Mike Rutledge.CA

You are probably over this whole lockdown, right? I know I am. But what if God isn’t?

I think the better question to ask ourselves right now is not whether we are done with the lockdown or not – the answer is probably obvious – but whether or not God is done using it. We don’t believe that God authored a crisis like this, but he surely uses it. He takes what is bad, broken, and maybe even evil, and brings forth good. That is how he works. Think of the greatest example, the cross. Evil intention, injustice, innocent blood spilled, God in flesh put to death, and yet salvation, resurrection, redemption, and hope.

Here is what I am convinced of: God is working in you. Yet, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that it’s not always easy to see, and maybe even doesn’t feel like it right now. His promise though is that the work he began in you is going to be completed (Phil 1) and that He is working out things for our good (Romans 8), which has to do with seeing you more fully alive and looking like Jesus.

In the book of Acts, one of the things we read about is the life of a man named Paul. From him not knowing Jesus, to becoming the leader in the church bringing the message of Jesus to the Greco Roman world. Nearing the end of Acts, Paul is on trial for preaching about Jesus, and Luke (who wrote Acts) records that in the middle of it Jesus shows up and speaks to Paul and says to him that he can take courage, because as he talked about Jesus in Jerusalem, he must also do it in Rome. Jesus says here’s the plan – you are going to Rome. That is the promise.

Then we get to the end of chapter 24 where Luke records that, “After two years had passed…” Paul was in prison under the Roman ruler Felix for two years…after Jesus said he was going to Rome and to take courage.

Now, I think if I was Paul, I would be very tempted to doubt the promise. I would just want to be in Rome now. Jesus said it. Where is it?! In the middle of prison, in the middle of process, awaiting a promise, it would be tough.

But, something that I think needs to be corrected in the modern church is that faith isn’t some untethered boldness in what I want God to do now, declaring the desire of my heart as if the depth of my desire for something means it must be what God desires – thats presumptuous faith. No, faith is an unwavering boldness in the promise, in what God has permitted, what he actually has spoken, and when I can’t see how that works, faith is a humble patience, and submission to a process that may take longer than I want it too.

See, I think right now, we need to be asking what is God doing in the process. What is he teaching me, preparing in me, and pruning out of me. There is a purpose to the process as much as there is a joy in the promise. Am I over “the prison”? Yes. Do I wish that the process were much faster? Yes. But, do I want to miss what God is doing in the present moment? No.

I am over it. But maybe God isn’t done yet.