Not everything that the Lord Jesus is doing LOOKS good to us immediately. However, as we wait for Him to bring beauty out of ashes, and believe in His goodness – no matter how things look in this world – WE will be changed. And at the same time we will begin to comprehend His ways. Why does He do things like that? I think it is because the bible says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  Tasting involves engagement and action, not just mental assent to some so-called expert. This life is about progressively becoming more and more acquainted with Him, how He thinks, the Way He does things – Who He is.

There are times when we don’t want to take risks and steps of faith into our new life in Christ – because we are trying to prevent disappointment. Maybe we have experienced that feeling a number of times before … we prayed for something to change…and so far … it hasn’t. Perhaps we prayed for a loved one to be healed … and they are still sick… or they died. Me too! I am definitely not smart enough to have an answer to that!  It would be a mistake to think that just because we serve Him – we know all the answers! He’s still God and breathtakingly incomprehensible at times. 🙌 That’s why we need the bible… even though it looks boring … it isn’t. This book comes to us with a way better “help desk” than any internet site. THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Unfortunately our personal historical circumstances and memories can easily lead to us to metaphorically hold our breath, watching the Lord to see if this time will be different from the other times that we were disappointed! That’s when we know that we are praying prayers that are loaded with agendas! Perhaps we are disappointed because we have already formed an idea of how things will look, or how they should go. Our Heavenly Father is not a fast food joint … a place where you put in your order and wait impatiently for the result. The way to be blessed by learning about Him, as well as prosper our faith, is to find out what He IS doing and join in with that and hold tight when it seems He has gone ‘off script.’ Faith is like a rubber band it needs to be stretched.

I am pretty sure that we could go to a hundred of His preachers, and ask them what He is doing in these days, and each one of them will tell us that He wants to mature His bride. BTW that isn’t just because Jesus only wants a mature bride! It’s because Jesus is the perfect Bridegroom! His desire is toward us, and He is protecting us from what comes next. Hard things are going to happen no matter what we believe, but it is in the nature of maturity to stick close to His purposes. These mature followers will survive – scarred and sometimes battle-weary. I know a whole lotta people who dun fell off our twig already because they were misinformed about Who He is, and they were told He would give them whatever they want.. Even Jesus met someone like that! (Matthew 19:21 and Luke 18:22. BTW this incident is so important to the Lord – it is in the book twice.) We must remember the parable of the sower – stuff happens and it will choke the life out of those seeds of faith in Christ.

It is far better to ask Him into everything, than to live a reactionary life – bouncing about from one bad thing to another. Ask Him: “How would You like me to pray about this?” He knows how to pray better than we do. Right now, here on earth, the Holy Spirit is praying for us, perfectly. And up in heaven, in the throne room, Jesus is praying for us perfectly too. We simply need to know what He thinks. The safest place is a positional one – we get that by maintaining unity with others, prayer, and reading the very ordinary looking  book. Then doing what it says! (Well, you knew I’d say that didn’t you? 😆) We can cry, pout, and stamp our feet to try to get what we want, but He absolutely has a far better plan for all of us. You and I know that those plans He has are: “…plans to give us a hope and a future.”  However, He won’t rubber stamp His signature on what we think is a good idea or what suits us. Human logic and rationality is flawed by selfishness. We can make anything sound OK – but our God works for the good of ALL MANKIND. 

Ezekiel gave the perfect response to God once when He was asked a question by the Lord in Ezekiel 37:1-10 “He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, You alone know.” Then He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life…“ The really cool bit about this scripture is Ezekiel got to see this whole thing happen through his spiritual eyes. HE SAW US – and millions like us. WE are those dry bones. Laying around dusty, dry, separately. No life in us! But in my heart I can hear a rattling and a shaking …

Ezekiel prophesied back then, that we would live. That those dry dead bones would come together, and muscles and sinews would cover the bones, and organs and flesh would appear in and on them – and God’s OWN life would come into His army. Father God is going to honour that man’s prayer.  I may be gone by then, but I believe with all my heart we are at this stage in history … when maturity, reverence, and holiness have become more important than getting what we want. And the boring book becomes our road map, and mission statement.Bye. 👋🏻