There is a story of a prophet and the enemy surrounding the city in 2 Kings 6:15 “When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now the young man cried to Elisha.”
There will be times in our lives when we will not see God at work, we see only what is clearly in front of us. Many times, my prayers have been, “God, why do I not see you working, why do my prayers go unanswered and not acknowledged.“
I realize that most of the time, my observation sees only the reality of my circumstance, and cannot observe what God is doing behind the scenes as in the case of Elisha. It takes faith to observe God’s movements, and believe He is always working on my behalf. Now, the oddity of that last statement must be found in how God is working. Too often the difficulty of a circumstance may not be our idea of how God should be working, but God uses all circumstances to help us grow and test our resilience to stay true to His will in my life.
In the greatest struggles in my life, I could never see God working, in fact, I accused Him of abandoning me. I think the worst part of my struggle wasn’t the struggle at all, it was the lack of what I perceived as God’s silence during my pain. Why God are you not responding to my requests, can’t you see I need your help? Silence. Yet, if I was perceptive at the time of my prayer to God, I would be able to see what Elisha saw, God was behind the scenes providing an outcome that would be best for me.
I have learned that even if the outcome of my struggle was the loss of something, it proved to be a loss I was needing to forego. For example: the loss of a friendship was necessary because of the toxicity of and one sidedness of that friend. Sometimes it is important to move on from people or circumstances that are harmful to you. The loss of a dream may be painful at first, but the dream may not be healthy for you to obtain. People have often desired something only to realize it was not what they really wanted after all. I think back when my wife and were trying to buy our first home. We found one but we could not scrape up the 20% down that we need to purchase it so we lost it. In hindsight, it was for the best, because we eventually bought the perfect home for our family, and we were able to afford it. My point … God is always a work, even when we don’t observe Him in doing so.
My observation about God’s active and silent modes is this, “In God’s activity He is working on our behalf. In God’s silence, He is working on my behalf.” So, whether we observe God’s active role in something or experience His silence, “He is always at work on our behalf.”
Usually we understand observation by what we see, but can it also be what we don’t see? Elisha saw and observed what was not evident to most, He saw clearly that God was at work. My hope for you is that in seasons of personal struggle you will be able to observe the unseen work God is doing behind the scenes.
Challenging the Culture with Truth … Larry Kutzler
Comentários