This video is the inspiration for this post.
The key was the part where David Stephens contrasts what faith is as opposed to what presumption is.
The whole section of the necessity for God to initiate faith, rather than my presumption starting something and expecting God to show up was a splendid and refreshing reminder of something that helped me greatly in beginning to understand God.
This was a lesson I got from Ray Stedman when he was teaching about prayer, and He established that in prayer I engage with a conversation God started. Not only did God start it, but it’s a conversation for His purpose. My part inn the conversation is to find out His purpose.
So whether I’m enquiring about what job to have, or crying out because of someone suffering in agony, either way, I’m supposed to be looking to hear from God who started this conversation in the first place to discover what His will for me is in that situation. That is not to say He will give me the whole deal, but what He does if I am responsive and obedient to it I will find it is in my best interests as well as seeing God glorified.
What I must confess to suffering from in my time, is from what David referred to as spiritual tinnitus. I get lulled into a false sense of myself. I get excited by all the glittering opportunities before me. Like a child in a sweet shop (preferably a child who likes sweets), I’m already in my mind scoffing everything in sight. So I get to it. I decide where God wants me to go, and what God wants me to do. After all these are great causes. These are brilliant opportunities. I have the gifts and surely … SURELY this is what God wants.
It will not take too long, like the child in the sweet shop who attempted to scoff everything, for me to feel unwell. Making my own way up as I go along doesn’t tend to work well for me. It does not bode well for those close to me when the crash happens either.
What I learn from that, and what this brilliant video reminds me about, is the importance of humbling myself before God. Learning to respect and revere His presence, and that awesome reality that He is speaking, and if I but have the ears to hear, I will hear clearly what He has to say. Then I can get all excited in being responsive and obedient to it. Followed by less excited when the challenging times hit, and the frustrating moments pop up. Yet still determined to follow things through, because this is what God has said.
To live by what He has said, and to be conformed into the character of His Son who only followed instructions from the Father, is a way that continues to appeal to me. I can certainly see the eternal benefits in it. It also certainly motivates me to pray that I – and others who might relate to my presumptuous self – will learn to wait and listen to His call when He speaks.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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