Scripture
Our verse for today comes from Acts 13:41, “Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.”
Background
I love those scenes in movies when the hero is in peril, usually tied up or locked away somewhere, and he proceeds to tell his captors exactly what he is going to do to escape. Generally there are several full-size, well-armed ruffians standing guard over our lone, helpless, braggadocious sap, and they believe not a word of what he says. But, much to their chagrin, the sap turns out to be super, and he ends up carrying out his announced plan as advertised, leaving them in a pile as he escapes free and clear. I’m afraid that throughout history, and no less so in our present day, man has viewed God as the limp, big-talking phony, who claims to be all that, even while being powerless and silent, if even existent, in the world in which might man divides and conquers.
With no smartphone videos to document God’s predictions, promises, and warnings, and no way to prove much of what is at stake, God’s words and their fulfillment carry about as much weight as the lunatic in a straightjacket who claims to be Him. In addition, even we believers might be having a difficult time accepting that God is in fact doing a work in our days, with the rampant decay and demise of our society and the elimination of much of what we hold as important and meaningful.
Application
But we must remind ourselves that we are not His judge, assessing whether He is who He says He is, doing things as we think He should. Our role is to believe what He has told us and do the work that He has given us. The more dire the straits cannot turn us into whimpering victims who wonder where God is and why He is not doing what we think needs doing. Nor should we just hole up and rest in the promise that God wins in the end.
Rather, God is meant to be loved, to be sought, to reason with and learn of. We are most called to know and follow Him, for our only hope of eternal bliss is that, when the time comes, He knows us. So, scoff no more, and doubt even less. It might seem random and full of chaos, but this day was made by God, and He will do His work while the time is at hand. You can surely believe that.
Charge
As we seek Him today, see God more for how your relationship is with Him and less for what He’s not doing or who He’s not punishing.
