Last evening's sunset view from my sundeck.
I realize it's been two months since my last post, introducing David to you. It's been very busy finalizing the new build, getting packed and unpacked, and arranging all the details involved in moving. David and I have been officially courting since he moved down here. We've also been meeting with a godly mentor couple every few weeks. We're striving to be intentional as we grow in our relationship.
As I have answered people's questions about how I'm doing and what is happening in my life, and they hear about the new house and my relationship with David, I have received a common response, "Oh, you deserve it!" While I realize where this sentiment comes from -- that people are happy for me considering what I've been through -- it still makes me uneasy. It's as if to say I earned God's favour, or that by suffering what I did karma somehow determines that good should come to me.
That's dangerous theology and philosophy.
I can do nothing to deserve God's favour, and karma is an utter lie. There is no impersonal "force" in the universe that determines events based on causal influences. There is only God Who is sovereign. This God is to Whom we owe our total allegiance based on His very nature, not Who owes us anything.
So, even with the best intentions (which I appreciate), it is just plain wrong to say I deserve the blessings God is giving me. But there is something I do deserve...
Hell.
Thank God I am not getting what I deserve! Ponder this amazing truth:
For
the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God [that is, His
remarkable,
overwhelming gift of grace to believers] is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23 AMP
If a gift is deserved, is it truly a gift? Is there anything you or I can do, sinners that we are, to earn favour with a holy God? No. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that He would offer me such a gift! A gift which Daniel accepted too, and is now basking in the eternal glory of the full meaning of that gift!
Besides, the flip side of that thinking would imply that I somehow deserved the suffering I went through, or more than that, that Daniel deserved to get cancer, suffer excruciatingly, and die. That is the logical conclusion, but I don't think any of us would be okay with that. While there are natural consequences to some decisions we make, and God may choose to discipline those He loves (Heb. 12:6), that's not the case in my situation.
God, in His infinite wisdom and goodness, has His reasons for allowing things in our lives, both suffering and blessing. It's not our job to figure out the why's, but with an attitude of thankfulness to allow whatever our circumstances to teach us more about Him as we allow the Holy Spirit to apply the truth of God's Word to our specific situations. To what ultimate end? To the glory of God's name.
