Thoughts for another day

March 19, 2013.

Today's verse: 2 Tim. 4:18. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

What struck me in our Scripture above is, Paul’s thought which is, ‘The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me unto His heavenly Kingdom.’  The confidence Paul expresses isn’t common for few people have such confidence in God; In fact, most people, even famous preachers, say, ‘don’t worry, God will take care,’ but it’s only lip-service because, they’re far removed from the distressful situation and of course, there’s no harm if one speaks that way.  Quite honestly, even I’ve said this to people and though meant to encourage them, there’re times when I didn’t mean it.

The question is, why don’t we mean it? The simple answer is, because our experience with God is limited and improper.  I see people praying and after a while, stop.  When asked, they say, ‘what’s the use of praying; God doesn’t answer prayer’ and, even I’m guilty of doing the same at times.  This is akin to a situation where we pray and demand that God do what we ask or we tell Him that we will stop believing in Him.  To me or anyone else doing it, I’d like to say that it’s wrong because God is Sovereign and not obligated to either listen to or answer our prayer and we must not forget that our life breath is in His hands and it’s for Him to take our lives whenever He wants.  After all, who’re we that we question God or impose conditions on Him?

But there’s another kind of experience which I can say Paul has had.  This experience is where you really come to know the Lord.  Now anyone having this experience has his world revolving around the Lord.  Whatever He does is always with the conscious knowledge of God’s Presence.  For example, if one sees a beggar, one remembers what the Lord says and gives; if one sees a person who’s always quarrelsome, one greets that person and so on.  In all this, one is doing things not for the persons seen, but as to the Lord Himself.  The mind is so filled with the Lord that all the time, we tilt toward His will and do what we know will please Him.  And our confidence also rises as we see His hand work marvelous things in our lives for we move according to His promises and He honors every promise.  Sometimes He takes time to honor the promise, but He does honor it in time.  Eventually, like Paul, we too who have such experiences will always be confident that God will rescue us from everything and lead us into eternal life.