"CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!" SAYS GOD

(The succeeding story appears with permission)

Last night in our Bible study, one guy shared why he was no where to be found by any of our church friends in the last several months. Well, he was going through a phase- a phase I wish none of my readers will ever go through. He'd grown so disappointed with his own life and the things surrounding his circumstances that he came to believe he had no control over the things he was facing and thus he goes through this phase. But even before I continue, let me say that, first, I think the decision he was making in the phase is just plainly insane; second, it's not a decision one makes to get God's attention. He was giving up on God!

While he was sharing, every ounce of who I am wanted to leap over the table, grab his head, shut his mouth and make him listen to what I was about to say. Finally, after detailing all that had to him, I was able to speak. In the spirit of Christian love, I tried to rebuke, discourage, encourage, reprimand, uplift, edify and admonish the guy's soul. That's what the Church is all about- we are a hospital for the broken, the battered, the bruised and the bored.

In my short little speech (since I wasn't the one facilitating), I told him and everyone that the decision to give up on God is in every way insanely inane. I know the word insane is strong, but that's just it. In the process, I told him that we should never give up on God because He never gives up on us. He never tells us "Catch me if you can" instead He says, "Take a closer walk with me because I want a closer walk with you."

During our prayer time, I told him that I was glad to see him and that he should never feel that way towards God ever againm because, if anything, trials and tough times are designed to make us better people, stronger and humbler beings. They are designed to chisel a character out of our rough souls!

What is God's will for your life, and in mine? I want to say something that is very important about understanding the will of God and our ability to discern what it is. God never has very much communicated with people through burning bushes. He chooses chiefly to communicate through burning hearts. Hearts passionately in love with Jesus Christ. If you are really, really serious about finding God's will for your life, but you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then that is the place to begin.[1]

You can divide God's will into his general will and into his specific will. His general will is always, always very clear. We find his general will clearly revealed in Scripture in the area of what you and I are to believe; ethics, morals, life-style, how we are to behave.

But most of our questions about the will of God don't come in that general area, do they? They come in a specific area. Who should I marry? Should I take this job or that? Am I to move? Should I continue chemotherapy or not? A lot of times, we get worked up in tizzy over what God's specific will for our lives is, without grounding ourselves and being sure we understand what God's general will is for our lives.[2]

Like the Christian guy who was fretting over 'Should I move in and live with Anne, or Sheila?' Well, if he knew the general will of God, that would not have been a question at all. He wouldn't have top choose between Anne or Sheila. Read through the Bible with me in its entirety; so that over the years as you will rub up against other people the clearly revealed general will of God, it becomes our anchor. It becomes our guidepost. It becomes the lens through which we can better discern the specific will of God. I can tell you now what God's supreme will for your life and mine is: its that we have an intimate personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ.[3]

Matthew Henry, the great Biblical scholar, one night was walking home and he was mugged, beat to a pulp, his wallet stolen. That night in his journal, Matthew Henry wrote these words: "Lord, I thank you. I thank you that I have never been robbed before. Lord, secondly I thank you that they took my wallet, but not by life. Thirdly Lord, I thank you that I was the one who was robbed, not the one doing the robbing."

The word "thankful." In the Anglo-Saxon it means "thinkful." When we examine our lives, when we think out our lives, when we think about our lives in the light of God's grace and our personal relationship with Christ, it is then we ought to be thankful for a whole lot of things. We have such a God of grace and mercy. Isn't it wonderful that he blesses our lives, not just in those areas where we are thankful. When was the last time you gave thanks for our shampoo?[4]

He continues to bless us, even in areas when we are not thankful. But you know what? When you and I are thankful, our heart beats more closely in sync with God's heart. When that happens, you and I are much more likely to discern God's specific will for our lives.

Martin Luther once said that, "If it were the will of God, I would plant an oak tree today, even if I knew Christ were coming tomorrow." [5]

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1 Sermon June 20, 1999, Dr. Ron Scates Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Luther's Sermon, The Bondage of the Will