MAY GOD BE OBVIOUS!

 

Sunday, June 6, 2021

 

MAY GOD BE OBVIOUS!

 

2 Chron 16:9

9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

 

           How many times do we accuse God of hiding from us at the exact time when we need Him most? However, man was the first to hide from God in the garden. The first missed appointment was man’s and not God’s. That first breach of etiquette has created a question mark between God and man where there should be an exclamation point. Thereafter we cry out to God to make Himself “obvious.”

 

           We need God to be obvious in our troubles. If the trouble is a form of punishment, we want to know that clearly so that we might be restored. If trouble is sent to mold us, then we want to be supple and not rigid in His hands. If we are simply being used to display God’s grace, then we want to know it. Job’s complaint was that, in all his troubles, he did not know why.

 

           We need God to be obvious in his leading. Our hearts desire is always to walk by sight! When God tells Abraham to go to “a land that I will show thee,” we question our ability to follow that kind of fuzzy leading. Following God step-by-step is much more difficult than following mile-by-mile. What if He runs ahead and I am left behind? What if, in this fog, I run ahead of Him and lose my way. We need God to be obvious in his leading.

 

           We want God to be obvious in His provision. Elijah must have been anxious as he waited daily for the arrival of the ravens with another day’s rations. We do not like to pray for “daily bread.” We prefer to pray for a fat paycheck. We will then buy our own bread.

 

           There is something of the frightened child in all of us. We want God to be near. Instead, He is, by nature, invisible Spirit. We want to hold Him, but He instead has promised to hold us. How we long for that day when we will see Him face-to-face. Until then we walk along at a slow pace being careful not to lose sight of Him even though He has never lost sight of us.

 

1 John 3:2

2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

 

NOTHING BETWEEN

Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
Naught of this world’s delusive dream;
I have renounced all sinful pleasure;
Jesus is mine, there’s nothing between.

Refrain:
Nothing between my soul and my Savior,
So that His blessed face may be seen;
Nothing preventing the least of His favor;
Keep the way clear! Let nothing between.

Charles A Tindley (1905)

 

Dear Lord, like a frightened child, I want you to make yourself obvious to my soul today. AMEN