August 3, 2013
Daniel 4:35 — And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
Do you get frustrated with the unfathomable unpredictability of modern technology? As I have worked with computers for almost 40 years, I generally expect that they will work, or that I will be able to wrestle them into submission — but sometimes the seeming randomness of it all will defeat me. I’m getting better about dealing with it, I hope, but still …
I’ve just been on a short business trip, with my cool new iPad mini (it was a gift, I didn’t buy it!). On the flights out, in-flight wifi worked perfectly. On the flights back, not at all. I read the help text, followed the suggestions — no luck. Well, if that’s the worse thing that happens it’s not the end of the world. But it was one more reminder that I am not in control. In fact, the older I get the more I realize that, although I DO control some things — my choices and the way I react to what happens in my life, I live in a world in which “control” is really not mine at all.
We live in a fallen world, and so much of what happens to us is really the result of interacting forces — the force of God’s will, and the counter forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is what God wants for my life, and what the enemy wants — and I cannot deny that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12). There is a mystery here — because I cannot deny that for a time God’s permissive will allows satan and his servants to impact my life. Does God “want” their activities? Absolutely not, but He does permit them. Is He powerless to prevent them? Absolutely not. I am forced to conclude that an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God knows that in someway allowing me to deal with “bad” things — from minor frustrations to major suffering — is in my eternal best interests.
I seem to have come a long way from the frailties of modern technology in a very short time! I must confess that even these short pieces don’t always go as I expect. They start with a seed thought, and then it seems the Spirit leads from one idea to the other — even in this small thing I have to know that I am not in charge and that with patience the words of Ecclesiastes 7:8 will be true once again —
“Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”
Be patient, God is in control!