Readiness without Limits

Do you understand the joy of testing?

God binds the Bible; it does not bind Him. He is the ultimate free agent, the only one in a position to have His will every time in every thing. There are a whole host of things He does for His children that are never mentioned, nor even hinted at, in the record of Scripture.

Over the years I have grown what some would call a yearning for adventure. I’m sure there’s something in my personality that enhances this, but the real issue is I’m a junkie for His miracles. He provides every time, without fail. I have failed repeatedly, but He always provides an answer. This is what I really crave; I delight in being thrown out into some situation I can’t predict. My heart always tells me that God is watching and arranging things for His glory. All I have to do is discover where that glory stands.

This is why I still long to go bikepacking in the countryside. Sometimes I don’t get where I think I want to go, but everything turns out alright, every time. He always provides an answer to every challenge. It rekindles the experiences I had in the military. I admit that I didn’t enjoy it so much at the time, largely because of my own lack of spiritual maturity, but I can look back and see how God took good care of me despite my attitude. I would relish being ordered to pack up and deploy somewhere I’ve never been and set up a bivouac.

This is the stuff that invades my dreams in bed at night. It echoes in my reading of the Bible, when God’s people moved at His command and it was considered a virtue to endure some level of deprivation simply to avoid becoming trapped in hedonistic comforts.

Nor should you imagine He does not take care of your soul. If anything, that’s more important than your flesh. He provides everything we need for His glory, and that includes a whole range of spiritual and psychological experiences that change your perspective, moving you closer to where He wants you at the time. More importantly, He moves you to a better standing to face what’s coming down the road.

This is why you should not question why God delays acting on things that seem so obviously in need of His hand. Sometimes you are the problem. Usually there’s something you don’t see, don’t quite grasp, but sometimes He won’t act until you are standing in the right place. You need to understand that this is all part of the adventure, that enduring the waiting and not knowing is part of His provision for His glory in your life.

Finally, you wouldn’t want to tell God where the boundaries are. There are whole raft of ways and experiences through which God has led His people, spiritual effects that defy explanation, in part because they aren’t mentioned in Scripture. Get used to the idea that God is not limited by what makes sense to you.