I Will Be a God To You

I have written many times on this blog about the dangers of trusting in your own conception of God.

I can now answer with clearer conviction than before why that AA is dangerous.

A god of my understanding is a god whose understanding is limited to my own.

If we step into new and different situations, who knows whether that god of my understanding will or will not be there.

This nonsense about our own conception of God diminishes the revelation of the True God, who loves us unconditionally, and cares for us in spite of our worst failures:

"

10For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

 

This promise has been one of the hardest for me to settle into.

 

Now I understand why the writer of Hebrews wrote earlier:

 

"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." (Hebrews 4: 11)

 

We need to work at not working, so to speak, to believe that He has taken care of everything.

 

That part has been the hardest for me, and it does take an element of labor, or rather patient enduring.

 

For the longest time, the setup of "what are you going to do about. . .?" was a prevalent concern in the back of my head. A litany of concerns would rise up in my mind, and then I would spend the greater part of my mental energy answering these fears and concerns.

 

Yet the inner discussion never brings peace.

 

The unswerving, unwavering promises of God, they bring peace. This peace is a fruit of the Spirit, by the way, not something which we generate in our effort.

 

But the matter of "I will be a God to you" is so crucial. This promise is based on the truth that He is propitious, has paid for our sins, has remembered them in the body of His Son Jesus.

 

Still, though, I find myself from time to time smarting about tomorrow. I ask myself "What will happen tomorrow?" as though He does not have everything taken care of.

 

Yet this new revelation is also taking shape, taking place, and gaining precedence in my mind.

 

The tomorrow that I am concerned about, is just as present to God as today is present to me.'

 

This awareness cannot be conceived within man's own head.

 

This revelation is based on an acceptance of the truth of God's Word.

 

He has finished tjhe job. He has taken care of everything.

 

He wants to rest us now, if we will let Him (Matthew 11: 28)

 

Like too many people in this world, I have confused feelings with rest. That is wrong.

 

He is a God to me, regardless of how I feel, or what others may think, or even anything that I or someone else does or does not do.

 

"17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:" (Ephesians 6: 17)

 

The helmet of salvation does not just mean that I am saved, but that Jesus is still in the business of saving me:

 

"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." (1 Thessalonians 5: 8)

 

Every Christian should have a confident expectation of good because of all that Jesus has done for us. Amen!

 

He promised to be a God to us. Let us pray for a growing revelation of this love (Ephesians 3: 16-19), and grow in grace and knowledge of this wonderful savior! (2 Peter 3: 18).