On a “Need to Know” Basis with God

It’s only Wednesday and already it has been a long week. Things started out rather quietly on Monday, but have really accelerated yesterday and today. In fact, it is 11:30 p.m. and I am just now sitting down to write. Usually when this happens, I struggle a little about what I am supposed to write about – but not this evening – it’s easy.

Because it occurs to me that the more I just go with the flow, the happier and more content I become. Now that is not to say that I am indecisive or don’t care about whether I zig or I zag, but I have found that I am on a “need to know” basis with God. By that, I mean that I used to try to work out all the downstream stuff that could happen as a result of some decision I made. During the past several years, I have learned that if I have a leading from God, chances are that I should trust it and not sweat the details.

My deepest desire is to be in the will of God, and so I have adopted an attitude of prayer and thought ahead of the decision; and then I don’t worry about the future as much. Now Janet will tell you that this just isn’t true all the time, and she would be right. Sometimes I get stuck in my old habits and just can’t seem to let go. That’s when I go back and re-visit the decisions I have made and rehash things until Janet gets sick and tired of hearing about it. Come to think of it, I get myself sick and tired as well.

And what about the times that I start to do something and then the whole thing unravels? If I had known the outcome ahead of time, I would have never chosen that path. But too late – I’m already in too deep to back out. Perhaps that’s a God thing as well – because God knows my heart and knows that I want to know all about the future stuff when it really isn’t anywhere on the radar – at least, not yet. So, once again, I am sheltered by the withholding of information that I don’t need to have. And that delta between what I know and what I want to know is faith.

That’s right, faith. The only question that should be on my mind is if I trust that God loves me and that He is making decisions with my ultimate best interest in mind. And I believe that He does and He is. Because God loves me and He wants what is best for me. Chances are, if I don’t understand something, it isn’t that God has made a mistake, but that I don’t have all the information. When I go back and think about hindsight, I would never sweated so many of the things I have worried about – because they have turned out just fine.

Janet is a person of supreme faith. She has much greater faith than I do. I remember back in December, 2005, after years of school, I was prepared to stand for my oral defense of my doctoral dissertation on Dec. 15th. The date stands out in my mind because Janet and I had gone through everything, and I mean everything, we had for me to attend seminary. And we had been unable to pay our Dec. 1st mortgage payment. I was a little freaked out, but Janet had tremendous patience and kept reminding me not to worry because the money would come through – that God had a plan. Now think about this a moment – I was the student in school and she was the one demonstrating super human faith. Anyway, to get to the end of the story, on Dec. 14th, we received a check in the mail that just covered our mortgage payment that would technically go in default on the 15th. On the way to my oral defense, Janet and I stopped by the bank and made the payment on the last possible day, without penalty.

Now I have seen many miracles, and I have recounted some of them throughout the posts I have written this year, but Janet lives with the expectation that God will perform miracles in her life – and I have finally started living this way as well. You don’t recognize God’s hand in your life if you aren’t looking with anticipation for His divine intervention.

The 11th chapter of Hebrews is devoted to a listing of people who had great faith. In fact, this chapter is called the “Hall of Fame of Faith.” Titans of faith live in this chapter of the Bible. And Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) is the verse for tonight, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” For those of you who don’t really care for the King James translation, the NIV says, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

In other words, trust God to deliver you in a manner consistent with His will, which is in your best interest from God’s perspective. My encouragement tonight is that you will look for God’s hand in your life – and let go. Trust God. Have faith. But you know something – sometimes faith is elusive. The odd thing is that faith is a gift from God. You can’t increase your own faith, believe it or not. So my prayer tonight is is that God will increase your faith; He will magnify your blessing and your dependence on Him. And if you are also on a “need to know” basis, you can rest in that and have faith that God will come through. Have a great day in the Lord.