God Speaks through the little Things

        Last Friday morning I awoke to the sound of rain crashing against my window. I got in my car to begin the 45 minute commute to work in a driving rainstorm. My windshield wipers are basically broken; and when they work they have a mind of their own rarely deciding to do what they were created for, which is make the road visible for me. So I made sure to say a quick prayer for them and myself as I left my house. Driving down the highway in the horde of everyday commuters heading to their jobs, I happened to glance down at my speedometer and noticed that I had been going a steady 60 miles per hour for almost the entire trip. I asked myself, "why that speed?" Because with the condition of my windshield wipers, headlight visibility, and the rain, 60 miles per hour was the safest, most reasonable speed for me to be going. However, I could not keep myself from thinking about how to push that limit, just one more mile per hour, just one less minute off travel time and then I would be content.

        Then I realized that we often do the vary same thing with God. We so often feel discontentment when we cannot see further down the road than is currently possible, or cannot get to our destination a moment faster. We then begin to push the gas pedal down and to increase the speed of our lives and pretty soon we have exceeded the speed that God had originally intended for us. It doesn't even have to be something bad that we are running towards; there are plenty of great things that God has given us passion to pursue.

Ephesians 2:10, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

However, when we move ahead and increase the speed without God's consent, we are doing exactly the opposite of his desire for our lives. We don't stop to think that maybe in the rainstorm of life God has limited our visibility so that we might rely on his sight and not our own. We don't stop and think that just as my windshield wipers are weak, broken, and can only handle moving so fast; we too are weak, broken human beings who cannot function correctly outside our Creator's hand. He desires that we walk in step with him, trusting in him alone to be our sustainer, guider, protector, and provider.

Why then are we so preoccupied with getting to our destination our way?

Why then are we so gung-ho in whatever we do that we forget to ask God for direction and then wait for his response?

We forget that God has a plan that he is working out and he reveals to us exactly enough to keep us following him and moving toward his destination. In Acts chapter 1, the disciples have just seen Jesus crucified, buried, resurrected, and ascend into heaven. They have gone through a virtual cornucopia of emotions and before Jesus' ascension they recieved the command in Matthew 28:18 from Jesus:

All authority in heavn and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

So here we find them in Acts 1. Can you imagine how pumped up they might be? They had gone from believing Jesus, their Savior, was dead, to seeing him resurrected and alive again. If the risen Christ showed up on your doorstep and gave you a command, I'm pretty sure we would all obey without a moment's hesitation or a second thought. However, Jesus, before he departs has one more command for them.

Acts 1:4, And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be batized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

They are told to wait, to be patient, until the Holy Spirit arrives. As we gaze and ponder our lives, one of the words we tend to fear and hate most is the word "wait." It has such a bad connotation in our culture today and leaves many of us with a bad taste in our mouths. Can you imagine what might have happen if the disciples received Jesus' first command "Go and make disciples of all nations..." and immediately ran out the door speaking to any and everyone about Jesus but with out the empowerment of the Holy Spirit" Without being "baptized with the Holy Spirit?" No doubt God would have used their efforts for the infinite glory of his name; but do you think Acts 2 would have happened? The disciples instead choose to wait for the Holy Spirit as Jesus commanded; only when they had received the "go" from God, did they leave their houses and teach the Word of God. Their waiting to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Acts 2, resulted in Pentecost, one of the greatest single moments in the history of Christianity. Thousands upon thousands of people came to know Christ on that day. Consider how amazing it would have been to take part in an event such as that, where God saves thousands in a single day; what if that had not happened because the disciples decided to fulfill God's commands their way and not His?

I would like to ask us all, what would our lives look like if we actually chose to walk in step with God?

How many things have we sought to accomplish in the name of Jesus but have not waited for his timing or blessing? Consider the successes and failures, would they have been different had we waited and trusted God?

Instead of always questioning his plan, what would your life look like if you sought God, and rested in his plan?

When I ask myself these questions, the answer I come up with is: My life would look significantly different. What about yours?

So I urge us to trust God's plan and pace for our lives and ministry. I extol us to let our feet off of the gas pedal and allow God to take us where he wills. God is sovereign and in complete control. Believe it our not, God actually knows what's going on and everything is subject to his will. Let us seek him with our whole hearts, placing our full faith in him regardless of the cost or what that may look like. I promise you, if we abandon ourselves in this pursuit, God is going to do incredible, unimaginable, amazing things in our lives!