Return of the Eagles

There is no time to develop a thought anymore. People simply will not sit still long enough to allow it.

I recall years ago a leader in a church I pastored having called out some devotional writing for taking too long to read. So, I went to the article of which he had complained, took out my stopwatch, and timed myself reading it in a somewhat leisurely manner. It took about 3 minutes to read.

We are not responsible for slowing down the pace at which others run their own race, but we are responsible for our own velocity when it comes to taking in the things of God.

For example, take these two very familiar Scriptures and really s-l-o-w down as you read them:

Matthew 5:45b ESV For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Matthew 7:1-2 ESV “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”

Do you see in the first verse that you cannot tell whether or not a man is good or evil by what kind of corn crop he has this year? And in the second verse do you additionally see that you therefore better not judge him according to that corn crop?

See how simple life gets when we slow down to read?

Wait. What?

Well, we just said that you and I cannot, BETTER NOT, judge a person by their external blessings. It was simple, right?

If you see one Believer in a $50,000 truck park next to a 15-year-old beat up car in the church parking lot, we just read in Scripture that we have NO IDEA from looking at their vehicles which one of them is more pleasing to God.

If we see a megachurch with 10,000 people and a budget of millions and a little country church on the edge of town that struggles to keep the lights on, by those criteria alone, we have no idea which one has done the best at serving God.

If you see a Believer whose life has been pretty free of hardship next to a Believer whose life has been similar to Job’s, don’t dare judge which one has pleased God best!

I have told of how God spoke to me several years ago and said in part: “I am going to place you in difficult situations for the rest of your life, in storms and whirlwinds where you will have to be willing to be humiliated and wait until the last second for me to respond..”

A hard Word to be sure, not one to be coveted by one’s friends. And yet, it has become a comfort to me, a defining Word in the worst of times that prevents me from comparing my tribulation to someone else’s apparent peace and prosperity.

In order to be people of God’s Kingdom, we must allow Him to redefine “blessings.”

Our greatest time of blessing can turn out to be during the time when our faith is challenged to the very core, when we question all we thought we knew about Him and are SHAKEN, WRECKED BEYOND RECOGNITION…

He had been making us into something wonderful and we broke it. We shattered our lives, our faith into so many unrecognizable pieces that it seemed there was nothing left of US.

And then…God begins to build us back, piece by piece, lovingly, skillfully, on His Potter’s wheel, until we are the person He always envisioned us to be when He knew us in our mother’s womb.

Yes absolutely, there are times when we need the blessing of a new computer or a house or a car or such. But if that is as far as we can see, if we can only see materially and not spiritually…It is the “wounds of a Friend that are faithful” but the kisses (blessings) that sometimes come that prove to be deceitful because they have come from an enemy. (Paraphrase from Proverbs 27:6)

It is the wounds-that-God-allows-that-turn-out-to be-the-blessings. And if we are not CAREFUL, the things we thought were the BLESSINGS, the things we CHASED until our tongues hung out, turned out to not be the blessings we thought they were…They were the deceitful kisses of an enemy.

God is moving you into a place where you never mistake his current release of what we usually categorize as blessings (or lack thereof) toward you for the indicator of His love for you.

This is just a reminder, as we prepare our hearts, minds, and bodies for a new year: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7:24 (ESV)

Or said another way: “Do not judge by appearance [superficially and arrogantly], but judge fairly and righteously.” (Amplified)

Or one more way: “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” (New Living Translation)

Now that you have been bold enough to have sacrificed these minutes to read, is it worth taking a couple more to meditate on it, to breathe it in as say, David did, down into your spirit?