Living in the Place of God's Purpose
My first instinct is to start with an apology, for this Connect article does not really contain any great leadership insight, no deep Biblical revelation nor any discerning cultural understanding. However, my second instinct is to heed that gentle prompting that says ‘some folks just need this right now’.
So let me encourage you today with this glorious truth - there is not one moment, day or stage of your life in which God is not wholly present, wonderfully loving, absolutely faithful and infinitely powerful. For a moment, just let the awesomeness of those four dimensions thrill your soul.
Every season of life has a unique landscape. Sometimes the topography is awesome and we just want to stay right where we are. Other times, the terrain is so painfully difficult that we cannot wait to literally turn the corner and get out of Dodge. The reality for each one of us is that life comprises the whole gamut of seasons and yet the truth is that in every single one of them God is wholly present, wonderfully loving, absolutely faithful and infinitely powerful to outwork His eternal purpose.
*Sometimes the physical, spiritual, relational, mental, geographical, financial and familial landscape of our lives is dark and difficult due to the actions of others. Whether it’s our fellow man who is responsible or whether it’s the strategic efforts of the enemy continually conspiring to inspire a habitat marked by defeat, darkness and hopelessness.
Praise God that, in the words of Francis Schaeffer, ‘He is there and He is not silent!’ God is never ignorant, never uncaring and never in a mood with us. Indeed, God is not just present but according to the Psalmist, He is “very present” with us. How amazing, that even when others put you there, God is still very present there – more present even than the troubles we face!
King Jehosophat, Elisha and his servant, the three Hebrew boys, Daniel, Paul and Silas all encountered such seasons and yet they also encountered this glorious reality; God is wholly present, wonderfully loving, absolutely faithful and infinitely powerful. Praise God that their God is our God and their experience can be ours too.
*Sometimes, we can’t blame anyone else for the place in which we are found but ourselves; our decisions, failures and mistakes landed us there. We come to believe that we deserve to be there. We can feel stuck there, guilty there, shamed there. Praise God that His steadfast love, unending faithfulness and amazing grace means He is wholly present with us, wonderfully loving toward us, absolutely faithful to us and infinitely powerful on our behalf.
In the midst of the messes we’ve made, the mistakes we’ve committed and the pain we’ve caused, God refuses to abandon us. He is actively intent on preventing His purpose for our lives being thwarted, foiled or derailed.
No one but David was to blame for the catastrophic catalogue of infidelity, adultery, betrayal, deceit and murder that engulfed his life. Yet God meets with David in his darkest valley, revealing Himself wholly present, wonderfully loving, absolutely faithful and infinitely powerful.
Whether it be Jonah in his rebellion, Peter in his denial or us in our failure, in the depths of the mess of our own making, God will show Himself wholly present, wonderfully loving, absolutely faithful and infinitely powerful.
In the words of Spurgeon, God “did not buy His sheep in the dark … He knows their sins … their feelings, fear and terrors. He knows the secret ins and outs of every one of us better than any one of us knows himself … He did not choose us without knowing all the devious ways of our past and future lives. He saw us ruined in the fall yet loved us nothwithstanding all. Oh the splendour of His grace!”
So don’t let go of God because He has not let go of you, and He never will!
*Sometimes, it seems that God Himself is responsible for the dark place in which we find ourselves. Sometimes, the Spirit-led place of God’s purpose is marked by joy and hope. Other times, it is distinctive for uncertainty, pain and ambiguity; for God’s leading does not always equate to comfort and clarity.
When God’s leading sandwiched the children of Israel between the Red Sea and the armies of Egypt, Moses was the target of their accusative and critical spirit. God had led His people to this place of apparent hopelessness, penned-in like lambs to slaughter, and yet it was exactly where God wanted them to be!It was the place in which God would reveal Himself to be wholly present, wonderfully loving, absolutely faithful and infinitely powerful!
As the landscape of Jesus’ life shifted, we see Him continually occupying the place of His Father’s purpose: in the manger, as a carpenter’s son, forty days in the wilderness, on His knees in Gethsemane, subject to false accusation, brutally taunted, whipped and beaten, despised and rejected, smitten by God and afflicted, nailed to a cross, raised from the tomb and ascended to the Father’s side.
In every moment, day and stage of His life on earth, Jesus knew His Father as wholly present, wonderfully loving, absolutely faithful and infinitely powerful.
As for Jesus, so for us. Not one moment of our lives plays out apart from the eternal sovereignty of this holy God. He is wholly present so look for Him. He is wonderfully loving so lean into Him. He is absolutely faithful so trust in Him. He is infinitely powerful so call on Him.
Simon Taylor