Ah, the first Friday in August...I'm really reaching for something here, but it ain't coming. August is the month with no holidays on board, except maybe for the start of school in some areas of the nation, and that is sort of an anti-holiday. It's mid-summer as the seasons go, but the end of summer regarding children's freedom. August needs a holiday of some sort. I know, we can celebrate the pumpkin takeover of the world! Let's get serious here.
Decision time, a time we struggle with because faith does not provide marching orders. Our destination is kind of out there. We believe God reigns in Heaven, but we cannot point to it on a map. Our time of arrival is a bit vague, will I live one hundred years or just eighty? The method seems concrete, believe in Jesus and receive His mercy and grace, but we tend to complicate it with altars, ways, works, debates, times, do's and don't's, questions and answers, and your theology vs. my theology. We don't get a gauge on our hearts to measure spiritual fullness, and we lack a spiritual radiation badge to warn us of impending doom. But, in every decision faith promises a guidance from the Lord.
In His word is wisdom for our decision. Can't find it or don't understand it? Faith also promises understanding for the asking. We may have to search and ask more than once, but help will come. We like to provide God with false choices. That is we pray that God will direct us to the left or to the right on a road that ends in a 3-way fork. The narrow, straight way off the boulevard may be God's choice, but we leave that one out because it looks too hard. We look for the band playing and the flashing arrow pointing, but God may speak in a very small voice that requires a quiet time to hear. Somehow, you and I will know when we have made the right decision.
Faith does not promise a giant 'You did it!' card falling from the sky. Yet, if Jesus is with us at all times as He promised, then I cannot believe that He is a silent partner. We will receive help with the decisions of this life, but perhaps not always the same for you as for me. Your help may be in the form of a Bible open to a particular verse at a time when you remember leaving it closed on the table. My help may be a voice in my spirit in answer to much prayer and supplication. Believe it or don't, what we feel is right may be the way to go too. An intuition that defies a rational explanation is not necessarily the wrong way to choose. I may not be able to explain why I chose the way I did, but faith reminds me that Jesus is with me all the way. Of course, if my feeling is based on a hoped-for pile of loot sitting down that path over yonder, then I might not be listening to the Spirit, but to my carnal desire. Faith doesn't promise that a point of decision in this life is going to be easy. Faith does promise that if we seek God and listen for His voice we will not be left alone in the decision. Wise counselors who have struggled with the same decision, God's word, and the Holy Spirit all stand ready to help us. Jesus said that He would be with us always because He knew that lost sheep have a hard time making a decision.
Praise God for His glorious Way,Bucky
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