Pay Attention

Great Monday in the morning! Whoo hoo! Like a team in overtime we are back to worship God! I wonder if the widow in Zarephath ever asked Elijah if the Lord wouldn't make her feel better by keeping the barrels full instead of nearly empty? We often wonder the same thing in our faith. A Christian man looks at his old car and wonders how many more trips the Lord will see through to the end. A new car would provide a lot less worry, and the Lord could keep it running a whole lot easier, he thinks as he stops to pray one more time for a safe journey. A Christian wife looks over the family accounts and wonders how they managed to pay the bills that month. Surely the Lord could do wonderful works by keeping the account filled up with several thousand dollars, couldn't he? Throughout the Bible and in the inspirational stories we hear, the Lord seems to want to work in sudden-death overtime. The Lord provides a David with a sling after the mighty army has been shamed by the giant. The Lord provides the victory to the fellow with the sheepskin after whittling his army down to near nothing. Jesus raises Lazarus after the poor guy suffered death and began to rot. Jesus himself rose again after suffering a shameful death on the cross. Do you and I have the faith to wait for the nick of time?

When things look okay from our point of view, we want God to step up with what we are going to need. A message of comfort before the storm breaks. A nice yacht to ride out the flood instead of a hand into the life raft after we are nearly drowned. Yeah, why can't the Lord work that way? The Lord sent many prophets to Israel back in the day, and just as often they didn't want to hear what the Lord had to say before the storm broke. Noah did have a big ship to ride out the flood, but the Lord had him build it first...with hand tools, in a land that had never seen rain much less a flood. Noah also had to share the ship with a bunch of animals, some of which he had probably never seen before. "What do you suppose those two things eat, Shem?"

Storms may break on us without warning. We need God to send the life raft and a lifeguard too. Other storms may have plenty of warning. We might want to take a second look at the blueprints God has given us and get to building that ark. We don't always speak our gratitude when the times are good and realize that God is working when the barrel is full. As the barrel gets down to the last few crumbs, suddenly we start to pray once more. God doesn't need our attention; we need to pay attention to God.

Have a great new week in Christ Jesus!
Bucky