"Unseen Actions" Part 2

"Unseen Actions"

Part 2

    On the other hand…

     While many of God's doings in our lives occur in ways and means beyond our awareness, the Christian life nevertheless involves much conscious application to God and His truth.

    "To be spiritually minded is life and peace… Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge" (Romans 8:6; Proverbs 23:12).

    The life of faith involves many choices to direct our hearts and minds Godward, in response to His heart and mind directed toward us.  Faith and faithfulness obviously do not just happen.  If this were the case, the New Testament epistles would be very different documents.  Nearly all of them contain challenges to believers, based on weakness and deviation from the Lord and His will.  Though Paul, John, Peter, James, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews, the Holy Spirit called believers to think and believe rightly, necessitating choices to respond and repent.  This required conscious engagement on the part of 1st century believers, and also of Christians throughout the centuries as the Holy Spirit applies the epistles to our hearts and lives.  "Think on these things" commanded Paul, clearly revealing the necessity of our determined awareness and concentration (Philippians 4:8).

    Much of God's behind the scenes, under the surface working in our lives actually happens because of our conscious response to Him.  The prayers of trust and dedication that occur as we walk with the Lord in His Word and with His people result in answers that are "exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20).  Certainly we see some of His working.  But we do not see all, or even most.  Again, however, our times of concentrated focus on the Lord comprise a significant factor regarding our Heavenly Father's seen and unseen actions on our behalf.  Thus, we apply ourselves to "think on these things" and to remain as spiritually awake as possible by the leading and enabling of the Holy Spirit.  Thereby we consciously experience His presence and working by faith, a significant portion of such awareness being that so much more is happening than we begin to know.  

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"

(Romans 11:33)

"One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple."

(Psalm 27:4)

Weekly Memory Verse

   For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

(Psalm 1:6)

   

"Unseen Actions"

"Unseen Actions"

    In response to the leading and enabling of the Holy Spirit, born again believers perform millions of mostly unseen actions every day that honor their Lord and bless others.

    "Thou hast wrought all our works in us" (Isaiah 26:12).

    A vibrantly active God indwells and walks in believers (II Corinthians 6:16).  As the Lord Jesus Christ declared of His own experience regarding the dynamic working of the Divine in the human, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17).  We can be grateful that the Gospels record many of the Savior's acts of love, grace, and truth.  However, even in the Lord Jesus, most of God's works were done quietly and without fanfare or Scriptural record.  Before His ministry of teaching and miracles, He lived so unremarkably - in the outward sense - that when His public life began, "neither did His brethren believe in Him" (John 7:5).  Afterwards, the Lord Jesus accomplished so much that the Apostle John supposed that "even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written" (John 21:25).  An active God indeed dwelt in the Lord Jesus, the same active God that now dwells in believers: "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).

    Again, however, most of what our Lord accomplishes in and through us happens so unobtrusively that our left hand does not know what our right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3).  When born again believers "commit thy way" unto our Heavenly Father, He faithfully works in us to motivate, direct, and enable us to fulfill the first tenets of our prayers: "Hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven" (Psalm 37:5; Matthew 6:9-10).  Such working involves things we do that may not appear to be directly spiritual or of Heavenly emphasis.  Our countenance, demeanor, attitudes, actions, and small expressions of unselfish sacrifice nevertheless shine brightly with Christ as we walk by faith and devotion to God's name, kingdom, and will.  At the Judgment Seat of Christ, where our works as believers will be evaluated, we will likely be stunned by our Father's affirmations of things He did in us and we did through Him that we never knew to be the product of His presence in our lives.  Perhaps this explains the Apostle Paul's intriguing statement regarding the Judgment Seat: "Then shall every man have praise of God" (II Corinthians 5:10; I Corinthians 4:5).

    What will the Lord do in us today as we devote ourselves to His glory and will?  We likely won't know more than a bit of His doings.  We won't know how God is working.  But we can be sure that He is working.  This is best for us as such an unseen way directs all honor to the Lord Jesus, and helps to keep us from pride and self importance.  In this day, believers will perform millions of actions that begin with our Lord, are motivated by Him, enabled by the Holy Spirit, and beneficial to the sphere of influence in which we live.  The work, however, will be done so under the surface and behind the scenes that our left hand won't even notice the activity of our right hand.  More to the point, it will not see God's hand as He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

"We walk by faith, not by sight."

(II Corinthians 7:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

   For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

(Psalm 1:6)

   

Saturday Songs - 33 - September 2nd

Friends: each Saturday this year, we are sending the lyrics and a recorded version of one of our songs.   This one is an instrumental, written for Frances's birthday, September 2, many years ago.  You'll have to make up your own words as you listen.  So I'll provide the theme: imagine the most amazing human being on the planet, someone who, like her Lord, is actually beyond imagination.  That's Frances, as those of you who know her will concur.    Happy Birthday, Beautiful!  Thanks, Glen

"September 2nd"