Remember the time when you were struck in a particularly deep way by a passage in the Holy Scriptures you fed upon, delighting in grateful thankfulness for the measure of light obtained? Remember how awed you were as the Holy Spirit instructed your soul in the truth of God in that passage, perhaps very familiar and yet fresh riches of understanding? Remember the journey you were taken through as that very understanding gain was made firmly etched within in being turned into a “living lesson” of trusting in God, a further opportunity for your faith to be stretched? How easy it is to overlook in the process of that journey that very likely, this – what you now experience – may well be answer to an earlier prayer for spiritual growth! Indeed the Lord God has proclaimed and Scripture records His word which declares:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And my thoughts than your thoughts.”
(Isaiah 55:8-9)
How many times I have been both counselled and comforted by these very words! How many times I have had need of being reminded of them!
Life has been busy recently and, as for most people, filled with trying and mind-consuming events both personally and particularly so for some currently on my prayer list. Alongside thoughts for a particular sister in the Lord who recently experienced the deepest distress of losing an only child, were those for others who have had and are experiencing very deep trials, some in which it seems as though prayers have gone unanswered. The reason for the underlining of the word ‘seems’ will be, I hope, unpacked below. Others however, I pondered, seemed to have had prayers answered so fully and relatively quickly. It was the grace of God in Lord Yeshua which enabled me to turn away from the currents of such twirling thoughts and toward the word of God for my morning’s Gospel reading, currently the account of Luke. I could sense a real need within to ‘hear’ from the Lord and stopped off to read Proverbs 3:5 on my way to my text beginning at Luke chapter 10:38.
As I read the account of the encounter Martha had with Yeshua at Luke 10:38-42, one so familiar, I was struck with a new and different thought. It was this:
When you don’t get the answer you were expecting!
Usually on reading the passage, I am struck by either Martha’s busyness to distraction or Mary’s wise prioritising of hearing God’s word – this time round, I was being shown something else.
Luke 10:38-42 says this:
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Martha surely did not expect the answer Yeshua gave her when she asked Him for help – but it surely was instructive! I noted as well that it was not that she didn’t get an answer from Yeshua. She did – just not what she was obviously expecting, for she must have expected that Yeshua would tell her sister Mariam (Mary) to help her! However, whatever disappointment there may have been in that, there was instruction – good and needful instruction- in the answer Yeshua gave her.
In the days and weeks since that morning (7th May) I continued to be reminded about this and it gradually dawned upon me that this may well be a preparation for something which lay ahead. It was not long before I would find out that indeed it was. I was about to be taken through a “living lesson” in this particular piece of blessed ‘light’ from the truth of God’s word – and one, it seems, the Lord is determined I am to learn well. Praise the Lord!
A particular situation I had been praying, interceding, petitioning the Lord about in which I was in expectation of a timely answer, possibly trusting too much upon a similar situation having graciously been answered in such a timely manner only six months before, is the school in which I am being taught! How clear the lesson is being made to me in learning to seek God for the good in His instruction of His answer in not getting the one I was expecting! Anxiety and despondency have been exposed and made to give way to a work of grace intended to enable me to ‘humble [myself] underneath His mighty hand’ (1 Peter 5:6), to learn more of His sovereignty in a deeper way (Psalm 46:10) and be made sensible of my need for increased endurance (Hebrews 10:36).
As I continue to wait on Almighty God for His way through, how thankful I am to our loving, all perfect, all-wise heavenly Father that in and through His Son, Yeshua the Messiah, He is enabling His grace to be sufficient help moment by moment. The “living lessons” besides this one are for another time. For now, let me end with something I heard long ago, which we know very well but as with many things, sometimes need reminding of: when you cannot see the hand of God in your need, trust in who He has revealed Himself to be. He knows and He will provide what you have need of, in His timing and in His way. Our Father in Heaven has said He will – and He will! May His name be glorified.
Shalom.
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