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Moving on to pastures new... (Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Moving on to pastures new…
(Photo by Susanne Schuberth)

Imagine God asked you to go on vacation with Him. Not next year, not tomorrow, no, right now. You would not know where you’d go to, how it looked like, and what might happen to you, however, you could be sure that God would care for everything you might ever need and that He would give you perfect peace 24/7 if you trust in Him (Is 26:3). Furthermore, God told you that you could stay there with Him, even forever. “Pipe dreams,” one might say, “Interesting,” might add another. These two responses certainly came from adults who not only lost their illusions, which might be a good thing, but maybe, they also lost their hope and dreams. Now imagine God asked a little child this very same question. How would he or she react? I think we know the answer…

Do we like surprises? I admit that I do not like them that much; even pleasant surprises sometimes stress me out.  😉 Thank God, I read a devotional by Oswald Chambers in which he explains our very problem as adults (see below). We know if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to become like little children again. But how do we get there? Lately I have been thinking that this change comes through surrendering all those areas in my life I know I cannot change. As soon as God reveals another vulnerable spot in my soul, I hear Him often say, “Let it be there, I will take it away.” At first I argued a bit with Him, saying that I could not surrender, I did not even know HOW! Yet listening a bit closer to His still small voice, I have heard Him whispering, again and again, “Leave it all up to Me!” Just this evening, as I was confronted with another one of my “old” triggers ( Ouch!  😛 ) and I had tried to do everything to NOT react as usual, God told me same thing, “Leave it ALL up to Me!” As I still wondered what He might have meant, I felt a deep overwhelming calmness, both inside me and apparently somehow around me too, that immediately ensued His words. At the same time, I felt that the desired change of my heart and mind had begun (that is, the vulnerability slowly, but continually alleviated) without me doing ANYTHING about it. Brothers and sisters, THAT was a miracle to me!!!  🙂
But now I do not want to withhold Oswald Chambers’ devotional from you.

Our natural inclination is to be so precise– trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next– that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?” We cannot presume to see ourselves in any circumstance in which we have never been.

Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life– gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises. When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God– it is only believing our belief about Him. Jesus said, “…unless you…become as little children…” (Matthew 18:3). The spiritual life is the life of a child. We are not uncertain of God, just uncertain of what He is going to do next. If our certainty is only in our beliefs, we develop a sense of self-righteousness, become overly critical, and are limited by the view that our beliefs are complete and settled. But when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy. Jesus said, “…believe also in Me” (John 14:1), not, “Believe certain things about Me”. Leave everything to Him and it will be gloriously and graciously uncertain how He will come in– but you can be certain that He will come. Remain faithful to Him.

http://utmost.org/gracious-uncertainty/

Eventually, I was just reminded that I wrote a poem about our childlikeness recently too. If someone is interested, here is the link

https://susanneschuberth.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/like-little-children/.

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