Paul was placed in prison, where it seems his life was being hindered or wasted. He wrote to the believers at Philippi, “I may be in prison but God is at work. I may not be preaching around the nations, but God is still at work, so I’m confident, that God is at work in your life too, no matter how difficult it seems.”
If we think God is not at work in our life, to will and to do of his good pleasure, or we think others are really in charge of our life and not God, we actually become idolaters, because we reduce God down to the size of a small Sunday god, a quite time god or a good time only god. We end up murmuring in unbelief, thinking that other people and not God are determining our circumstances and happiness.
Friend, the apostle understood God is always at work, so he says to his friends in lesser trouble than himself, rejoice in the Lord. The Lord is at work!
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Sometimes we expect more from God that he ever actually promised. Elijah thought God would use him to change the whole nation for God.
Perhaps we thought we would have a great success we’d become the greatest businessman. We expected we’d become exceedingly wealthy like Abraham, and have no financial difficulties. We expected we’d be much better off than our fathers. Better off, better educated, better resourced. But God never said you will be better than your father. He has no favourites but then you don’t love any less that you father either.
God never promised we would see a whole nation turn back to God in one concert, one service, one year or one lifetime.
Perhaps we thought by serving God fully, we’d be protected from harm (actually every one full of Holy Spirit was killed by evil men) We expected to have no troubles in life, for our family and home to be shielded from every pain and that our children would all sere God every week of their life. But every wrong expectation will only increase our disappointment and pain.
Friend, God wants to heal and restore pain in our heart is meant to alert us to the need for healing.
While Elijah slept fitfully in the shade of the tree, he felt the sharp hit on his arm and woke to hear an angel speaking.
Elijah was depressed but God in His compassion and mercy takes the initiative to seek Elijah out. He ate and drank and went back to sleep till again the angel woke him so he could eat some more. Sometimes in life, you just need to rest. If your feet are tired have asleep; if you mind is tired go for a walk.
Yet adversity always introduces us to ourselves. We see the real us. The question was the same as to Adam “What are you doing here?” How did you end up in this position?
Friend, the journey of life, is too great for us alone without God, without His food and His touch but after he ate and drank and rested, he was ready for a 40 day walk to Horeb. Is it time for fresh food and a fresh touch from God? Rest in his presence till you get hungry and thirsty for Him, He will not disappoint you.
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Elijah stumbled out of the cave into the sunlight to meet God but he was still disappointed. You could hear it in his voice. He had expected God to turn the nation around but all the people who were not on Carmel and certainly Jezebel seem unchanged. We know that if expectations aren’t met in marriage we can be prone to disappointment which brings about a loss of intimacy. If we feel God has disappointed us too, we can lose our sense of intimacy with God. We love him but we feel disappointed by Him; let down by Him, even abandoned. Maybe you blame God for the actions of others or what happened to someone you care about. You may have prayed for something to happen in your life; stood in faith for the outcome but it has not happened yet or never happened and it hurt because we don’t understand. We reason, well I’m not going to trust Him again or put my faith out there again, and we take back part of our hearts from God. We think “I’m going to hold back some of my love or make a mental list of those things which God must do before we trust Him again. Friend, God has not changed but our perception of Him has. We have to be able to say “Father I lay down all my conditions for you to fulfil, on the altar. I ask you to forgive me for allowing my heart to harden toward you. I have let things I don’t understand, cause me to withdraw my heart from you, but I chose to give my heart one hundred per cent to you again.
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History tells us that Paul was a short man only 5 feet high, with beady eyes, a hooked nose, big eyebrows and bow legs. Apparently, his eyesight was not good neither could he speak that well. Paul was bought up very religious and hated Christians. He put them in jail and enjoyed seeing them killed. It is strange that God chose Paul to be the greatest apostle and church planter among the Gentiles, but Paul came to see that God was using his weaknesses and past. Later he says “I’m the chief of sinners, a pattern to all who believe after me. If God can forgive me you too can be forgiven by Jesus.”He was a strange choice for God to make a preacher. Maybe he asked many times for God to fix his eyes or his speech impediment so he could preach the gospel. But God said, “My grace is made perfect in your weakness.” So Paul said, “In that case, I will boast in my infirmities because when I am weak then God is strong.”Paul had skeletons in the closet in his past and possibly felt inferior about his looks but He came to see that God could work around that and even through it. Tonight friend, you can’t change your past but you can embrace your future by trusting that God has a plan to build you into the likeness of Jesus, including using your past present circumstances for His purposes.
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