Pondering God’s Purposes
Betsy Childs
12/19/03

[NOTE: this is a daily devotional from Ravi Zacharias ministries which I think is very appropriate, so I include it here. -ken]

Sometimes I’m ashamed of the questions that come to mind when I’m studying
the Bible. As I recently read through the account of the shepherds’ trip
to Bethlehem to find the newly born Jesus, the question that plagued me
was, “Who stayed with the sheep when the shepherds went to Bethlehem?” I
had visions of shepherds returning to their flocks in the wee hours of the
morning, only to find them scattered. I admit, this is not a very
spiritual thing for me to be worried about, but I’m someone who gets
concerned about logistics. All too often, I find myself thinking more
like Martha than Mary, worrying about things like food getting cold if a
prayer runs long.

When God ordains miraculous events in history, you would expect Him to
take care of the logistics. He certainly does in the sense that He works
out every detail necessary to fulfill his prophecies and work his will.
He made sure that Caesar Augustus would authorize a census so that Mary
and Joseph would be in Bethlehem at the right time for Mary to give birth;
after all, Micah had prophesied that the shepherd of Israel would be born
there (Micah 5:2-4). But God doesn’t always work the details of his plan
so that it is smooth sailing for us. If I had been Mary, I think I would
have expected God to find me a place to stay once I got to Bethlehem.
Since Mary was to give birth to the Son of God, you’d at least think He
would provide a bed for her. But Mary gave birth to her firstborn in a
stable, because there was no room for them in the inn. God did not fail
to plan a place for Jesus’ birth, but it is not the setting I would have
expected.

When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he told her twice that she had
found favor with God. If an angel said that to me, I would probably
interpret it as, “Things are about to get a lot easier for you!” But, as
Christian speaker David Nasser has pointed out, this is not what favor
with God means. The fact that God sent the shepherds to find the baby did
not necessarily mean that their sheep would be there when they got back.
Favor with God often makes life seem a lot harder! I believe this is a
hard thing for Christians to grasp. I’ve known those who, after
surrendering to God’s call to go to the mission field, are bewildered when
they have trouble raising their support. Pastors are understandably
confused when church giving isn’t adequate for the church budget. Any
itinerant speaker can tell you that Christians lose luggage even when they
are on missions of mercy, and God’s anointing on a message does not mean
that there won’t be problems with the preacher’s microphone.

Biblical stories remind us that logistical hitches are not signs that God
has abandoned us. It was not easy for the apostles to manage the early
church, which in one day increased by three thousand people (Acts 2:41).
The apostle Paul was repeatedly imprisoned, shipwrecked three times, and
even spent a night and day in the open sea (2 Corinthians 11:25). I’m
sure these tremendous challenges to Paul’s ministry made him at times want
to question his favor with God. However, ours is not a religion of
superstition in which we take any inconvenience or discouragement as an
omen that we should turn back. If you get in a fender-bender on your way
to deliver gifts to the homeless, or if your church’s power goes out right
before the Christmas pageant, God is still with you! We need to learn to
view logistical nightmares as opportunities to walk by faith and not by
sight. One of the most heartening promises in God’s word is Romans 8:28,
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for
good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (ESV).

Sometimes we see the reasons God has allowed a glitch in our plans. We’ve
all heard stories of how God’s providence has worked through unforeseen
circumstances. But when we don’t see how inconveniences will work for
God’s glory, we must still trust Him that they will. He is the one who
will insure that all things work according to his purpose. Mary’s
response to the birth of her firstborn in a stable was not doubting or
complaining. Luke tells us, “But Mary treasured up all these things and
pondered them in her heart” (2:19). We will do well to follow her example
this Christmas, if our plans go awry, by looking at every unforeseen
situation as an opportunity to ponder God’s plan as we wait for Him to
reveal his purposes.

Copyright © 2003 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM)