Wonder if We Would Matter?

For Tuesday, June 7

Wonder if We Would Matter?

1 Kings 2-3:2; Acts 5:1-42; Psalm 125:1-5; Proverbs 16:25 (click to read)

(Acts 5) 38 So I advise you to stay away from these men. Leave them alone. If what they are planning is something of their own doing, it will fail. 39 But if God is behind it, you cannot stop it anyway, unless you want to fight against God.

This statement from the leader Gamaliel seems pretty wise. Indeed, if God is "in it," it cannot be stopped by outside forces. I venture to say, however, that not everything God "is in" is successful or enduring. This might be a bit heretical, I know, but I have seen plenty of very Godly, Jesus following efforts simply not make it, and many that were not, succeed. Unlike some, I do not blame God for this. I lay this against the human heart and will. We say we want God's action in our lives, get a glimpse or vision of where this action is to lead, and then fail to let God lead it, let God change us, let God create what most happen. We default to "I imagined it, I can do it" forgetting it was His Spirit that brought the vision and His Power and Will that alone can do it. So - good advise from Gamaliel: leave us Jesus followers alone and one will be able to see if God is in it - or rather, if God is in us, transforming us, powering us, guiding us. If I want to matter, it will only happen if I let God matter to me - exclusively and totally. 

Lord, I so often start well and then loose You to depend only on me. I have so much experience that clearly shows this does not work. It is only by following, submitting and being fully changed by You that this works at all. Help me focus on You and Your Work in me and through me today.

(You can download the Pathway 2011 Bible reading list here.)