GOD – Faithful But Unpredictable?
“When you look at the Cross, what do you see? You see God’s awesome faithfulness. Nothing – not even the instinct to spare His own Son – will turn him back from keeping His word” explains Sinclair Ferguson. God is indeed more faithful than we can ever imagine. There are thousands of promises in the Bible and God has not broken any of them. We can base our lives on God’s word and his promises. Our future is as wonderful as God’s promises!
Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth. Scripture says the same:
Your words stand fast and true;
Rejection doesn’t faze you.
(Romans 3:4, MSG)
Here is the one of the famous passages in the Bible that indeed states very clearly what are God’s purposes and promises for us:
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. (John 3:16, MSG)
But God is not only faithful towards us. God is also holy and wild. We can’t manipulate him. We can’t tame him. We can’t use him. Bob LaForge explains it this way: “To say that God is faithful or consistent is not to imply, however, that He is predictable. Much bitterness toward God results from a misconception of this. Too often we speculate and try to guess the actions of God and, therefore, develop expectations. Through our limited and often perverted reasoning, we determine the “best” for our lives and then consider God’s only reasonable response to be one of quick and complete fulfillment.”
Just precisely because our God is unpredictable he is magnificent!
God is sovereign.
God is holy.
God is wild.
God is real.
God is magnificently awesome.
We can base our future on God’s promises and know for certain that God will be there to take care of us. But we can’t demand God to do what we think would be good for us. But who would want a tame, predictable God anyway? That would not be a holy, almighty God. That would be a puppet in a box. Not my choice anyway.
I love our God just because he is real,wild, and unpredictable.
I love our God so much because he is just, fair, and faithful.
I love our God so much because he is also gentle, loving, and tender.
I love our God so much because he is beyond everything I can imagine.
I love our God so much because he is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
Gracious God,
We thank you for your faithfulness.
We thank you for your tender loving care.
We thank you for showing us the way back to you.
We praise you for being our God!
We praise you for being unpredictable!
We praise you for letting us be humans in your care!
Plant trust, faith, and love deeper in our hearts.
Help us to share you & your gifts with others.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you live your life in God’s presence. He is magnificent! He is just! His love endures forever!
Q4U: How have you experienced God’s wild nature?
Photo courtesy of Sherman Jackson