Redeemed to enjoy God

Time spent walking around the lake near our house is always time well spent. It's quiet with wildlife nearby, not too many people, and very pleasant scenery. Nancy and I really enjoy our walks here. But today, we found out that a friend has Lou Gehrig's disease and has about a year to live. She is 66 and can't eat without a tube. Her husband Bob is 69. I asked him how it's going this morning during our workout and he said, "God has blessed us in so many ways we can't count them all. We just live each day, one day at a time and rejoice in the time we have."

How do you come to understand God's motives? He sometimes seems to withhold blessings we legitimately desire. According to Larry Crabb in his book The Pressure's Off, it is the "Immanuel Agenda." Crabb says, "He (God) will be with a people who value Him above every other blessing. He will create that people at the cost of His Son's death and at the cost of being hurt every day by children who really don't want Him except to use Him. He is allowing good dreams to shatter to arouse the better dream of knowing Him."

Jonathan Edwards once said that the spiritual journey requires an "intense concentration on God's point of view." Such a concentration he says, will "cause an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of our interests in heaven." When things go wrong, we tend to get "me" focused or we blame God.

I shouldn't make it my goal to get out of life what I want. That's called greed. As I learn to follow Jesus, I can drink the living water that satisfies the real thirst that I have. As for my friends, while they are suffering and not doing what they probably really want, they are redeemed to enjoy God and their hearts are fixed on Him. More is available to us in Jesus Christ than we dare imagine.