Should, still, by now – three dangerous phrases that need to be retired from our vocabulary according to “Prodigal Jon” on his insightful blog.
These words, he says, have the power to “subtly choke the joy from your faith.” He’s right – if we let them. As soon as I first read those words, I felt my face burning. I had recently posted my bio on this site, and I had used those exact phrases in my introduction! Doh! I kind of wrote them in jest, and I followed them up with awe for my Lord, and yet there is a degree of secret shame there. Shows how much I know!
Actually, it makes perfect sense that there are still some lessons that I should learn. According to Scripture, God’s ways, His wondrous works, and His wisdom are all “unfathomable.”
But if nothing else, by now, I should have realized that God is one for second chances. And thirds. Even fourths! Didn’t Jesus say we should forgive each other seventy-times-seven times (x)?! We are repeatedly encouraged to persevere in doing good (x).
The wandering Israelites lost their focus many times – even though the Lord accompanied them at all times as a visible pillar of cloud or fire (x). The disciples often let Jesus down – even though they were his friends, and they had performed miracles through his power. These people knew God’s faithfulness personally, but they nevertheless doubted and betrayed him. But God still loved them! He had chosen them, despite their positions and dispositions, and they had responded to his call.
God is outside of the time dimension. Time means nothing to him. If he seems slow, it is for two reasons: he is completing the good work he began in you (x), and he is waiting for everyone else to turn to him (x).
God explained this himself in a threat against the Egyptian Pharaoh (x): “For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have spared you for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
I admit I have legalist tendencies, but I am overcoming them through a deepening understanding and acceptance of God’s grace. As God demonstrates his love for us through Christ’s death (x), so we demonstrate our love through obedience (x).
In theory, I am not compelled by the law or by what I should do, but the natural outpouring of the Spirit’s work in my life. May it be so.
