Dec | 20 | The Greater Guidance Systems of God

Key Word:- OBEY

Title:- The Greater Guidance Systems of God

2 Kings 8:1,2  
Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, “Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the LORD has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years.” So the woman arose and did according to the saying of the man of God, and she went with her household and dwelt in the land of the Philistines seven years.

Guidance is such a confusing issue for the Christian. One of the main reasons why this is so, comes from our perception of the exactness of God’s goodness in relation to His total control. Our thought process might go like this: “God is in control. He knows how many hairs are on my head, He knows where the sparrow falls. God is in control. He knows the thoughts in my heart the words in my head before they slip from my stammering lips. God knows everything, controls everything. He is my Dad and He will do good to me. He will never let anything bad happen to me and will always give me clear direction”. Oh and by the way, this isn't just a good internal monologue, this is also great and correct Biblical thinking! So far so good then...

So, having come to grips with and believed God’s gracious Sovereignty toward us, why then do we oftentimes then find ourselves in ungracious, difficult and even terrifying situations?! The former reasoning on God’s loving and gracious sovereignty does not go with the latter situations I have described us often finding oursleves in,  and so we when we do, we become both perplexed and worried. After all, you hadn’t been sinning; you had been seeking God and His glory and yet look at this mess. What’s happening here? Is there something more we should have known about His good will toward us?

“Ah well of course,” says the theological acrobat, “you have probably stepped into God’s permissive will, rather than His perfect will for your life, and that’s always problematic. You’ve missed your way, you’ve not been listening as acutely as you should have been somewhere along your journey, no sir, so then, right now, you had better start asking for God’s perfect will to be done in your life, mate!” My stomach get's tied in knots just thinking about such a ‘helpful’ theological conversation. What to do then, what to do?

Well, look at God’s will here in our verse today. “I am sending a famine. Get out and go ANYWHERE but here.” In light of God’s Sovereignty this seems pretty poor direction doesn’t it? If God told me something like this I would say, “Lord, thanks, but shall I go to the South where the sun is shining bright and my rheumatism may find some relief? Should I go to the North where the cost of housing is cheaper? Should I go to the East and have a greater witness amongst people that do not know the Lord? Should I go to the dangerous badlands of the West, where amongst the raucous mountains, sinners abound? Lord, where should I go?” Well, the answer of God towards us right here would still be: “GO ANYWHERE but here!”

Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that God is into specific direction giving. Not all the time though and not here in our verse for today. He is certainly not saying to the Shunamite, “you are so insignificant in the big play, it does not matter where you are on the field girl, just go. ANYWHERE!” Nope, He warns her only to leave the land, and in so doing, she is exceptionally blessed and supremely loved. She matters to Him. “Get up, get out and go ANYWHERE but here.” says God. "I'm gonna leave the 'where' to you and your wisdom, you and your desire, you and your own possibilities." Can you see that?

Let us relax a little more in the three greater truths of direction finding:

Greater truth No1: It doesn’t matter where you live, but it matters HOW you live, where you live.
Greater truth No2: You can only serve God, where you are right now.
Greater truth No3: Your influence is greater when you live abundantly in your time frame. Don’t wait for your space frame to be more pleasing to you. How we live in time is of more eternal consequence than where we live in space. 'Now,' is much more important than 'where.'

Friend, if you are fretting today about the coming New year and about your geographical locale within it, then maybe some prayerful consideration of this trinity of truth will help focus you a little more. Of course like all great trinities, they are in fact, all one and the same truth. Here it is:-How and now, is always greater than where and when. This should be our priceless and well practiced phonetic.

Listen:- We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

Pray: - Lord, don’t let me grow old waiting to be in the right place to serve You, to be Your salt and to be Your light. Rather, help me today to live in the now and in the how, trusting You, O wise and loving Father to take care of all my where’s and of all my when’s. Amen.