romans 1:16 (NIV).
We cannot have it both ways. We cannot have God’s blessings over, in and through us if we insist on our ways and our methods i.e. negating the “work” of faith. As we let go and get out of the way, however, we see the hand of God navigating a way through for us, even (especially even) in the “impossible.”
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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