What Will God Do?
July 2021
My wonderful friends:
At this celebrated time of year, a time of remembrance, commemoration, and tribute, I want to share more on God’s divine will, His guidance, what our forebearers termed “providence.” This should be of importance to us all, for we have a God with strong moral demands, and those who preceded us rightly feared His righteous judgment for our personal and national iniquities. Do we still rightly fear Him? Yet they also held that God’s providence would bring about His purpose — regardless.
Yet we now see so much chaos and uncertainty, which does appear to be causing irreparable damage to the future. Still, I know, the providence of God is real. His providence is time tested, experienced over centuries, and still felt by tens of millions. I know in my life His hand of guidance, and protection, as I believe have most Christians. God is always there, when the Jewish Sanhedrin threatened the Disciples to stop preaching, they would “rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name” (Acts 5:41). When Rome used lions and fiery stakes to stop the first Christian revival, it was Rome that crumbled. When repeated floods of heathen barbarians overran what was left, it was Christianity that saved civilization. When the “Enlightenment” supposedly made religion irrelevant, it was Christianity that again saved civilization. And in God’s providence Christianity will again save Civilization!
You know something needs saving when churches are boarded up because they have been holding Sunday services, and a Pastor in Canada can be dragged off in handcuffs for all to see. His crime? “Inciting” people to go to church! And he is not the only Pastor arrested in both our countries for the same crime. A little girl has her bible taken from her in school while reading it at lunchtime. Yes, the school had to return it, but the mindset that would take it in the first place is frightening. These last few months can only be understood by seeing the handiwork of Lucifer. “For we are not contending against flesh and blood,” Paul tells us, as he exhorts us to “be strong in the Lord…so as to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph.6:12,11).
Often, perhaps too often we expect God to take care of our wreckage. We read “that in all things God works for the good” (Rm.8:28). That’s true, yet “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rm.8:37), and “I can do all things in Him who strengthen me” (Phil.4:13). We need to understand that these promises are realized by God working through us, bringing victory by our efforts. Of course, it is He who enables, strengthens, empowers, but He is acting through us. Read the whole passage; “God works for the good, with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose….Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword” (Rm.8:28,31,35)? We are to be victorious or conquerors because He is working through us in all these trials, perils, and the chaos.
There is a little passage of Paul’s easily over looked, “I would have you wise as to what is good and guileless as to what is evil; then the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (16:19-20). Under whose feet is Satan to be crushed? Note, it is ours!!! It reminds one of our Lord’s words, “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Mt.10:16). But here Paul is also prophetic, the God of peace, that is the God of Shalom, of wholeness and blessedness, will crush Satan, but under our feet. Here is the image of the conqueror placing their feet upon the neck of those defeated. As the parables of the pound and the talents both relate we as the faithful are to be at work for the Master (Lk.19:11;Mt.25:14). This is what discipleship is. This is our faith! We have been given free will, so as to do His will, willingly. God does not micromanage the world. He nudges here, shoves a little there, making sure things are moving as He desires, but more He desires us to move things. Yes, there are wolves out there, but it is through Him with this great promise “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ…” (Phil.1:6). What will God do? He will use us! And we will not fail, because He will not fail, and He will not fail us!
“We are more than conquerors through Him…”
Thomas R. Wyatt
