LET GOD BE GOD - (Part 2)

“And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see...” (Matthew 11:4)

Our faith is frequently challenged. And when this happen our confidence in God is can be seriously shaken. It is not unusual for us to have doubts, and sometimes great faith and confidence have resulted from our subsequent re-evaluation of the place of God in our lives.

Reasons abound why a person who hitherto walked in faith begins to doubt God and question His ways. And it is not strange to the Lord when we recall the encounter with the father who sought healing for his epileptic son and pleaded with Jesus saying, "I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief" (Mark 9:24). During the brief moment John the Baptist spent in prison, he had such a moment. He knew who Jesus was yet doubted that Jesus was who he claimed to be.

Our perspective of Him may be altered along with our changing situations, but God never changes. His purpose and plans remain the same, His thought towards us remain the same.

When doubts arise in our hearts, God does not change to convince us one way or the other. His response to John’s doubtful disposition is very insightful: “And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matthew 11:4–5). You already have the truth, believe the truth, and let God be who He says He is! Jesus did not give an answer to John's doubts, but acted only to reinforce and strengthen the faith which He knew to exist in his heart.

God is still God – even when we get preoccupied with the things we claim He has not done for us, thereby exposing ourselves to all manner of doubt and fear. Your situation cannot change God, but God can change your situation!

Today, God wants you to look around you, see the miracles He is working out and the liberating word He is speaking into people’s lives (even in yours), and bless Him. Like John, you don’t need any new proof that God is God! Continue to believe what you know about Him according to the illumination that comes from the Holy Scriptures. Don't try to tell Him how to be God!

LET GOD BE GOD

“Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”  (Matthew 11:3)

This was the question John the Baptist sent his disciples to go and ask Jesus. Coming from John the Baptist, this is rather puzzling. This was John – the forerunner of Jesus, the one who knew him right from the womb and who later identified Him: “behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

So, what caused John to doubt that which he knew to be true about Jesus and to become offended in Him? (Matthew 11:6). John was serving God diligently; vociferous in proclaiming the kingdom of God and in denouncing the ills of society.

However, John now finds himself imprisoned by Herod for his candidness (Matt 11:2), and to make matters worse, Jesus had not come to his aid; He had not even visited. As John thought about this and hearing that Jesus had carried on with ministry as usual, doubt must have grown. Obviously Jesus’ actions did not fit John’s expectation of what the messiah should be about: “Are you the Messiah or is there another?”

No matter how pious and dedicated we are to God, our faith will be tried. Situations and circumstances can pressure us into doubt and even cause us to resent God. We may be expecting God to change according to our whims and find ourselves asking: “How can this be happening to me?”

Trust God to be God. Do not doubt Him because things are not going your way. The Lord is God not because He meets our selfish definition of Him and what He should do for us. He is God by self-revelation! Let God be God in your life!

THE BOUNDARIES

"You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter." (Psalm 74:17)

God has set clear & definite boundaries both in the physical & spiritual realms. He defines light and darkness, the seasons, and right and wrong. In the beginning, all creation functioned within His fixed boundaries, and He pronounced them all “very good”. But this was before man exercised his free will to operate outside the limit.

Yet God’s boundaries have not changed neither has His will for us to function within them. It is no surprise then that we have words like violation, trespass, thief and the like. These words only have meaning because we have a real sense of boundaries.

The word of God defines for us the limits that God has set for our lives, and sin is a violation of those boundaries. When we come to God through Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), we enter a new covenant relationship in which we agree to live our lives and walk with God on His terms and not to try to re-invent Him or redefine His boundaries to suit our opinion.

“In Christ” is the New Testament boundary that God has set for relationship with Him; and in Christ there are certain blessings you can expect: “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3).  They are blessings of peace, protection, provision, and power!

The Lord our God who sets boundaries is able to preserve the integrity of the wall He erects around the lives of those who put their trust in Him!