There Is A Purpose (pt 2)

Throughout the Scripture, our King has proved himself by preserving his people. Oh, if it was left up to me, there were many times I would have dumped those people, but He never did. He was always working to preserve His followers. But, haver you ever sat there and wondered why? Why is He so intent on preserving us? I know what I am like, and it amazes me that He just won’t quit.

We might find our answer in something Moses said:

“The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today” (Deuteronomy 6:24).

Huh? That’s right. Moses was saying that YHWH gave all those commandments to preserve and keep them. For the same reason He wants to save and protect us.

Read through the stories in what we call the Old Testament. I want you to consider all of the ways the Lord preserved his chosen people, Israel. He protected them from the ten plagues in Egypt. He delivered them from Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea. He healed them from deadly snakebites in the desert. Whenever an enemy rose up against them, He delivered them. Not only that, the people testified of the Lord’s power to deliver and rescue that stretched to their children and grandchildren: “The Lord delivered us from all our enemies. He gave us food and water, and kept our clothes from wearing out. He has preserved Israel through everything.” Even to this day, He has preserved them!

However, is that all there was to Israel’s testimony? Were these people preserved and protected just to end up dying in the wilderness? No! Moses told them, “he brought us out . . . to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors” (Deuteronomy 6:23). Moses was saying, “Look at all the miraculous ways the Lord has brought you out of bondage. What do you think that was all about? Why do you think he chose you and marked you as special from the foundation of the world? Why did he deliver you from slavery? Why did he bless you when you deserved to be abandoned?”

The Lord has preserved you so he can take you somewhere. He wants to accomplish something in your life beyond all the miracles. The Lord preserved the Israelites and put a wall around them for a specific purpose: to bring them into a place of usefulness. He was leading them to the Promised Land, a place of destiny. That is what he is doing in your life. Yes, I know that at times life seems chaotic and confusing, but that is because you are looking at things from the wrong perspective. Begin to grab His vision for your life.

I want you to memorize a portion of Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has made everything beautiful in its time!” You see, no matter what happens in your life, the trial, the test, the difficulty, whatever you want to call it, our Father makes all things beautiful in its time.

I have often paraphrased Ed Cole many times and you need to be reminded that by His transcendent power, our Father is able to make yesterday's dung, tomorrow's fertilizer. Life from our perspective is like the back side of a tapestry. There are all these seemingly random threads and colors, chaos and errors. We simply see no design. Then we turn the tapestry over and there is a beautiful picture! The backside of the tapestry is what we see in this life. There are blind steps of faith; trials and testings; victories and defeats; turning points and turn-arounds; many bad choices and frustrations, as well as satisfying ones. Most of the time, though, we are totally unaware of what our Lord is doing and how He is working.

Ask the Lord to open your eyes and even if it for a moment, to see the tapestry from His point of view. That is when we will clearly see what He has intended and designed. Suddenly, what once seemed random and pointless, will finally make perfect sense! Do you remember what Paul wrote:

“For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10)

That text I quoted from Ecclesiastes has more to offer:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Nickolas