The Bigger Picture

Oh what a patient, merciful and loving God we serve! I don’t know about you, but I am SO glad that HE is God and I am not!  Although there are times when I have tried to maneuver or take charge of situations I have no business taking charge of.  I think those are times when God wants us to allow Him to be God…  You know the moments I’m talking about?  The times when you are having a “Job experience”  and there you are sitting with your head in your hands, no solution to whatever the situation coming to mind.  You’ve done everything you can and still the problem exists.

The Bible is God’s living Word; the same today as it was yesterday as it will be tomorrow. (Hebrews 13:8)
One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and satan also came with them. The LORD said to satan, “Where have you come from?” satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.” Then the LORD said to satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”  Does Job fear God for nothing?” satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The LORD said to satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then satan went out from the presence of the LORD. (Job 1: 6-12).

Perhaps these Job moments that we sometimes experience within our own walk occur so that we can learn to trust God more.  Occur so that we can realize that there are some situations that we simply cannot handle, figure out nor are we supposed to.  What are you doing when you experience a “Job-like” moment?  I know that for me, I look at the problem from all sides and try to figure out the best answer – and fail.  I fail because the problem is too big for me to carry.  It was not meant for me to carry the weight of it.  I fail because I look at the problem with a worldly point of view and all the time God is waiting, saying, “Kelly – give that to me.  Come on.  I’ve allowed that to come in to your life so that you can turn to me and say, ‘Father, what should I do?”  Sometimes the problem occurs not because it has anything to do with my own walk with the Lord – but maybe it will affect that of my children?

Have you ever seen your child try to pick up something that is too heavy for them to carry? They try and try and try and then get frustrated.  They can’t do it – sometimes it’s bigger than their little body and after a while of trying unsuccessfully, they sit there and cry.

The world and “worldly” point of view is all around us.  Often we forget that there is also a spiritual realm all around us.  We look at things with our “worldly” eyes and not our spiritual ones.   We need to change our point of view.  When the world says, “there is no solution to this situation.  YOU have hit rock bottom.”  We need to respond with the promises we have been given and we need to believe them.

Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
² from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
³ for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy. (Psalms 61)

Trust in the Lord with all our hearts, lean not to our own understanding.  In all our ways acknowledge Him and HE will make straight our path. (Psalms 3:5-6)

Note that it says HE will make straight our path – not WE - HE.  There are certain things which only God can do, because He is God.  So often when we find ourselves in a Job situation we take our eyes off God and panic.  We try to put a band aid on a wound that needs stitches.  Maybe during those times God is watching us, seeing how we will respond.  Will we do as Job’s wife told him he should do?

“Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9)

Or do we give God the situation because He also tells us:

“Take my yoke upon you, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.” (Matthew 11:30)

Are you nodding your head in agreement as you read these words? Is the Holy Spirit filling you with  “the peace that passes all understanding.” Because our God is not a God that He would lie.  How will you respond to what “Job moments” come in to your life?

I am thinking of the salmon that swim upstream to lay their eggs.  They fight the current of the water with just one focus on their mind – to lay those eggs.  What seems like an impossible journey is one that doesn’t even cross their mind – they simply do it.  Their focus is their destination, even though the close of their journey means the end of their lives.  Yet – out of their own end comes the eggs of future generations of salmon that will again and again make that same journey of those that came before them.

Trust Him – even when everything IN you does not see an answer.

Give it to Him and watch what God does. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith and He wants us to trust in Him.  We need to focus on the solution and not the problem and sometimes the only solution is God. And here is the thing – if you think back to other “Job” moments in your life you can see how God brought you through.  What you learned, how you grew and what you were able to pay it forward to someone else in the future who is experiencing the same things YOU experienced.  How can we help others if we don’t know firsthand how to get through a situation?  Sometimes the hardest thing is to think back to how God helped us – but this is why we go through things.  We are dependent upon God, and there is no shame in that – the shame is when we refuse to see that we are and choose not to believe that we have a God who is merciful, loving, forgiving  and who WANTS to be there for us.  If you don’t recognize that, you can’t give those oh so cumbersome “Job” situations to Him to carry.  He is there, He cares and even better than that – He sees the FULL picture of you.  It is hard to adjust to seeing things spiritually instead of worldly it takes practice – when the World says, “There is no way.” God says:

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.  No man comes to the Father but by ME.” (John 14:6)

Is not the Creator of this world able to take your itsy bitsy little problem (compared to the enormity of Him) and work out a solution?  I am sure that that “big” problem is small potatoes to God.  We have only to go before Him, talk to Him about it and see what God will do.  What only God CAN do.