M-G: 3.22.16 // I Dare You to Do Better, Part 1 of 4

Have you ever experienced being caught between knowing when to be assertive (pushing forward in faith) or patiently waiting to see God’s sufficiency revealed (being still and knowing that God is God)? You look at your options knowing there is only one right response: wait, walk, or walk away. We know that God’s will is never negotiable (1 Jn 2:17b), and refusal to follow His Divine commands is not an act of agape love (1 Jn 2:15; Jn 14:15) but nothing more than heartless rebellion (Cf. Eph 4:30). When we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6:10), we never seem to execute it in the way that heaven does: immediately and completely.    

So I am going to suggest what happens most of the time with us a fidgety faith. Waiting on the Lord is a good principle when in doubt, but sometimes we are able to disguise our doubt with waiting! It comes across as spiritual, but it may be nothing more than disguising our fear to move forward or to get out. On the other end some simply “jump the gun” and justify coming out of the blocks based on a general principle from Scripture that may or may not be applicable, past experiences, common sense which is actually uncommon, homespun wisdom, gut feelings, or simply taking a leap of faith, banking on God for the breakthrough. It sounds so swashbuckling spiritual, outright audacious, and refreshing! Forgiveness is easier than permission, right?

It does seem more attractive than to continue riding this merry-go-round and going nowhere, which is anything but amusing! The wishy-washy, back and forth, mulling over the positives and negatives, or to go or not to go tends to be tortuous and tough most of the time in that circle of life where the dog is chasing its tail. It even might be humorous to an onlooker if he or she could see our insides of how ridiculous our thinking might look to others; come to think of it, God can see our innards! Being fully conditioned by a culture of instant gratification certainly doesn’t help our wait, walk, or walk away options.

During this craziness, our prayers seem to be more directive and urgent, if you hadn’t noticed! More than usual our senses are on full alert for any anecdotal evidence of any visual, intellectual, and emotional signs that may “confirm” we are making the right move to either wait on a desire, to walk in that desire, or to walk away from a desire. The desired goal is that our desires are in conformity to the will of God and for good reason (1 Jn 2:17b)! The great thing in all of this is that if we didn’t give a lick about God’s will, we would not be putting ourselves through all of this, for we know that when it comes to desires, the world isn’t going to produce one drop of sweat over God’s will in a matter (1 Jn 2:16-17a).

Let’s say we are delighting in the LORD, or at least we think we are, but we are not quite certain if God is giving the go-ahead (Psa 37:4), hence the wait, walk, or walk away. Have you ever looked at what is surrounding that verse from David via the Holy Spirit that we are so fond of claiming? Have you spotted the “trust sandwich?” Look at what is contained in that sandwich of trust (Psa 37:3, 4, 5): trusting in the LORD, doing good, dwelling where He places you, feeding on His faithfulness, delighting in the LORD, committing our way to the LORD, and trusting in the LORD. And we wonder, “Why is God silent?” or “Why God doesn’t bring our desires to pass for us?” Because we can’t say to Yahweh, “Hold the mustard and the pickles, please.” This is the only way the trust sandwich comes, fully loaded or all the way. Take it or leave it.

We certainly cannot execute immediately and completely and be blessed by God apart from His will. This is the realm of delighting in the LORD, His will, and He gives us the desires of our hearts. And by the way, on one of those markers or signs of “confirmation” to a desire are the well-wishers cheering us on who knows of our desires, telling us how much we deserve this or that, but in reality, they really don’t know God’s will for anyone else’s life other than their own. The only thing they can say for sure is that all believers should live a life in accord with the teaching of Scripture, and encourage us to be faithful to His Word. Given desires of the heart are not poll driven.

In the meanwhile things seem to be falling into place; wheels are moving, and guts are churning. One hurdle after another has been set aside. Gaining momentum, we still have a lingering thought in the back of our minds if the plug is going to be pulled on our desire. You see waiting doesn’t have to be motionless, per se. There can be a passive flow carrying us along, and we are looking for an answer to pull the plug on the project or stay connected and go fully committed. You could cut to the chase and say, “Why don’t you just trust in the Lord, buddy?” Well, if this was a command from the Lord, I would agree with you, but since it is a desire of the heart, it is not always clear how to proceed, again the wait, walk, or walk away. What should precede all desires of the heart is eating that trust- sandwich. There are some other helpful verses by Joshua, Solomon, and Paul which we will take a look at later.

Let’s throw a wrench into the works, a factor not considered. During the course of determining if a desire is granted, we have often heard that silence is sometimes a “no” from God; I get that, but it may not be an absolute negative due to the timing. Now that makes it all about as clear as mud.

But let’s say everything appears to be a go; all the known obstacles have been cast into the sea and sunk out of sight (Mk 11:23); then, from out of nowhere a mountain comes across our radar. This rock of Gibraltar should not be a part of the landscape, but there it is, more imposing and intimidating than all the previous ranges in our way. Something not factored in has the potential to bring a long-awaited desire to a grinding halt! This desire was neither shallow, spontaneous, nor an insistent selfishness, though personal! 

Now, there is this Gibraltar blip coming between us and the desire. There is a sick feeling in the gut and a tearing of the heart. Surely this is a loud and obvious statement by Yahweh of a denied desire, a “No?” Or could this be a bluff by the adversary allowed by God to test our faith? Hope was soaring on high and now on the verge of freefalling towards the ground below, a dream on the edge of shattering into a thousand pieces. 

The excitement of “Jesus, are we really doing this?” turns an exhilarative dream on a dime, leaving a wake of shell-shocked, speechless, and second-guessing as the engines roar – “Jesus, what is happening here? Everything indicated that all systems were a go! Why was there a countdown, ignition, and then lift off, and mission proceeding if you are not sanctioning this desire? Why is this blip on our radar screen? We were eating all of our trust sandwiches without taking out anything, not even the pickles; You know this to be true! You know that we love You and desire to do Your will above all things, even if it meant giving up on this one long and lingering heartfelt desire?” Deafening silence...

Hmm, now, we are discouraged, disappointed, dejected, and desperately desirous of an answer from God. He certainly has our attention! Should we be so down? I mean are not our disappointments God's appointments? He is the Lord in our lives, isn't He? But we are in flight status! Now, we are unclear on how we misconstrued the sequencing of events and unsure of whether we should push the abort button or rocket forward to fulfill a long-awaited desire...? <><

To Part 2