God’s Quiet Work in Our Lives
By Dean Collins
Have you ever had that experience of not seeing how something is connected and then, suddenly, you do? It might be as simple as something your parents said or did that you didn’t believe, but once you got older and wiser, you figured out that they knew more than you gave them credit for knowing. Maybe it was as simple as suggesting the importance of a balanced diet when you were young and only wanted hamburgers and French fries. But now as a parent or grandparent, you have learned that you won’t stay healthy without eating something more than fast food.
Or maybe it’s the day that you found a new job or opportunity to serve in your church or in some nonprofit organization and thought it came to you out of the blue, only to discover that one or more people in your past had made a connection for you without you even asking.
What we often fail to see or remember is that the God who loves us is always moving and is answering prayers we prayed, sometimes long ago. And we never really know who and how many other prayers were offered by friends, family, and strangers on our behalf. In God’s big redemption and restoration plan, while some moments may feel stagnant, our living God is always at work.
The Screwtape Letters, a C.S. Lewis classic, offers some insight that I believe parallels some of what both Jeremiah and the wisdom of Proverbs points out, that trusting in self over God is what leads to spiritual barrenness and even makes us look foolish. However, when we stay connected to God and his grand redemptive plan for us and for all creation, we discover nourishment and flourishing.
Here are a couple of quotes from The Screwtape Letters that help us see the connections of how God is working and how the enemy of God wants to keep us from seeing and knowing God’s redemptive connections.
“It is funny how mortals always picture us [Satan and his demons] as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.”
Whenever we find ourselves as “wise in our own eyes,” we can be pretty confident that the enemy has been successful in keeping God’s wisdom from our view. Another quote from the Screwtape Letters seems relevant:
“Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead.”
Judah failed to look with gratitude to all that God had done in the past and to how their love had moved toward foreign gods over the Almighty God. This resulted in being driven by selfishness instead of love for each other. The result was the destruction of the temple and the crumbling of Jerusalem. Likewise, when we fail to approach God with gratitude, we are likely going to also forget to pass his love around to those we encounter daily. And sadly, we then discover that our selfish ambitions are what creates our fear and feed our lusts.
Reading all of scripture over and over again help us discover so many connections the Holy Spirit is making in his word and in our lives. The more we fill our minds with scripture and practice what we learn, the more we will no longer be anxious in still moments and trust that God will once again meet our needs and allow us to experience a fruitful life on this side of eternity.
Father, thank you for always moving on our behalf. Thank you for the blessings we read about in scripture and the ones which we see in our own lives as we make time to look back at all you have done for us. Today we ask you to plow the soil of our hearts and minds so that we might receive your truth today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
Jeremiah 17:5-10; Proverbs 26:12, 29:20,23 ESV
Photo by Pexels
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