"The Venture and Adventure of Faith"

 

    Life brings us to impasses wherein we can do nothing about difficult circumstances or conditions, and wherein God also does not immediately answer our prayers for change.

 

    What do we do in such times?  What are we to think and believe?  The Biblical answer calls us to recognize that our Lord's inactivity and our inability means that we are accept the situation, but not with mere passive resignation.  No, if we cannot change things, and if God will not change things, it must be that He purposes to take advantage of our challenge as it exists, and then calls us to join Him in the venture and adventure of faith.  Thus we open our eyes with expectation that possibilities lie before us that could never exist if the circumstances or conditions were immediately remedied. 

 

    During one of his terms of incarceration in Rome, the Apostle Paul plundered the domain of Caesar for the Gospel's sake:

 

     "All the saints of Caesar's household salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household" (Philippians 4:22). 

 

      Clearly, Paul took advantage of his imprisonment to lead people to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, precious souls who would not have been so directly exposed to the Gospel had God delivered the Apostle from his trial.  Paul could not escape the confines of Caesar.  So, he spiritually pillaged and ravaged Caesar's household, taking advantage of the difficult circumstances in which he found himself rather than giving in to mourning and despair.

 

    The same principle applies to every difficulty in our lives from which no escape is possible.  It matters not what the particulars of the matter may involve.  The choice lies before us.  Will we accept the situation in the confidence that God has brought us to this seeming impasse for the imparting of grace possible only if we remain therein?  Or will we bemoan our difficulty and thus fail to discover glories that bless us, and more importantly, that provide opportunities for the blessing of others?  The God who causes water to spring forth from a rock, light to shine in the darkness, and tombs of death to become cradles of resurrection calls us to the venture and adventure of faith whereby our furnace becomes a venue not of incineration, but of the light and warmth of the Lord Jesus... 

 

"Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires."

(Isaiah 24:15)