“He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.”
Psalm 103:7
As I once again glanced quickly over this Scripture, probably for the millionth time, the Holy Spirit arrested me and pulled me back and said, “Stop. Look again.” For the first time ever, this passage jumped out at me!
I have read the stories of the children of Israel so many times. And so many times, I have wondered how God’s chosen people did not really trust God’s ability or perhaps His desire to take them into the promised land.
These people saw, with their own eyes, the miracles of God, on their behalf. God sent Moses to talk to Pharaoh. He sent plagues to hurry their release from captivity. He led them with a cloud by day. He led them with a pillar of fire by night. He fed them manna from the sky. He parted the Red Sea and caused that sea to swallow up their pursuers. So how could these people not believe that God would finish what He started for them? How could they forget from one moment to the next the amazing things God had done for them?
How could they not believe? Moses believed. He staked his life on God’s words. But these people for whom God had moved mountains did not seem to believe the God they said they believed in.
I think the answer may lie in that opening Scripture. Moses knew the WAYS of God, while the Israelites knew only the WORKS of God.
I Samuel tells us a little about ourselves when it tells us that man looks on the outward appearance, while God looks on the heart. We tend to “believe it when we see it.” So, could it be that God’s children relied only on what they could see? Maybe when they saw God at work in their lives, they believed, but when they couldn’t see God’s hand moving, their faith faltered.
I wonder, if maybe we, too, tend to focus on what we see God DOING to ascertain whether or He is truly at work in our lives. After all, if we can’t see Him at work, maybe He is disinterested in our current concerns. Yes, He moved that mountain yesterday, but look at the one in front of us now! I don’t see it moving!
It dawns on me now that if we can really KNOW God’s WAYS, (what makes Him tick, why He does what He does, who He really IS, and who we really are to Him), we will find that we can trust Him, whether we can see His hand at work in our current situations or not. If we know His WAYS we will know that He has our best interest at heart, that He is well able, that He is at work on our behalf.
That’s what I want for you and me, dear chosen one.
So, “my response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. [who works on your behalf even when you can’t see those WORKS with your eyes] I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength…. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love.
Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:18 (MSG)
I ask that He will make known to you HIS WAYS.
