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 you to simply seek the Lord for your answers, but oftentimes that means entering into a very nebulous 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 vague shapes in a misty landscape.
The Lord does want me to do the right thing, doesn’t He? Why doesn’t He 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, He didn’t say it is to those who try, but to those who overcome that will eat of the Tree of Life. (Rev. 2:7) It really strikes at the heart of our willingness to carry the Cross.
Sometimes it is 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 would not seem as big of a deal anymore. 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 is 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 we need a determination to resist the comforts that our flesh pulls us 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)
[Excerpt from “Revival in the Wings”, volume 4 of A Voice in the Wilderness]
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