| The Lord of the Inconvenient |
Has God ever inconvenienced you? |
by David A. DePra |
| I thought I'd never sell the mobile home. For 4 years it was up |
| for sale and no offers. No offers? Not even one person came to |
| look at it! Finally, someone did. And they wanted to buy it. I was |
| excited -- until I heard the offer. And then my excitement |
| evaporated. What they offered wasn't even close to what I owed |
| on it. |
| I was given much advice. "You might as well take the loss," one |
| person said. "It is clear that it is the best offer you will get." But I |
| couldn't do it. I don't think it was the money, either. It was just |
| that everytime, before God, in prayer, that I considered taking the |
| offer, I had this sick feeling. I couldn't explain it, but I simply had |
| no freedom to take the offer. |
| Time passed and finally another person came to look at the |
| mobile home. He wanted it. And his offer was more than I owed |
| on it! At last. We could move. |
| There was a reason we had to move. It was called, "outgrowing |
| your home." We had a new baby, less than a week old. And two |
| other grade-school children. And only one bedroom for all three |
| of them. And that bedroom would probably fit inside of some |
| people's bathroom. There wasn't even room for another bed in |
| that bedroom. |
| But now God had brought a buyer. And right on time. Exactly |
| when we needed to move. |
| Isn't it amazing how God always waits until the last minute? In |
| fact, until things started to loosen up, there wasn't the slightest |
| hint that the place would ever sell. The market for mobile homes |
| was bad. But I just kept saying, "I don't need many possibilities. I |
| just need one. And God is able to send that one person to me." |
| Finally, He did. |
| Excitement quickly turned to panic, however. I found out that to |
| close the deal on a mobile home doesn't take any where near as |
| long as it does for a house. Where I live, a house usually takes at |
| least one month -- usually 6 to 8 weeks. But with this mobile |
| home, I was told that I had to be OUT in 2 weeks. I had not even |
| started looking for a place to which we could move. |
| In the area I live, houses for rent are NOT plentiful. Especially |
| one you would need for a family of five. On any given day, you are |
| fortunate if you can find a newspaper ad for 1 or 2 possibilities for |
| a family. And there was another problem -- and it turned out to |
| be a big one. We owned a dog -- a big dog. A golden retriever. |
| Of the few houses that we thought we could rent, none of them |
| accepted pets. "No pets allowed" concluded almost every ad in |
| the paper. |
| On top of all of that, I had another problem. Not only did I have |
| to be out of my mobile home in two weeks, but during that time I |
| had to do all the packing and all the moving. The packing was the |
| easy part. My wife could help with much of it. But the moving had |
| to be done mostly by me. And I had no help. There was no one |
| available. So it was going to take me at least two weekends. It |
| was going to take the entire time I had left. And I had to start |
| moving NOW. |
| This was fine. But how do you start moving NOW when you |
| don't have any place to go? Where do you start moving your |
| stuff? |
| I had to have contingency plans. Afterall, it was entirely |
| possible that I would not find a place to move in time. Perhaps |
| God would allow that inconvience. Such an inconvience seemed |
| to be a waste to me, but how could I know what God had in mind, |
| and why? So I rented a storage area and began moving all of our |
| stuff there. One week of the two had already passed. I was down |
| to only one week left. |
| Of course we couldn't LIVE in the storage shed. So I figured |
| that we would go to a motel until God got us a place. Again, that |
| seemed like such a waste of money. But the fact was, God had |
| not opened up a place to which we could move. And time was |
| ticking. |
| I prayed. I prayed hard. But I wasn't getting any specific |
| answers. So I knew that I needed to believe God was leading me, |
| and within the bounds of obedience and common sense, do the |
| next thing which I felt I had to do. |
| At last, 5 days before we had to be out, we found out about a |
| townhouse which was available. The people who lived there had a |
| lease, but wanted to move out. They needed to find someone to |
| replace them as tenants. And here we were, more than willing. It |
| was a nice place. But in the conversation, I found out two things. |
| First, to move in, I had to sign a two-year lease. And secondly, |
| pets were out of the question. We would have to get rid of our |
| dog. |
| The two-year lease wasn't what I had in mind. But maybe it |
| was what God wanted. I was willing to tie myself down there for |
| two years. The "no pets" rule, however, was another matter. |
| Despite the fact that I am not overly fond of dogs, this did not set |
| well in my spirit. In fact, once again I had this terrible heaviness |
| about the whole thing. The more I prayed, the worse it got. |
| So here I was. It was Wednesday and we had to be out by the |
| next Monday morning. I was in the middle of moving all my stuff |
| to a storage area. I had no leads at all as to where I was going to |
| move my family except this one. And no matter how much I tried |
| to feel right about it, I couldn't. I felt like moving there was going |
| to be a big mistake. |
| One Step at a Time |
| Have you ever been in a situation like this one? You MUST |
| hear from God. But He isn't saying anything. And because of |
| that, you begin to think you are crazy. Or you begin to wonder |
| what you are doing wrong, such that God is silent. Fortunately, in |
| the midst of this mess, I began to realize that I HAD heard from |
| God. No, He had not mapped out the end of the matter for me. |
| But He had at least made it clear to me what the next step was |
| NOT. And I had to go with that: I turned down the townhouse. |
| None of this, of course, came to me with signs and wonders. |
| No. It was very much a step in the dark. I believed I knew what |
| God wanted, but as most of us know, there is always a nagging |
| "What if I heard God wrong?" in the back of our minds. But this |
| was not a situation I could linger over. I had to decide that day, |
| and did. We were back to having nowhere to go. |
| Too often we expect that when God is leading us that we are |
| going to be SO sure about where He is leading that there will be |
| no temptation to fear or doubt. But this is rarely so. That's |
| because when God is leading He usually doesn't tell us WHERE |
| we are going. He just says, "Trust ME to know." |
| As Friday dawned, I began to wonder about a couple of things. |
| In two days, I was going to be living in a motel with my family, with |
| all of our belongings in a storage area. Why had this happened? |
| Had I passed up the one place God had opened? If God were |
| leading me, how could things be in such disarray? Even if I now |
| found a place, I was going to have to once again move all my stuff |
| from the storage area to that place. Do things work this way when |
| God is leading? Why all the hassle? |
| Faith |
| Something began to dawn on me. It was something I already |
| knew, but which was now coming to me in a fresh way. I began to |
| realize that my focus had been wrong. My focus had been on |
| trying to DO the right thing -- so things would work out. God's |
| focus, however, was otherwise. His focus was on whether I |
| trusted Him. Period. WHAT I was doing, in the mind of God, was |
| completely secondary to whether I was doing it in faith. |
| This principle is fundamental to the Christian walk. WHAT we |
| do is important. But WHY we are doing it is essential. |
| Note the distinction. God tells us that "whatever is not of faith is |
| sin." (Rom. 10:17) This is because whatever is not of faith is |
| usually born out of self-will. It is motivated by us wanting our own |
| way. Thus, anything I do -- even if it looks right -- is tainted by |
| the motivation of self-will. It is actually SIN. But if I am walking by |
| faith -- unconditional surrender to God -- then I want GOD'S |
| will. Thus, what I DO -- howbeit imperfect -- is nevertheless |
| under the right motive. It is "of faith." And God will honor it. |
| This really made things simple for me. It meant that it didn't |
| matter whether I had done everything right. It didn't even matter if |
| I heard God perfectly. Indeed, I began to see that nothing |
| depended on me at all. As long as I trusted God, it all depended |
| on Him. He would bring to pass HIS will despite my imperfections. |
| All I needed to do was keep surrendered to Him. What I didn't |
| know was then HIS responsibility. |
| Mistakes |
| Some Christian teaching has suggested that if you are |
| surrendered to God you CANNOT make mistakes of discernment. |
| But this is not the Truth. Indeed, if you surrender to God, He may |
| allow you to make many mistakes of discernment. Why? So that |
| you may be set free from what caused your mistake! In other |
| words, if you walk by faith, and surrender to God, you will find the |
| Truth. It's just that in order to do so, you might have to see how |
| wrong you were to begin with. You cannot possess the Truth |
| unless God adjusts YOU to it. |
| Being led by the Holy Spirit is not merely a matter of getting |
| marching orders from God, and then following them. Being led of |
| the Holy Spirit is impossible -- when all is said and done -- |
| unless you surrender to God. And once you surrender to God, He |
| will lead you. But you aren't going to know where you are going. |
| You'll only know WHO is leading. |
| Along the way, however, you will make mistakes of |
| discernment. Perhaps some big ones. But if God allows these, |
| He does so only to later use them. This doesn't mean your |
| mistakes are God's highest will. It just means that they were IN |
| you; in your heart. God had to let you act them out so that you |
| would be exposed for who you are -- and thus be set free. |
| Now the issue here is this: If a person is surrendered to God, |
| they are going to also be surrendered for such exposure. They |
| are going to realize that even the possibility that God will allow |
| them to make mistakes is within His purpose for them. That |
| doesn't mean we ever get reckless or take license. It simply |
| means I know I am in God's hand, and that He knows me better |
| than I know myself. And that as long as I trust Him and seek His |
| will, He will get His way. If that means God must allow me to make |
| mistakes along the way, well, then I also trust that He has a |
| purpose for allowing that as well. |
| In the Bible we see one example after another where God |
| allowed those whom He used to make mistakes of discernment. |
| Abraham is at the top of the list. God promised Him a son through |
| Sarah. But then God disappeared for a few years. Abraham and |
| Sarah, who were already aged, got older. So Abraham began to |
| suppose that God probably didn't REALLY mean Sarah would |
| have a son. God "probably meant" Sarah would have a son |
| "through" a proxy. Thus, Ismael was born. |
| Now note. It was never God's will for Ismael to be born. Not |
| His highest will. But when Abraham began to drift a bit as to |
| discernment, and come to the wrong conclusions as to what God |
| meant, did God come down and set him straight? Nope. That's |
| because God knew that within Abraham were some unresolved |
| problems. And only if God allowed Abraham to try to bring to |
| pass in his own strength what God had promised, could Abraham |
| finally get free of them. |
| Don't misunderstand. Abraham did not doubt God. To the |
| contrary, the Bible says, |
| Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the |
| father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So |
| shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not |
| his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years |
| old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not |
| at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, |
| giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had |
| promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was |
| imputed to him for righteousness. (Rom. 4:18-21) |
| Isn't that amazing? It seems like Abraham made every mistake |
| possible. Big ones. But God says, "he staggered not." Despite |
| misinterpreting God, Abraham never doubted Him. |
| What we are finding is this: We may doubt our ability to hear |
| God, and even our ability to interpret God correctly. We may |
| doubt our ability to do everything right. But we don't need to |
| doubt God. Our faith is not to be in our ability to hear God. It is |
| not to be in our ability to interpret Him or figure Him out. Our faith |
| is to be in God Himself. If we trust Him, and consequently, |
| unconditionally surrender ourselves to Him, God WILL have His |
| way with us. |
| God did have His way with Abraham. He basically said to |
| Abraham, "I had to allow you to try to bring to pass My will in your |
| own strength, so that you would would become depleted of your |
| own efforts. Now, are you finished? Good. I have seen your faith, |
| despite your misconceptions of Me. I am therefore going to bring |
| to pass My will in My way, and in My time. I will have My will, and |
| will bless YOU in the process." |
| The Will of God |
| Here we see the grace of God. Because God is the God of all |
| grace, and is redemptive in nature, He is not going to settle for |
| anything less than His will. Certainly, we have the choice as to |
| whether we will submit to His will nor not. But He shall have it -- |
| whether we decide to be part of it or not. And if we surrender to |
| Him -- whether we presently know His specific will or not -- He |
| will see to it that all things work together unto His will in our lives. |
| Paul says this in Romans. He says, |
| All things work together for good to them that love God, to them |
| who are called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28) |
| Now note: When we read that "all things work together for |
| good to those who love God," we must be clear about what God is |
| saying. He is not giving US the freedom to define what "good" is. |
| No. Human nature will always define "good" as "getting our way." |
| But God defines "good" as getting HIS way. HIS will is the "good" |
| towards which "all things" work. It is the ONLY "good" there really |
| is! |
| We see this in the next verses. Paul goes on to say, |
| For whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed |
| to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn of many |
| brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also |
| called, and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He |
| justified, He also glorified." (Rom. 8:29-30) |
| Here we see the "good" toward which "all things" work. Here |
| we see the will of God. He is working all things in us, and through |
| us, and on the outside of us, unto conforming us to the image of |
| His Son. He is working an eternal purpose. |
| Inconvenience |
| Back to the move. It was Friday. I had to be out by Monday |
| morning. Had I missed the boat? Had God opened up to me a |
| place to move, only to see me turn it down? Was all this |
| inconvience the result of being out of God's will? |
| It was late that Friday that out of nowhere I found a little house |
| that we were able to rent, and which served us well for the time |
| being. So, that weekend I began moving everything from the |
| storage area to the new place. What was left in the mobile had to |
| be moved as well. It took me until an hour before the new owners |
| were to arrive to get it all out. And just to make things interesting, I |
| had to do it all right in the middle of a major snow storm. But we |
| did have a place to go. God had come through at the last minute. |
| Inconvience. So often we think that inconvience cannot |
| possibly be part of God's will. Afterall, God can do anything He |
| wants. So if He is doing His will, then why does He allow such |
| inconvenient things to get in the way? Why couldn't God have |
| simply opened up this house to me at the beginning of the two |
| weeks? Why did I have to move TWICE during that time, and the |
| second time in the middle of a snow storm? Why did I have to end |
| up paying for a storage area which I used less than a week? |
| If you walk with Jesus Christ long enough, you are going to find |
| out that God isn't concerned about whether things are convenient |
| for you. Indeed, God will even use those aggravating |
| circumstances to do a work in you. They too, are a part of God's |
| calling and plan. |
| We see this in the story of the birth of Jesus. If there was ever |
| an event which was the will of God, this was it. But if there were |
| ever circumstances which were inconvenient to those in God's |
| will, these were the circumstances. |
| Consider some of them. Mary had been to visit Elizabeth only |
| a few months earlier. But now, nine months pregnant, she had to |
| make the journey to Bethlehem for the census. Why didn't God let |
| her know ahead of time, so that she could simply stay in that area? |
| The trip she now had to make must have been incredibly difficult. |
| It COULD have been avoided. |
| Then there was the fact that when they got to Bethlehem there |
| was not one room available. Here was Mary, fully conscious of the |
| fact that her pregnancy was a miracle of God. But the same God |
| who had worked this unheard-of miracle could not even provide |
| a suitable room for her to give birth? What was going on here? |
| Was the fact there was no room evidence that they were OUT of |
| God's will? |
| Of course, God DID provide something: A stable. But imagine |
| how that must have felt at the time. |
| When we read the story of the birth of Jesus, we see that even |
| for the birth of His own Son, God allowed MUCH inconvenience to |
| come upon those who were in His will. But in the end, because |
| they believed, God had His will. A child was born. |
| So it is with us. God shall have His way. But we are not |
| guaranteed a smooth ride along the way. In fact, if we read |
| scripture, we are guaranteed the opposite. We are told to expect |
| obsticles of every kind -- obsticles of our own doing, and of our |
| own temperment. But also of circumstances. Yet God will use |
| them "work all things together unto good" -- His good. His will. |
| So do I want to be led into the will of God? Then I must |
| surrender to God. Do I want to possess the Truth? Then I must |
| allow the Truth to possess me. Do I want to make sure that I end |
| up in the purpose of God for my life? Then I must surrender my |
| life to God. If I do, then I may make mistakes, but God's purpose |
| will not depend on my mistakes. His purpose will depend on Him. |
| Thus, my faith will not rest on my ability to find God, but on God's |
| faithfulness to find me -- and to conform me to Jesus Christ. |