Dear
Friends,
I
read today a devotion that cited the passage above, and wanted to take the
thought and share with the group here.
When
my children were growing up, like any other children they liked testing their
limits, aka ‘exploring’ to a little child. The whole sensory thing – touching,
seeing, tasting, hearing, etc. – is a vital part of a young child’s growth.
However, as a parent, I knew that there were things that the children should
not experience – things that could prove harmful (even back then there was
a movement to give children free rein of their lives – to be ‘free range
children,’ which I did not subscribe to!). Harmful things like going under the
sink where cleaning products were kept. Touching the stove or fiddling with the
knobs. Playing too close to the stairs. And for loving parents the list goes
on. I recall only once when I had to truly demonstrate to my children the
consequences of a hot stove, which lesson proved beneficial because they never
fiddled with a stove again until they were old enough to safely cook – that is
another story! I placed physical barriers to certain areas of our home – like
guardrails – that were designed as warnings and security tools to keep the
children from danger and the very unpleasant consequences of fiddling with things
that could damage them. As a parent, being the ‘police’ was exhausting, was not
fun, nor was it always a popular thing to do; however, because I love my
children, I knew I had to do those things to ensure their safety and protect
their lives.
Why,
then, do we sometimes expect God to be any different from a loving parent, or
would even want Him to be? After all, He is the one who created the capacity
for parenthood, and provided the template and instructions. As a loving Parent,
He’s not just a provider. Our Father Who Art in Heaven knows all
things about us – He can see from the beginning to end and beyond in
our lives. He knows every millisecond about us. He knows our
needs better than our own human parents. He knows what will make a mess
of our lives, what decisions will have never-ending consequences, what impact
the things we see and hear will have on us, what impact the people we hang
around will have on us, and even knows the number of hairs on our head that we
will ever have in this life. (see also Psalm
103:8-19; Psalm
121:8 in conjunction with Deuteronomy
6:24-25 and Jeremiah
29:11-13; Isaiah
55:6-11; Matthew
10:29-31) He has given us the Handbook for Successful Living for
this life and beyond. This Handbook, God’s Word the Bible, sets
forth guardrails for our success and protection, and like toddlers, we
sometimes try to get over them, stamp our feet in defiance, or have a tantrum
because we think those guardrails are preventing us from enjoying something
good or fun, or popular. When we ignore those guardrails, those protections and
guides that God Who Knows All Things has put in place for us – His children – we
get into trouble; unfortunately, some of the consequences can last a
lifetime, or result in irreparable harm or even death. (compare Galatians
6:7-10)
Please
know that when I speak about these things, I’m not talking from a viewpoint of
a Pollyanna
or as someone just repeating what I have heard. I have seen the ‘back
alleys’, and I know the consequences of going against God’s successful
way – and please believe me when I say, as the Galatians universal warning
above states, the resulting consequences of going against God is no
respecter of persons. That is, yes – if you choose to not follow God’s
provisions for a successful life, you will have consequences. There are
no Teflon people or exceptions to the Galatians rule – none! And I repeat – there
are no exceptions. Not even for ‘smart’ persons, church-going persons, or
really nice persons. God illustrates that over and over again in His Word as a
warning for us. Even His most devoted servant and child David – the same
David who believed God and slew the giant, proved that rule to be true: when
David chose a course of behavior that rebelled against God’s successful guide
for his life – i.e., he ignored, did not find applicable to him – God’s
successful guide for sex, David suffered irreparable and devastating damage
affecting his family, and his kingdom that he never fully recovered from. Even
though God forgave David of his rebellion, David still had to face the very sad
consequences of his bad choices; the universal rule did not skip over him. So
please, take God’s provisions at Psalm 119 above (and the other scriptures) as
His expression of His love for you, instead of something
depriving us of fun, or denying us of something that we think feels good, looks
good, and that we cannot do without.
Oh,
what a sad day it is when a person looks back on his or her life and knows that
rebelling against God resulted in a life-long difficulty – one that God had
wished for us to avoid, and one that grieved Him because He knew the
pain and complications we would face. The God Who Sees All Things knew the path
our choice would take us – one that caused us great heartache and difficulty.
But what rejoicing to know that God forgives us through the blood of Christ,
and that because He is the All Powerful God He can use the painful consequence
of our bad choice and thoughts, when you and I have repented, to bring about
something good! (compare Romans
8:28-39) [Because the Bible is written for each of us, one way to ‘get it’
is by adding our name in place of the first-person pronoun or where the text is
being directed generically to a person or persons.]
May
“all these blessings come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your
God…”; “the Lord bless you, and keep you; the
Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His
countenance on you, and give you peace.” (Deuteronomy 28:2; Numbers 6:24-26) –
hugs. ms jo
