“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor
of kings is to search out a matter.” Proverbs 25:2
Everybody
has those times when you just don’t know what to do.
It’s
easy for someone to just tell us to simply seek the Lord for your answers, but
oftentimes that means entering into a very misty arena where there are few
clear-cut signposts to show you the way.
You
want an answer? Oh, well praise the
Lord! Just pray! Sounds so simple,
doesn’t it? But you and I both know it
isn’t always that simple.
Sometimes
the right answers are elusive and are found hiding behind shadowy rocks and
nebulous shapes in a misty landscape.
“He does want me to do the right thing, doesn’t He? Why doesn’t the Lord make things more obvious? Can’t He just tell me what I’m supposed to do and leave it at that? Wouldn’t that make things so much simpler?”
Well,
yes and no.
Sometimes
He just wants to see how much you really want that answer and how many
obstacles you are willing to overcome to get it. Remember now, it is not to those who try,
but to those who overcome that will eat of the Tree of Life. It really strikes at the heart of our
willingness to carry the Cross.
Sometimes
it’s just a matter of getting us to realize how much we need Him. If everything were easy, there would be no
reason to seek His face. After a while,
the price that was paid on the Cross wouldn’t seem as big of a deal
anymore. Why, we could just snap our
fingers and God would spring into action!
God loves us, doesn’t He?
Everyone would like a Gospel without a
Cross -- that’s why there are so many Prosperity preachers out there – but
there is no such Gospel. We are thrust
into a war where the combatants are invisible, our choice of paths are often
dictated by desires instead of sight, and the ultimate ends for our souls can
only be taken by faith.
To negotiate the way before us
requires a determination to resist the obvious comforts that our flesh pulls us
toward, and reach through to the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen, fueled by the hope of righteousness above all things.
That’s tough sometimes. And that’s why the Lord puts us through those
dark valleys that we must go through.
No, I don’t like it either. But you know what? Above all things, I want to go to Heaven.
Enter ye in at the
strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to
destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate,
and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matt. 7:13,14