Chosen Grace

A couple of weeks ago I was in my room doing my nails. As I was sitting there looking at the television, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was my uncle. I pressed the answer button and immediately heard my Uncle’s booming voice.

“Lay, get your shoes on. I need you to come with me.” My uncle said.

I scrunched my face up in confusion and yet found myself gathering my shoes as he said. Seconds later I was out of the door and off to an unexpected adventure with my uncle. I ended up taking him to get his truck which had been in the shop. What I didn’t expect, though, was to end up driving his truck (and it’s HUGE!). In the midst of me driving, my uncle gave me some driving tips which I made mental notes of.

A few days later my younger sister was preparing her speech for a pre-graduation ceremony she developed a cough. After telling our mom, she waited as Mama went to the store. When Mama returned, my sister opened the medicine and like me she scrunched her face up in confusion.

“Gold pills?” She exclaimed. “I’ve never had gold pills before.” She said as she help up the pills for me to see. Sure enough, the pills were richly golden and I arched my eyebrow in curiosity and confusion. I watched in amusement as she took the pills and headed off to bed.

The next day my sister’s cough was gone and she was more than ready give her speech a few nights later.

Taking heed to both of these events happening one week from one another, I decided to talk to the Lord. As I did Lord said, “Trust the process.”

You see, there are times where we do not understand what God is doing. It feels, looks, smells, and tastes as if God isn’t doing anything and reality can look pretty bleak if I’m being honest.

I’m currently enduring this in my own life. And while I know that God is doing a new thing, I have trouble sometimes resting in that truth when I’m doing the same thing daily.

Despite my feelings, God – in His faithfulness- led me to a story in the Bible which I’m going to share below:

All the men rose up together as one, saying, “None of us will go home. No, not one of us will return to his house. ⁹ But now this is what we’ll do to Gibeah: We’ll go up against it in the order decided by casting lots. ¹⁰ We’ll take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred from a thousand, and a thousand from ten thousand, to get provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrives at Gibeah^[a] in Benjamin, it can give them what they deserve for this outrageous act done in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the Israelites got together and united as one against the city…. ²² But the Israelites encouraged one another and again took up their positions where they had stationed themselves the first day. ²³ The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and they inquired of the Lord. They said, “Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites?”
The Lord answered, “Go up against them.”
²⁴ Then the Israelites drew near to Benjamin the second day. ²⁵ This time, when the Benjamites came out from Gibeah to oppose them, they cut down another eighteen thousand Israelites, all of them armed with swords.
²⁶ Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. ²⁷ And the Israelites inquired of the Lord. (In those days the ark of the covenant of God was there, ²⁸ with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministering before it.) They asked, “Shall we go up again to fight against the Benjamites, our fellow Israelites, or not?”
The Lord responded, “Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”

– Judges 20, NIV

I know this was a lot to read, but each verse is important.

You see, in the chapter above, the entire nation of Israel was angry at it’s brother tribe Benjamin for the events that happened in Judges 18. In that chapter, a Levite priest allowed his concubine to be assaulted by men and in the morning he hacked her to pieces. He sent the 12 pieces to each of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Because of this, the entire nation of Israel was angry with the tribe of Benjamin and rose to fight against them. Before they went all willy nilly and shed the blood Benjamin, they inquired of the Lord.

Upon first inquiring of the Lord, He told them that the tribe of Judah would go up first. Well, Judah did and lost.

I’m sure that this must’ve puzzled Israel because they were obedient in what the Lord told them to do. So, they inquired of the Lord a second time and He told them to go up and fight. Well- they did and lost that battle too!

When I read this chapter, I’ll admit I felt for Israel. I couldn’t help but to wonder why the Lord would tell them to go up and fight if He knew they would loose?

And just as I had this thought about the nation of Israel, the Lord revealed to me these same thoughts in my day to day life. I had been wondering “Why am I enduring this?” and “Lord this really does not make any sense.”

And maybe like me you have been feeling the same thing. Maybe the Lord has you in a tough process as well. And like the nation of Israel you have been obedient in His request- whether that be to be still, leave, or pray an extra five minutes longer.

Well, if that is you, I want to encourage you today that even when it looks like God is doing nothing- He is in fact doing everything. Just like I wasn’t expecting to ride with my Uncle and learn driving tips, my sister was not expecting gold pills would make her feel better, and the children of Israel were not expecting to loose the battle twice- God had a plan in all things. As Romans 8:28 explains it, “All things work together for the God of those who love the Lord and who are called according to His purpose.”

I want to also let you know that God’s process a lot of times does not look like our own. There are days where we want things to happen in a certain order or timeline. And yet- it rarely ever does. Why? Because in God’s sovereignty He already has our steps ordered. The same God who set the foundations of the world is the same God who knows our end from our beginning (Psalm 46:10).

Because He is all knowing, we can trust that His process is good for us.

As I draw this blog post to a close I want to encourage all of you that sometimes God’s plan for our lives may look bleak now- but in the end it will be better than we can ever ask, think, or imagine.

All you and I have to do is to trust the process.

Love,

Malaysia

P.S: God’s word did not fail the nation of Israel. In the end- they reconciled with Benjamin and they all became one family again. What they wanted was dust compared to God’s plan for them.