Red Light. Green Light.
.
Exodus 40:33-39
33. And he erected the court round the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work. 34. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would go onward; 37. but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not go onward till the day that it was taken up. 38. For throughout all their journeys the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.
Romans 8:14
Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
I don’t know about you, but I am so prone to run ahead of God! I feel absolute and complete clarity about a situation and so rush in and go for it! And that can be a good quality! In fact volunteer coordinators pray for people like me to show up! I “see that cloud” and go charging ahead. Too often, I’m much too busy to notice that the cloud has stopped! What I am learning, or trying to learn, is that sometimes God wants us to do one part of a task or do two things toward a goal. Then he wants us to wait for further instructions.
My problem with that is: I don’t like to read the directions--I can usually figure out how to assemble things without them -- having made that declaration I won’t comment on the bookcase that has two of the front facings backwards. And I certainly won’t reveal any of the other masterpieces I created “of my own accord!” God has allowed an instruction manual to be assembled for us--the Bible. It is the instruction manual for perfection. He provides us countless examples of those who didn’t listen, those who didn’t obey, those who thought they had a better way or could do it on their own. And he shows us what is possible, if we just follow the example of Christ!
I am reminded of those “trick” tests where you are given countless instructions, some of the quite silly, and leave us scratching our head. After several pages we get to the last instruction which says, put down your pencil and wait for the people who didn’t follow the instructions to read the entire test before beginning! That’s the role Jesus plays. He’s not a shortcut -- His life and death did NOT give us the right to sin and sin and sin. His life and death demonstrated how much God is wounded when we don’t wait for the whole plan, when we don’t read all the instructions, when we rush ahead. That’s all sin. We may not think of it that way, but it is. It’s sin because we are separating ourselves from God.
God is on duty 24/7. That cloud is ever present by day and is illuminated by fire by night. There is no time in our lives when God is not ready and willing to provide us direction, guidance, understanding and clarity. We only need to stop. Wait. Pray. I will only speak for myself, but the times I followed that pattern, things in my life ran much more smoothly than the times I took charge. God does a much better job of ordering my life -- after all he ordered the universe -- so he has had a lot more practice! I am learning to trust him more and more. I am consciously waiting each step of my journey. I don’t always succeed in either capacity! Thankfully, God’s not surprised by that! And that cloud just stays over me for the times I’m ready to look up and see what I’m supposed to do next.
I pray that one of the things you are thankful for this week is that cloud of wisdom, clarity, guidance, and love that God provides us. And that you will look up often to see whether you are to “go” or “wait.”
Mary
