My Utmost on a Sunday Morning

Here is the link for today's My Utmost. It would be helpful to read this first.

We do not always know/understand how God is working in the world. The churches I usually go to, we tend to emphasize our action. Asking questions like, how are we bringing about the kingdom of God into this world? I know in more reformed churches (Presbyterian, some Baptist) they will emphasize God's part in changing the world. They will ask, where is God working and changing the world?

I know the biblical view is a balance of both, but this devotional for the day helped me to balance back to how God is working in the world.

When you think about it, God's plan of redemption did not come about in the way we would have accomplished it. If it was up to me, right after Adam sinned, I would have either scrapped the whole creation thing, or immediately sent Jesus to redeem the world (my impatient side comes out quickly). But God waited many many years before he sent his Son. Meanwhile people kept sinning and the world seemed to get worse.

Check out Galatians 4:3-7, part of it reads, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons"

God is powerful and working in this world. Verses like this remind me that the world is not mine to save (it is initially God's work). But he does call us to action. It is only in his call that we act, it is his will not ours that needs to be done.

So we being a part of the work of God can say, " Why shouldn’t we experience heartbreak? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son...He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, "Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine." If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?" (My Utmost 11/1)