KNOWING FOR CERTAIN

SUNSET ON THE PEMBOKESHIRE COAST PATH MJ2006

IT'S INTERESTING HOW THIS KEEPS COMING BACK AGAIN......SEE PREVIOUS BLOGS AND SERMONS ON 'I KNOW THE PLANS...'(JER 29:11).
WE ARE REMINDED YET AGAIN THAT IF GOD KNOWS THE PLANS, THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW, EVEN THOUGH WE CANNOT SEE AT PRESENT.

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, 'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own.' Genesis 15:12

Being one person (or one family, one community, one small business) in the middle of a very big picture can be very disturbing. 'My hands are tied', 'I cannot change the outcome', 'I don't know how to protect myself', 'I don't know where to turn', 'I don't know what to do'.

God had given Abram grounds for ambitious expectations about the future, a belief that his dynasty would make the world a better place, a sense that he had a big part in God's plans, but he could see nothing. He had only glimmers of understanding that any of this would happen. There was only darkness. He could not see the big picture. So, God said to him, 'Don't worry - I know what will happen to you. Just know for certain that these are my plans for you and they will work out. in the long run.'

Abram would not see any of these long-term plans work out, nor, incidentally, would he know that the promises would only be fulfilled completely at the end of time. The picture is much bigger than the son who has not yet been born to him, much bigger than his descendants, much bigger than the children of Israel living in the Promised Land, or exiled from it. The picture is the whole of human history.

We cannot see the whole any more than Abram could - and his calling was special and unique. We cannot tell what part in God's plan our little moments play. We, too, sometimes are in places of darkness. But we can know for certain that the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ is wholly trustworthy, will keep all his promises and will make sure that his best of all plans works out in the end. Meanwhile, as an essential part of that plan, we walk with him circumspectly, ethically, and joyfully, even in the dark, knowing that we are writing our own unique and highly significant story into God's big one.

THANKS TO Margaret Killingray (LICC)
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