God Work Ahead!

Our church is currently surrounded by construction.  New handicapped accessible crossings.  Road repairs.  Road closures.  Detours…

There are highway department signs all over the place.  Not to be left out, our church signboard took on the following message on 6/24/16…

GOD WORK AHEAD

Road workers wearing orange vests are scattered throughout our town working to make our roads and sidewalks safer.  Driving through town, it’s impossible to avoid stretches of lane closures where police officers (holding a “Stop” / “Slow” sign) direct motorists to share the single open lane.

Along Lambs Road, headed toward our church, there’s a countdown of triangular signs warning us that things are about to become “un-normal”…

Life At Work…

We know what these construction workers are doing.  We’ve been through the drill before.  And the potholes have bumped and jostled us enough times to make us glad that the road is being fixed.  We can put up with all of the temporary orange signs because we know that things will get better.  Eventually, the detours will go away and the road will be smoother than it used to be (for a while anyway…).

Unlike these orange road signs, life isn’t good at giving us warnings.  Problems and hardships seem to pop out of nowhere.  We don’t often see signs like…

• “PHONE CALL AHEAD”
• “DEATH OF BEST FRIEND AHEAD”
• “CANCER AHEAD”
• “UNEXPECTED BILL AHEAD”

God Work

Through the difficulties, and through the “normal times,” God is always at work in our lives.  But He doesn’t usually wear a bright orange vest.  He doesn’t grab our attention like a noisy jackhammer.  He doesn’t hit our noses with the smell of hot tar.

To see God’s work in our lives, our human senses of sight, sound, touch and smell aren’t enough.  To taste God’s presence we need to put away human reason and put on the glasses of faith.  The work of God comes disguised as “Coincidences” or subtle deeds that we don’t even notice.  The voice of God is usually more like a quiet whisper than an unmistakable stroke of lightning.

If we ignore the subtle voices and hang around for an earthquake, we won’t get anywhere…

God Work: For Us

When you’re going through a rough stretch of life, you may not notice it, but God is working in the details behind the scenes to lead you to the other side of the problem.  He wants you to grow stronger in your faith and to become closer to Him.

And so when the road gets bumpy, look for God’s work in things like…

• Unexpected phone calls from a friend that comes at a particular bumpy moment
• Gifts that show up when you least expect it
• Words of comfort that speak to your deepest thoughts
• “Coincidences” in nature: butterflies, sunsets, rainbows

God Work: Through Us

God’s work usually comes through God’s people.  Sometimes we just get a “hunch” or a strong thought that we should pick up the phone and ask someone how they’re doing.  We get an urge that we should take someone out for lunch, or send a card or buy a gift.

God’s Work happens when Spirit-Filled people hear that “whisper” and act on faith to obey.  You may not understand why you’re doing something.  You may not think that it will make any difference.  You may be tempted to rationalize it all away, but could it be that this is how God is calling you?

All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel!  He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.

2 Cororinthians 1:3-5
(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

Sometime when you least expect it, there’s GOD WORK AHEAD!  Keep your eyes open or you’ll drive right through it without even noticing.

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