God is still working on us

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

As Christians, we often talk about how we believe, as the Bible tells us, the footsteps of the Christian are ordered of God, usually taking as our text Psalms 37:23-25: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”

The psalmist in the verses above is telling us that the lives of those of us who are Christians are determined and established by the Lord, and the good man delights in the way of the Lord.

It tells us that even if we fall, we will not be utterly cast down - not defeated - because the Lord will strengthen us with His hand, going on to tell us that from the time of his youth to the ripe old age he had attained to at the time he wrote the psalm, he had never seen those who followed God (the righteous) forsaken, or the children of the righteous begging for food.

About this time, we throw in Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose,” and nod our heads thinking or saying to one another “Isn’t God great? He takes such good care of us in every way” and go about with joy and praise telling everyone who will listen how it’s true, until ... We get up in the morning and find ourselves running late to work, jump in the car and zzzttt the car won’t start.

Or, we happen to look down as we start to get in the car and uh-oh, a flat tire. Or, traffic is backed up for a mile and a half and is only inching along at a speed so slow it’d make a snail blush. Or __, you fill in the blank.

Suddenly, the belief that God is ordering the things that happen in our lives goes right out the window along with any peace we might have had and suddenly we become Mr. Hyde, ready to curse, swear, rain fire down from heaven on all whom we might think “deserve it.” Why? If we truly believe Psalm 37:23-25 and Romans 8:28, why such a change in character? Why do we not consider we might be missing a wreck up the road, or some other thing bad thing we may be being kept from?

At the very least, as Christians when we experience these things we should consider James 1:3: “The trying of your faith worketh patience” if we can’t handle Romans 5:3: “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience.”

Maybe there’s the problem - we really aren’t a very patient people - we want it now. Problem is, this pretty much negates our claim to believe God is in charge of everything - doesn’t it?

Good thing He’s still working on us, yes?

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Editor’s note: Charlie Newman is pastor of Avoca Christian Church. To contact him, write in care of The Times at prtnews@ nwaonline.com or P.O. Box 25, Pea Ridge, AR 72751.

Church, Pages 2 on 06/01/2011