Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Luke 11:11-13
"Which of you fathers, if your sons ask for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" - JesusAs I was thanking God for rhubarb this afternoon, it made me think of all the other gifts He gives us. As a new Christian you tend to think of these gifts as the worldly gifts, things that make us temporarily happy. For a while in your walk God lets this continue, but there comes a time when those things are no longer enough to satisfy us, and we want more of God and less of the world. Scripture says to live is Christ and to die is gain. After God saves us, we start a spiritual death of the sin nature, and it hurts. On this farm venture we have seen so much how tied to this world we still are, and how much of our effort goes into building this earthly kingdom, which will one day be gone. It's a tough balance. We live here, so therefor need to provide for our families. When the sewer breaks, you need to fix it. When the furnace shoots flames out, you need to replace it. What happens is that you get tied to the rat-race, rather than waiting on God. He promises to give good gifts to His children, all we have to do is ask. Will we trust what He provides is enough? When the toilet paper runs out on Tuesday, and you don't get paid until Thursday, do you trust He has something better planned? To fix it ourselves, or spend what we don't have, causes us to run ahead of God and miss out on watching Him glorify His name. Dying hurts, and it's scary. But it also hurts to learn it the hard way, and be stuck in the middle of a mess. Little by little, we are learning to trust Him in different ways everyday. He promises He's faithful. What it comes down to, is that He is enough, without the rest.
