God Put Them There

Romans 13:1

"Let every person be loyally subject to the governing (civil) authorities. For there is no authority except from God [by His permission, His sanction], and those that exist do so by God's appointment."

I was walking out of work this evening and I was kinda troubled by something that my boss said to me as we finished up a final meeting for the day.  What he said isnt really important. What is, at least as I see it, was my thoughts about his comments and then the comments that God made to me about my thoughts.

See I was thinking to myself, "what am I gonna have to do to get across to my boss that,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and what if I am not able? Will that work against me professionally, financially,,,,,,,,,,,,"  You can probably see where my thinking was headed, down a half lit but all too familiar path of uncertainty and anxiety.  I can leap over 2 or 3 good and plausible reasons for things and go right to the worst potential outcome and the reason.  No evidence for the jump, just habit. Proverbs 14:12 puts it pretty plainly, "There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death." That kind of plainness should cause us to turn our ears Gods way if we even think we hear or might hear, or hope to hear from Him on a matter. 

The comments that the Lord made to me regarding these thoughts were along the lines of, " You know Jim if you really trusted me with this concern you are feeling, then whatever happened would be for your best interest and blessing. If you really believed that I was in charge of everything, like you have said you believe."

Its funny how God does that. Not a lot of words to bring a point right home. No wasted effort. No excess and no shortages. A finely crafted word in our ear. No condemnation but instruction and wisdom.  Proverbs 15:31 in the New Living Translation says it this way, "If you listen to constructive criticism, you will be at home among the wise.     I dont want to put myself into that category (wise) but if we heed the instruction of the Lord we cant help but become better than we were or would have been had we turned our ear away. 

So I quit worrying and started thinking about how much easier and less stressful trusting God makes living. Some will see this as escapism perhaps and other still may just see it has silly. But I really do want God to instill in my a fierce faith so that my life just plain looks different to the rest of the world (in a God way). 

This has a little to do with the devotion from yesterday too (all 3 of my followers out there will know what I am talking about).  The elected leadership of this and any other country are there because God has allowed them and purposed them to be there.  "By Me kings reign and rulers decree justice", He says. Pretty simple and straight ahead there - if they are there, its because God put them there.  Now that doesn't mean that it isn't hard to understand sometimes the big picture purpose for the North Korean leadership, or some of the unstable middle eastern authorities, but if we believe like we say that we do then we will have to listen to the voice of God (His Word) and subject our wisdom to His.  Like I said yesterday we dont have to be apathetic about the selection of leaders in our land but we also cant think that the sky is falling because we win or lose the congress or the white house, etc, etc, etc.  

Great peace have they that love thy law O Lord.  David said that and its still good today. Resting in Gods wisdom and His plan for my life and for the world takes a lot of the stress out like I said. Leaves me more time to ponder some of the deep mysteries like why Gods voice often sounds like that of my wife. Hmmm?