The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Fallback"
When God works in a way we cannot understand, we do well to fall back on the things we do know, or as Luke termed them, "the things which are most surely believed among us" (Luke 1:1).
What are these truths? Space does not permit mentioning more than a few, but several Biblical certainties do shine with particularly brilliant illumination. First, "as for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31). Our Heavenly Father does nothing that is not the best it can possibly be. Perfect knowledge, understanding, and wisdom guides His every action. Thus, the things He directly determines or the things He allows all flow with the current of His ultimate purposes and His sublime ability whereby "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28). Indeed, God's way is not only good. Nor is it simply very good. "His way is perfect."
His intentions are also perfect. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" (Jeremiah 29:11). God's perfect character and nature of holy and righteous love guides everything He does. "Thou art good and doest good" (Psalm 119:68). Our Lord desires the best for us, and always acts accordingly. Of course, He often defines "our best" much differently than do we ourselves. "Thou hast shown Thy people hard things" said the Psalmist, a plaintive cry echoed at times by every believer (Psalm 60:3). We therefore do well to often affirm the fount of motivation from which both blessings and "hard things" proceed, namely, the perfect intentions of love from the God who is evermore "for us" (Romans 8:31).
Finally, we remember that we are not the center of God's universe. He works first and foremost to glorify and reveal His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, "that in all things He might have the preeminence" (Colossians 1:18). This is difficult truth for our flesh, which longs for a prominence with God only the Lord Jesus can have. Our spiritual enemies tempt us to focus on ourselves and our needs and desires, as opposed to our Father working to fulfill His "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11). However, the more we come to know God and His truth, the more our hearts experience peace as we realize His primary determinations and allowances involve not ourselves, but Christ. This helps deliver us from the unholy trinity of "I, me, and my" that leads to a self-centered darkness rather than the bright light of loving devotion to God and others.
Many other "most surely believed" truths help us when our Heavenly Father works in ways strange to our understanding. We fall back on these, and find our hearts kept in peace when our minds are bewildered. Indeed, when we find ourselves in a maze of what we don't know, we remember what we do know as the light that leads us through.
"Let Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth continually preserve me."
(Psalm 40:11)
Weekly Memory Verse
As for God, His way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him.
(Psalm 18:30)
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