God may crush us for His glory – are we willing?
Do we actually trust His economy? If not, there is still a problem.
~Makala Barnabas Doulos
The power of God is that ability and strength whereby He can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom may direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity of His will may resolve. . . . As holiness is the beauty of all God’s attributes, so power is that which gives life and action to all the perfections of the Divine nature. How vain would be the eternal counsels, if power did not step in to execute them. Without power His mercy would be but feeble pity, His promises an empty sound, His threatenings a mere scarecrow. God’s power is like Himself: infinite, eternal, incomprehensible; it can neither be checked, restrained, nor frustrated by the creature.
— Stephan Charnock
Oh, hey, wait a minute… I’m really considering this whole thing of absolute surrender to Him. Do you really think He would crush me like that?
Maybe. If it brings glory to Him and fulfills His purpose.
Wait a minute. What if? I mean….
Yeah, you might lose absolutely everything. Your family, your job, your health, your security, your safety, your freedom.
Oh boy…
Yeah.
Kinda brings us right to the edge of the cliff, doesn’t it? How do we jump, knowing that He might just let us hit the ground? Faith.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
~Hebrews 11:1-2
This is brutal reality of the Christian walk. G_d may allow, or even engineer our destruction in this world, if it suits His purposes.
Hebrews 11 is called the “Hall of faith.” It’s full of epic stories of folks that just flung themselves out there and trusted G_d to work out the details. Awesome stuff!
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.
~Hebrews 11:32-35a
Then, it’s like the train comes off the tracks right in the middle of verse 35…
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
~Hebrews 11:35b-38
But, before we go away like the disciples in John 6 who could not handle the “hard sayings” of Jesus, let’s look at the rest of Hebrews 11 and the first couple verses of chapter 12…
And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
~Hebrews 11:39-12:2
It’s bigger than us. Way bigger.
All of those tortured, mocked, scourged, imprisoned, stoned, sawn, tempted, slain, wandering, clotheless, destitute, afflicted, and tormented saints that wandered the earth are now home. They are very well. They are in the near presence of Him Who Loved them ALL THE WAY through their desperate circumstances. HE Loved them all the way home.
These very same now occupy the seats in the great stadium of saints. They now know that it was all worth it. These very same surround us to cheer us on towards the goal of the upward call in Christ Jesus.
They now know absolutely-for-sure that Jesus is totally in control of our destiny. He wrote the whole plan, and is well able to bring it to completion.
Even these, though, don’t yet know the whole story. They are closer than we still on the temporal plane, but they don’t yet know. Our Captain has not yet spoken the Words we all yearn to hear.
One day, beloved, you and i are going to hear it. For some in the eternal now, it resonates, but is not yet grasped. He will say:
“It is done!” And what will open before us is a boundless infinite field of purpose and possibility as His kingdom rolls out into a stunningly gorgeous moment of deep eternity.
Trust Him beloved. Everything is and will be just fine. He was, is, and will Be. What a blessed Hope!
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
~Revelation 22:1-6
