Psalm 23:4--Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
On my last blog, I talked about the 'path of righteousness' that God leads us on. As we listen to the voice of the Shepherd, sometimes some crazy stuff can happen. I head Dr. Charles Stanley teach it this way. The things that look unreasonable to man are VERY reasonable to God. While praying about the blog this morning, this is the way God placed it into my spirit.
God, who loves me more than I can understand, has a plan for me greater than I can imagine, that will bring more glory to His name than I could ever do myself. The highest form of praise that we could give to God is to, gracefully, walk with HIM through this valley until HE works out his purpose in us.
Look at Joseph. It seemed totally unreasonable for a righteous God to allow his jealous older brothers to sell him to the Midianites and tell his father that he had been killed. Yet, when Joseph became a slave to Potiphar, he worked with the grace of God in his life and was promoted. It seemed totally unreasonable for God to let Potiphar's wife lie about him and have him thrown in jail. But, Joseph worked with the grace of God in his life and people took notice. You know the story. In one day, Joseph was promoted, by God's divine providence, to the second most powerful (and richest) man in all of Egypt. Joseph could have NEVER brown-nosed his way into a promotion like that. In Gen 50:20, he explained it to his brothers like this--But as for you, ye thought evil against me; [but] God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as [it is] this day, to save much people alive. All through those unreasonable years, God had a higher plan. Even though Joseph could not see it, he went through that valley of the shadow of death, hand in hand with the Jehovah Jireh, the Great Provider. God worked the unreasonable things he went through into a great blessing to his family. God's plan was the reasonable thing to do after all.
Look at Lazarus. It seemed unreasonable for Jesus to stay where He was for a couple of days while his best friend was dying. Mary and Martha were going through an extremely rough time and it SEEMED like Jesus didn't care as much as He said that He did. However, when He did show up, He got right down to business and showed to the doubting, jeering crowd that He was the Resurrection and the Life. Tears turned into shouts of joy and praise. Doubts were replaced by faith. Because of a plan greater than he could imagine, Lazarus was able to reach a lot of his friends that he would have never been able to reach had he remained alive and well. As a matter of fact, he turned so many Jews to Jesus, that the religious idiots, oh, excuse me, 'rulers' of the day looked for ways to kill him, too. I say, come on, Jesus, come on. Whatever plan you have for me, let's get on with it. An unbridled outpouring of His salvation presence is worth the wait.
I don't have room, but think about what Jesus and the apostle Paul went through. It seems unreasonable that good and Godly men who went about doing good should have to be put through what they went through. However, God, who is smarter than we are, knew that the best way to reach millions of people was to bring them THROUGH the valley of the shadow of death. They knew to 'fear no evil.' Why, because they knew that God had something greater than their circumstances on His mind. That was the 'comfort' they walked in. God was still on His throne. When it looked like everything was getting out of hand, God showed that everything was working out the way He planned it.
God is always taking his faithful people somewhere. We're not just wandering around in the valley of the shadow of death. There IS a plan and a purpose for what we are going through.. It is greater that anything we can imagine. And, it will take us to places in God that we could never get to ourselves. Again, the highest form of praise that we could give to God is to, gracefully, walk with HIM through this valley until HE works out HIS purpose in us. Most important of all. There are souls at stake. Please, let's don't quit in the middle of the valley. Keep praising on, my friend. If you enjoyed this. Pass it on.
No comments:
Post a Comment