Thursday, October 8, 2020

Orange Moon "Our Fallback Position"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

 

   "Our Fallback Position"

  

    If God were arbitrary or capricious, we might find a way to twist His Divine arm and manipulate Him into doing things in a way less than perfect.  This would please us in the short run, but greatly jeopardize us in the longterm.  Thankfully, however, our Lord is guided by His character and "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11)

 

   "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works" (Psalm 145:17).

 

    God's perfection of love means He will always do that which is best in the lives of His trusting children in Christ - according to His definition of "best."  This will often coincide with our desires as we walk with our Lord in faith and faithfulness.  "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Psalm 37:4).        Great joy ensues when God's pleasures and our own unite in holy harmony.  However, it is also true that the will of God often challenges our own sense of desire, even when our wants seem right and proper according to our understanding.  More than ten times in the Psalms, David asked the Lord "Why?" regarding certain ways and workings of God that profoundly conflicted with what David felt to be best.  The Lord was right.  David was wrong.  But it didn't look or feel that way to the man of God, just as we often must affirm our Heavenly Father's perfect understanding and way, along with our decidedly imperfect perspectives.  "His way is perfect… If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (Psalm 18:31; I Corinthians 8:2).

 

   It was said of the Lord Jesus, "He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem " (Luke 9:51).  There the will of God awaited Him on a cross, and there He perfectly obeyed His Father.  However, before Calvary, a garden in Gethsemane found our Lord sorely tempted by His Father's way.  "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me… And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Matthew 26:39; Luke 22:44).  Our Savior overcame the challenge, of course, but not before experiencing what we often feel regarding the will of God, being "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15).  Thus, our blessed Lord knows what it means to be challenged by His Father and our Father's way.  And He knows how to trust and obey, as well as leading and enabling us to do the same when our fleshly desires conflict  with God's desire.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).  

 

    A day will come when our internal conflict between spirit and flesh ends.  We look forward to that blessed time when faith and obedience will go unchallenged.  Until then, however, we must realize that although we "delight in the law of God after the inward man," our flesh will often feel anything but delight regarding our Father's way (Romans 7:22).  Our fallback position must therefore be secured in our spirits: His way is perfect.  Our understanding of His way is not.  We therefore trust His heart when we cannot understand His hand.  Upon such a foundation, we rest in Christ.  He will not disappoint us.

 

"He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded."

(I Peter 2:6)

 

Weekly Memory Verse 

     "What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee."

(Psalm 56:3)

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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