It all began in first grade, that dreaded part of the school day… English! I never understood diagramming sentences or conjugating verbs and it haunted me all the way through school. I, me, he, she, it, they, them… past tense, present tense, future tense, and all the others… present simple, present continuous, present perfect, past simple… it still drives me nuts. I never stopped asking the same questions… Why, what for? Sort of for the same reason that I am so glad I get to use algebra every day of my life.
But then God!
So here I am today and the heart of the ministry the Lord has tasked me to is “writing.” For the past 27 years I have been writing for WalkWithGod Ministries and every day in my business life. My life has been full of creating, editing, proofing for others. It has even included 15 books, an untold number of published reports and even ghost writing a New Your Times Best Seller… go figure. And here’s the kicker… I enjoy it and it brings me great satisfaction to turn out something that is not only grammatically correct but is informative and easy to read.
So, yesterday I ran across something in a commentary on 2 Corinthians by John Phillips that brought up all these thoughts.
2 Cor 1:9-10 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,
10 who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…
As we walk through life we frequently find ourselves troubled with “conjugating” our life… looking back, dealing with today, and worrying about tomorrow. But God has already “conjugated” our life… past, present, and future. He “has” delivered us, is “going on” delivering us, and “will” deliver us.
That is the foundational promise that underpins our walk with Jesus through this life. At every crossroad and every turn in walking out our salvation (our sanctification, our conformation) He has already set the record straight. Remember, we are already “justified, sanctified, and glorified” in His eyes. Our past, present, and future are already in His hands. The sentence that is our life has already been diagrammed and it reads perfectly… we just don’t see the finished prose.
The exciting part, however, is that from time-to-time as we listen for His voice He gives us a fresh glimpse of the finished product as He reveals yet another part of Himself to us. Every challenge, every trial, every trouble that we face is a part of His revealing to us the next step in the process of becoming more like Him. Sometimes He refers us to the past to make His point and sometimes its right in front of us or out there yet to be lived. The key is to let Him lead us and not take it upon ourselves to go poking around in past failures or victories or jumping into the future alone.
Yes, the Holy Spirit is conforming us into the image of Jesus, and it entails our past, present and future, which to Him are all in the past tense. Confusing? I used to think it was as confusing as trying to understand what Miss Albers was saying and all those funny lines she was putting on the chalkboard. But somehow it all got in my brain and today it seems as natural as can be. I don’t focus on all the rules anymore, I just know when it sounds right and makes sense… I don’t have to have all the reasons.
Wow, do you suppose that’s what our life is supposed to be like, just letting Him teach us and help us to make it all a part of our daily life? The older I get and the more time I spend with Him the more I realize that is “exactly” what it is supposed to be like. One day at a time in the present with Jesus takes into consideration everything in the past and all that awaits in the future.
I guess I have finally learned that He has delivered me and will deliver me, and the fact that life gets a lot easier to live if I just focus on the fact that He is delivering me!
There I go again… Rom 8:29.