God works in all things...
Deep in the psyche of western minds is a subconscious picture of a God who is apart - even remote - from us. He is 'up there' or 'out there' somewhere, watching what goes on and occasionally intervening on our behalf. At its heart this view sees God more as a Spectator than one who is involved in what is going on in the world and in our lives.
That is a broken view of God.
Listen to our text: "God works in all things. ." Far from being the Distant Spectator, God is the Ultimate Participant. In all things around us, be they good or painful, God is slowly and relentlessly and in the face of constant push back, working to bring His purposes to bear in this beautiful yet fractured world. And He does so not from Combined Operations HQ - wherever that may be - but by immersing Himself in this Universe.
God is in the flow of all things. He is the living and energising God within all reality. He is awesome. He is beyond the measure of our minds, but He is closer to us than breathing, working in all things, enlivening and sustaining the Universe, bringing hope and healing to broken lives.
We need to rediscover God, or re-imagine Him, as the God of the present continuous tense, the God working in all things who, even as you are reading these words, is loving, strengthening, healing, reconciling, restoring, sustaining, blessing, resisting.
God is at work "in all things" and He does so in deep oneness and partnership with His beloved Son who once told us that, "My Father goes on working, and so do I."
If there is one thing God asks of us it is that we participate with Him in what He is doing in the world. Isn't that what mission is about?
| And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans8:28) |
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James Gray is the minister of the Hermanus United Church. He likes to walk on the beach, hike in the mountains, play golf and tell Bible stories.
