There are things I have expected from sources that I have grown to feel comfortable expecting things.
What I recognise again this week is that God is not confined to working through my norms. I am reminded of how ravens fed Elijah when he was feeling the intimidation following Jezebel’s death threats – that was an unorthodox means by which to be fed. The people of Israel being fed manna was another response to a need that went beyond the norm.
Sometimes being obedient to God requires a broadening understanding of how God is not limited to our norms to meet needs He knows about. As He meets those needs in His creative and diverse ways, so we learn to be less dependent on what we know and expect and more dependent on following wherever God may lead to meet the needs.
That broadening experience I find to be particularly stretching especially as it moves me away from what has always been the regular sources. It does not dismiss them, but it allows me to appreciate that the order of relations is that I follow Him, not expecting Him to follow me and my ways. It’s stretching and humbling. As well as that it’s exhilarating and exciting to know that knowing Him leads to wider as well as deeper experiences of His leading and His provision.
Witnessing that in the life of others has given me the privilege of seeing how people are blessed and the Kingdom is announced and expressed in ways that often challenge the conventional and traditional. It challenges me to go back to the source and ensure that we’re not holding tightly to what we know at the cost of seeing more of who God is and the wealth of life in what He knows.
Earlier I had a conversation where we considered how god communicates. Part of that was being sensitive of the ways He can talk. Likewise it’s also important to meekly follow where He leads and provides for His glory.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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