Where to Find It!

After my morning Bible study today, I realized that most of my wife’s and my adult Christian life has been spent assisting others in grasping a Godly vision for their lives.  I can’t say that it was always an obvious effort, in fact most times it was simply the two of us, either separately or together, living out our Christian convictions in our daily lives.

As I continued to study Proverbs 29:18 it dawned on me that this is just what Christians do!  Solomon, the author most associated with this proverb, boldly asserted: “If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed.” (MSG)

As Assistant Pastors, Piper and I spend countless hours at church and our home talking with adults, youth and kids who were in the midst of trying situations.  We were not the type to immediately tell the other folks what we felt they needed to do… and if you’ve been reading this blog for very long you probably know what direction we took… Yep!  We guided them into God’s Word!  And why did we do that?  To get them to see His perspective or vision on what they were facing!

We’ve always felt that it was important for the individual in need to discover and then take ownership of God’s plan for what they were dealing with.  Once they cast their eyes upon what He had to say, the door was opened for them to begin to build an expectation of His best in their situation and as that expectation was ignited they were able to build up their faith for His victory in their lives.

You see, that expectation that Papa God and His Word will work for you develops confidence in Him… and in your own ability to know Him in ever increasing and deeper manifestations of His love for you!

Through the years we’ve come to see many strong and mature Christians who still have areas in their lives that they have not yet fully surrendered to God… or you could say that they have not yet discovered His vision for that part of them (I’ll openly include myself as one of these folks as I’ve learned some shocking things about what was in me as I have had to handle different physical, emotional and spiritual situations throughout my wife’s illness). 

In my life, I have discovered those areas in me by the way I find myself first responding to a new situation.  When I react in judgement, fear, or anger I know that something is amiss!  This was one of the most shocking things for me at the beginning of our ordeal.  Now, a few yeas later, I tend to go right past the shock and delve into His Word to get His vision on how I need to handle this situation… permanently!

I also discovered another part of this puzzle while in the Old Testament over the last few days.  I realized that the people of God in the Old Testament were very much focused on sin, while the New Testament Christian (ie; you and me) are to be focused on love.  In the OT the Children of Israel followed the law as their mandate to God’s way with the major purpose of the Law to point the Jewish people to their need for a Savior.  The Law was a list of Do’s and Don’ts that made the followers of it continually conscious of their sins.

In the NT Jesus died to save us from our sins and in one swift move the sin problem was taken care of… for good!  Not just covered for a year like the OT yearly sacrifice of the blood of a lamb ceremony but totally and completely… once and for all for those who will accept Him as their personal Savior and Lord!  A Christian need not be focused on sin anymore, but on the love of Jesus!

So, if your response to any situation in this world expresses itself through the judgment of others or yourself, or in fear or in anger… you’ve got the focus of your vision in the wrong place!

And what is my point to all of this?  Well my friend, its another important reason for us to be studying God’s Word on a daily basis.  It is the only way to discover His vision for everything going on in your life… AND… help others in finding another vision and therefore a Godly expectancy for answers in their lives as well!

Like I keep saying… The answer is in the Word.  In many ways as Christians we need to be more like my Dad when I would call out from my room when doing homework and ask “How do you spell ________ ?” and he would inevitably call back: “Look it up in the dictionary!”  Except in our case, our Christian response to others (as well as to the questions we personally face on a regular basis) should be: “Look it up in the Bible!”

Eventually you’ll get to the place of not even having to think about it, but go directly to the Word that you’ve stored in your heart, downloaded to your phone, tablet or laptop or in the book sitting on the dining room table.  If you’re like me you’ll even get a bit excited at the prospect of exploring in the Word!  I just got a new Dell laptop as my older Toshiba was beginning to do some strange things! 

I spent an hour or more yesterday downloading various programs including my eSword Bible Study program to which I added a few new study sources.  And today I felt like a little kid as I told my wife that I was quite excited about studying the Word with the new resources… Oooh… maybe I’ll discover some new truths I hadn’t seen before!

So dig in to His Word and see what new truths are awaiting for you to discover in your quest to focus your sights on His vision for your daily lives.  And as you do, keep saying to yourself… “What VISION am I expecting to discover in my Bible today?"