May 20, 2016
by Daniel Lovelace
Metro Atlanta SDB Church, GA
You have a problem. The radio you value so much has stopped working, and you really wish you could fix it. It would be so nice to be able to listen to music from it again, and also useful to hear about helpful tips, local news, and current events on it. Your radio could even benefit the environment for other people when they hang out with you —all if you could just get it to work!
So maybe you ask God to tell you what’s wrong with the radio so you can fix it — or better yet — for Him to simply fix it for you. You know He knows why it isn’t working, and you know He can fix it. He wants what’s best for you and there are great benefits to having it working — right? So it makes sense that He will do one or the other. You ask Him, wait, and seem to get no response. Instead He seems to want to do something else. “What’s going on?! Doesn’t He care about my need with this radio?!”
There definitely are times that we get answers to our “radio questions,” and times when God does put the pieces of our metaphoric radios in life together for us. But I’m realizing that more than just telling us what is wrong with or fixing the radio, God wants to put the radio together with us. You see, God is a relational God, and He loves spending time with us. God dearly loves us and wants what is best for us. Sometimes He brings something difficult for us to solve to bring us alongside Him. We may be correct in seeing that the radio is good, and that God desires it for us — but more than that, God wants intimacy in relationship with us. This is the beautiful thing, in putting the radio together with God, we better see how beautiful He is.
We see how wise and understanding He is as He shows us about the wiring or the techniques of how to use different tools for repair. We see how kind and patient He is as we make a mistake and have to replace an expensive speaker we broke. We see how loving and gracious He is as we talk with Him while we work together, perhaps telling Him our hopes and ideas for the radio, and Him sharing His ideas for us and others in the radio. When we finish the radio, we have that treasure restored to us. But more significantly, we have a deeper relationship with the Creator, King, and Savior of the universe. Our experience may bring us to better appreciate and understand the radio, but it also shows us how much more beauty and worth God carries than it does.
So I want to ask you, what “radios” do you have in your life today? What lessons may God be desiring to bring to you through them? Continually come close to Him and listen to what He is saying. He’s delighted to show you! Let Him lead you through the steps of bringing those areas into proper alignment, and through that experience, you will see His beauty better. It’s in that place that you are brought into true peace and joy as you better know you can rest in Him. It’s in seeing His character that your character is transformed into the same, from one degree to the next.
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” —2 Corinthians 3:17-18
