Standing Still

Where are you heading...and are you leaving today or tomorrow?


Still facing some of the biggest decisions I've had to make in my life I've been lead to think a lot about the eternal purposes of God. The more and more my life has opened up and I've looked at options before me the more and more I find that the only things that matter are those thing that are going to last forever. The Kingdom of God - that which is coming and that which God is making at this very time in and through each and every day - seems be the thing with which we, who are seeking to follow God, should concern ourselves most. Certainly, as I look and seek to choose a path for myself I find that the bigger the question or possibility before me the more I must weigh it in the light of eternity and the service of the Kingdom.

It's been a difficult process and I hardly feel able to comment having not yet come to a final decision with all that is before me. I wanted to share something that has made itself very evident to me. God is on the move. This isn't some attempt at prophecy nor do I mean it as a cliche statement. It's nothing new. Yet it's something that I think sometimes we forget. Sometimes I think we look at our lives and all that's going on, we think about our plans and where we are going, we think maybe about the world, and we think of God as an observer watching us move along before Him and eager to get involved. Yet the truth is that whether our lives seem to be in a whirlwind or seem to be going nowhere, there is no-one who is moving or acting as much or as fast as God.

The first time we see God is in Genesis, hovering, brooding, preparing, right before He launches into creation, and He hasn't stopped acting or moving since. 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 teaches us that the purpose of God on Earth has been our reconciliation to Him. It has been His purpose through history, is His purpose every day we live on Earth and will not be complete until we rest with Him in eternity beyond this Earth. God is moving, He has plans laid out and nothing can interfere with these, although He gives each of us the option to be involved with Him in them; to take part in His creation of eternity.

It's an amazing thought, and as I said, with my having been stood still in this one spot for such a long time the truth of living for the eternal has begun to glow brighter and brighter before me until it began to glare. As we stand and each day passes so the purposes of God roll on. He works in every life that exists upon this Earth, and no doubt also in governments and actions spanning generations, defying human memory and beyond any human mind. Each day we rise to greet a new morning and watch another day come and another day go. As Christians what are we doing with this time and what are the meditations of our hearts? Are we standing still, are we moving in circles. Are our hearts full of plans and desires so that whilst we acknowledge God and try to seek Him we do not consider the movement of His plans or our place in them? I have come to realise that my life may be still, but God's is not. I could vanish from this Earth tomorrow and God could erase every memory of me, and His purposes will stand - with or without me.

Often times I've imagined great things for my life, thought big ideas and dreamed great dreams, dreams of being woven into the plans of God but it occurs to me, and I've heard it before in Oswald Chambers, that we wait for the great things to come at the peril of today. Oswald's reading for September 10th speaks something to this. My whole life, all the ministry I will ever be able to do is that which is before me today. I can think of how I might encourage many in far away places or in the setting of some church or other, yet those are just possibilities that don't exist yet. They are fancies compared to the real people and opportunities I have around me today. Certainly God prepares things for us to do and will no doubt bring the future things to pass yet the only doorway I have to the future is today. I can and will never get to the plans of tomorrow if I am standing still today, or moving with consideration of Him.

There's more on this that I want to write but rather than open up another can of worms right now I think I want to keep the point simple. As Christians we cannot now ignore the reality which has been opened up to us. We cannot relegate the truth of eternity to the realm of future fantasy as though we will reach it eventually but we can forget about it because it has no bearing upon how things are now. Nor can we acknowledge the reality that eternity is in progress working and being created now, and continue to live according to the boundaries and values the rest of the world uses, leaving our life or actions unaltered, undevoted.

I want to encourage every Christian to truly consider the revelations and the lessons of the Gospel and the realisation that we can spend our lives doing many things but only God's Kingdom will remain. All other kingdoms, all other empires and establishments, lines and families will come to an end. It's a stunning truth but I believe it's a truth nevertheless, that the only thing worth devoting our lives to is God and His service, if we don't devote ourselves to that then we may as well not devote ourselves to anything at all - the time may pass quicker but the end result will be the same.

So it is I find that each day I come to the Lord and I find hope. Whatever the past, however blank the future appears to be, I know that my God is in the present and He is moving, moving fast and with great purpose, and each day He beckons me to join Him on His ride through time; to go with Him on this eternal adventure. I have to choose fast, because the day passes quickly and before I know it I could find another one wasted. If it does end up that way, at whatever point I come to my senses He is always everywhere and always ready to take me onboard, but I don't have to waste it. That first day might not be spectacular or all that I dreamed I might ever do but it is the doorway to the future, the first step into the great plans of God. Each morning I know that I have a choice, and having realised that and knowing that there is nothing else I step up and each day I make that choice, I ask Him, "Lord, on this day, whether tomorrow comes or not, weave me into Your plan." From then on I keep my ear to the ground, seek to live intentionally for the purposes of God and spend whatever time I can with Him or seeking Him.

My God is good, and I have decisions to make, as do we all. As for me, I will surrender my circling to the Lord and choose Him, what about you?

God bless,

G.