Why is it that so many Christians do not seem to get the blessings they should from living the Christian life? I mean, we do the Bible Studies; we do the Spiritual "disiplines"; we do Worship. We do the things that God has told us to do, yet for some reason we still find ourselves struggling with motivation and fulfillment. Ok, so maybe that isn't you, I may just be the only Christian around who finds that he sometimes wrestles with it. So I will allow this post to be for me instead of you other spiritual giants out there.
As I was doing my quiet time the other day I found what I believe to be part of the answer to my question. I was reading in John 2:1-12. Most of you will recognize the story of Jesus' first recorded miracle. In this passage we find ourselves placed at a wedding feast in the small village of Cana. They have run out of wine to give the guest and the bridegroom is about to be humiliated. Mary, the mother of Jesus, tells Jesus about it. I have always loved this picture of Jesus' mom. After she tells Him and He tells her that it is not time for His glory to be revealed, she goes on as if He had not said a word. Now I know none of you mothers out there ever do that to your child. Do you? Anyway, Mary then turns to the servants at the wedding feast and simply says:
"Whatever He says to you, do it."
Of course, after that Jesus performs the miralce of turning the water into wine. But, in the midst of this story I came to realize that the real story is not the miracle, Mary's complete belief that Jesus could do it, or even Jesus' willingnes to obey His mother. The real story here are the servants. Let's look at this more closely. Jesus, after what I am sure was a sigh because of His mother's assumption, turns to the servants and tells them to fill the six waterpots. Much can be said about the significance of the waters of purificaion and so on. But what jumped out at me was that when Jesus said fill the pots, the servants filled them..."to the brim." When Jesus said dip a pitcher into the pot of water and take it to the wedding feast master, they dipped the pitcher "and took it." The passage even says that:
When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom.
Notice that the servants did not do as many of us do. Sometimes what God tells us to do does not make sense. I could just see the servants wanting to look at Jesus when He said to fill the water pots with water. "What kind of wacko is this?" They might have thought. But, instead of questioning the wisdom of this, they simply did what He said to do. When they drew out the water I can imagine that they might of thought that this was going to be interesting when they gave the wedding director a bunch of water. But instead, they took it...because Jesus had told them to do it.
What the servants did was the simple act of faith working in obedience. God's will does not always make sense to us. What He tells us to do can seem tedious and even nonsensical. But when we act on His words in faith, not out of simple obedience we begin to see Him do miracles in our lives. We need to, like the servants, act out of faith that God knows what He is doing and can see the end result. Our obedience does not need to come from some sense of obligation. Our obedience to God's will should come out of our faith in Him, knowing that He can see the next step, even if we can't.
Next time you find yourself complaining about what God is doing, or seeming to not do, ask yourself if you trust Him. Faith is trust. And when I trust His judegment, then I can find fulfillment in doing the simple acts of obedience, because I know that He is working all things together for my good. May we never forget that simple lesson. Father God help us to trust You and find the joy that comes from living out that faith in the works that we do. Help us to just do it Amen.
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