He Requires The Hard Things

While his disciples were plotting revenge, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. Peter saw tragedy; Jesus saw glory. The "sons of thunder" saw offense; Jesus saw God’s perfect plan unfolding.

Today while I was talking to the Lord about some difficult things, He whispered this: “I don’t just use what the enemy means for evil… I require it.”

That really threw me for a loop and yet, when I considered all of the saints, from Abe to John on the island of Patmos-it rang true. I think that problems arise when we expect God's goodness to appear good to our human understanding. This problem is seen clearly in the way that Jesus had to rebuke his disciples for unknowingly interfering with God’s will. One of the most famous examples, of course, was when Jesus rebuked Peter for suggesting that Jesus shouldn't have to die.

“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:23

We are living in a "kairos" moment, and daily we are inundated with temptations that place us at cross-purposes with what God is doing. Every single day I am challenged to submit to the will of the Father so that the "concerns of man" don't create a stumbling block to His way of doing things.

I mean well, I really do. But maybe that is part of the problem. Peter meant well too. His words were motivated by human love and affection, yet Jesus perceived a dark force working behind them to actually stop the plan of God!

Similarly, Jesus rebuked James and John after they came up with the cockamamie idea of calling down fire from heaven on the Samaritans. The Samaritan’s actions were very, very offensive to James and John. How dare they refuse to help out the Master? Let’s smoke ‘em Jesus! But Jesus had other plans, and it seems that the Samaritan’s refusal to help out was a significant part of God's plan.

To be sure, it was not a plan than any one of us would have celebrated, for it was the plan to offer up His innocent, beautiful, meek life for an ungrateful world that hated and despised him. God is always motivated by agape love, something that we really don't understand too well.

“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:54

While his disciples were plotting revenge, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. Peter saw tragedy; Jesus saw glory. The "sons of thunder" saw offense; Jesus saw God’s perfect plan unfolding.

In Genesis, we don't even get four verses into the narrative of God moving and speaking to see that His actions always lead to good. Good means "beautiful, pleasant, agreeable" in the original Hebrew. It's the good tree that we were meant to eat of all the days of our lives! God told them to never, ever eat from that tree of evil, which means suffering and affliction. If the narrative of God's creation is a commentary on His ways, the tree of evil is a commentary on ours. But when God moves, it is good even when I don't understand it because my mind is muddled by that evil tree.

Like the disciples, I regularly need to hear His loving rebuke and to discern His will so that I can yield to His good and beautiful ways. What looks like an offense or a tragedy to me is often the very thing that God is using to bring forth His greatest good.

All of this is too high for me. I cannot attain unto it! But God is MY strength. (I find it interesting how some religious teachers say it's not about you. Really? Tell that to David. Count how many times he says MY in Psalm 18 just for starters).

But I digress. I love what Smith Wigglesworth says, "God can only use your helplessness." Paul said it best; when I am weak, He is strong.

1 Peter 5: 7-11

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and sober minded. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers through the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever, Amen.”

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