We think power is in God’s hands, and it is. We serve the only true God. He is omniscient and omnipotent, all knowing and all powerful. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
But what about the middle? God brings you into being at conception. God gives you the eternity you’ve chosen at death, but where is He in the middle of that existence?
Power Over the Middle
Our Lord is uniquely involved in our lives from conception to death. He does not get involved in the way imaginary gods of ancient Greece and Rome were said to. These beings were depicted trifling with and manipulating humanity. He does not get involved in the way deceptive gods of materialism do today. These golden calves promise happiness but deliver unrest through an insatiable desire for more.
One of the ways the true God separates Himself from man made deities is that He has no need to prove His power or force mankind into submission. God created us to know, love, and serve Him on Earth so we can be happy with Him forever in Heaven. Being created out of Love for the purpose of spending eternity with our Creator is life changing when you begin to understand it.
It is this Love that allows God to step back and give us the freedom to choose our destinies. He gives us the power to choose to love or hate. He gives us the power to choose to listen or yell. He gives us the power to choose to move ahead or fall to pieces.
God gives us power over our middle.
Some say God should eliminate evil, but by doing so, God would also eliminate the freedom to choose, not only evil, but also love. The concept that is hard for us to wrap our heads around is that God’s Love for us is so immense that He must allow evil. God’s Strength is not shown in the elimination of evil and therefore human freedom.
Anyone who has watched a loved one suffer knows how difficult it is to watch that person go through their pain. It takes incredible strength to walk by the side of a hurting person. This understanding gives us some insight into God’s Strength. His Strength is shown in His restraint and in the overcoming of evil for the betterment of His Beloved child and the world.
But this does not happen overnight.
The God of restraint is not a dictator. He patiently waits for you to come to Him. He does not impose His desires on you. He has too much Love and respect for you to trifle with your feelings, run roughshod over your emotions, or deceive and manipulate you with bright shiny objects that won’t last, are not true, or that you are not ready for. He knows you learn best, grow best, and love best, when you make the decision to learn, grow, and love and then act on that decision.
God, who is the Beginning and the End, gives power over the middle to you.
And so, He waits.
Many times we cry out to God pleading with Him to do something. We ask Him to change the path we are on. We ask Him to change someone else. We even ask Him to change ourselves.
When we see no change happening, we can experience a variety of emotions. We get angry, disappointed, and dismayed. We can lose hope and the will to go on. Sometimes it may seem as if God does not care. We may question whether He knows what we are going through. God may seem distant and hands offish. We may wonder why He grants some prayers, especially to those we deem as less worthy, but seems to ignore ours.
God does not play games like that.
To understand Him and His action or inaction better, we need to spend time with Him. We need to know Him through His Word. We need to listen to Him. We need to be humble rather than authoritative when seeking His assistance. We need to know the Lord as unchanging. We need to see consistencies in His creation and in His call to His Beloved children.
God is Unchanging
Sunday’s first reading, Genesis 12, verses 1-4, shows God to be the same Almighty Being we have seen in Genesis 1 through Revelations. He is the one true God. He is never the God of false promises or easy ways out. He does not even offer His Beloved, only Begotten Son an easy way out.
Instead, we serve a Sacrificial God who offers closed doors and open windows, mighty floods and brightly colored rainbows, 40 years of deserts and the land of milk and honey. In every instance from the beginning of creation, the children of God have served a God of action, but with a caveat.
We must choose to move closer to Him physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and often in all ways combined.
Yes, we serve the Lord, but He also serves us when we act in a way that moves us closer to Him. This is clearly depicted in Sunday’s first reading where we see Abram receiving promises of astounding things to come for him and his family, but none of those things come through prayer alone. They only come through action.
The LORD said to Abram:
“Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk
and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.“I will make of you a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
so that you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you
and curse those who curse you.
All the communities of the earth
shall find blessing in you.”Abram went as the LORD directed him.
The last line holds the key, “Abram went and did as the Lord directed.”
Before you cry out to God or seek His help, remember we serve the God of Restraint. He wants you to go and do as He directs.
Examine yourself, your thoughts, actions, and motivations. Have you moved when He directed you to? Have you been still when He whispered that you should remain? How have you moved spiritually closer to God in both cases?
God Loves you. You are His Beloved child. He allows you to be where you are as a result of your own decisions and the decisions of countless others, and now, for some unknown reason, He is allowing you to see things differently and use the power you have over your middle to make the next move.
Go and do as the Lord directs you.
And watch for unexpected miracles in the world around you, but most of all, within yourself.
God Bless…
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