During our devotional time together, my family is working through a narrative of the Bible, and it’s been a lot of fun to revisit Bible stories I haven’t thought about in a while, Noah and the Ark, Moses and the Red Sea, and Daniel and the lions’ den, to name a few. Listening to these larger than life stories makes me feel like a kid again, puffed up and proud of my Heavenly Father. God is just so awesome! Sometimes I wish He would do things the way He used to do them, though, big and incredible and spaced out a little so everyone would sit up and pay attention when He did His thing. It makes me angry when people talk about God like they know Him when it is so obvious that they don’t, questioning His character and putting words in His mouth, second guessing His wisdom and doubting His power, and writing Him off as irrelevant. It makes me want to scream, and, I’ll admit that, like Jonah, a part of me wants to see those people humbled by a spectacular display of God’s power. It would give me a lot of satisfaction to watch them bow in reverence and submission the way the enemies of the Israelites always did right after they got their tails whipped by God’s people.
To be honest, it wouldn’t hurt me to bow a little lower, either. Last week, I did something God told me to do. I wish I could say that I took a step of faith, but the truth is that it took me four months to obey a simple directive. I’m pretty sure I forfeited the right to call it a step of faith a long, long time ago. Though I’m relieved to have finally made the decision and am excited to find out what God is up to, I’m ashamed of my delayed obedience (which amounts to little more than disobedience) and what it reveals about my faith. Maybe I wouldn’t have as much trouble believing and obeying if God talked to me from a burning bush. Then again, I’ll take New Testament intimacy with God over a light show any day. What I have to remember is that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The fact that He has chosen to live in my heart does not make Him small. His desire for a relationship with me no more diminishes His power than stooping to pick up a child strips a man of his masculinity. Actually, it speaks to His strength. For His own glory, God sent Jesus Christ to pay the price for our sin that we might live for Him on earth and spend eternity in Heaven. Rescuing a family and their boat load of animals, thousands of slaves, and an old man is really cool, but rescuing the entire human race? That’s epic, and every time we allow God to work in and through us, we remind people of the miracle He has performed. Craving a spiritual wow moment? Surrender. Do what God tells you to do when He tells you to do it. Bow your heart and remind the world that God is still awesome!
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