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“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10).
I love the way the Amplified Bible puts it – “taking paths which He prepared ahead of time, that we should walk in them; living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live.”
The Lord cares for us in every way – even in ways that we may never know. He has planned out our lives and charted our course for the highest and best, even if it means that we must pass through the lowest and worst of things. He will never leave us, nor forsake us – no matter what.
A couple of years ago I had a lunch meeting with a friend – Major General Schuyler Bissell (retired); former Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C. We discussed his long and honored career in service to our country – especially the 119 combat missions he flew in North Vietnam as a young pilot. I asked him if there was one defining moment during those perilous days. “Yes,” he said, “there was.”
He told me that he had been assigned a mission that was imminently dangerous, and the morning before his squadron was to fly into harm’s way he spent some quiet time in the base chapel. While no soldier wants to yield to the immobilizing power of fear, common sense requires that a man count the cost by facing up to the reality of the risks involved. As Schuyler prayed that morning, the Lord spoke to him in the most direct and calming manner. “I’ve taken care of you your whole life” God said, “what are you worried about?” General Bissell, now seventy three, told me that a peace came over him that was indescribable. He rose from prayer, went on his mission, and has been kept by God to this day.
“I’ve taken care of you your whole life -- what are you worried about?”
Isn’t that what the Lord is saying to each one of us today? Truly a sparrow does not fall to the ground without His knowing…and caring. What a Savior.
George MacDonald, in his sermon Trust God by Obeying Christ, writes: “The care that is filling your mind at this moment, or but waiting till you lay the book aside to consume you – that need which is no real need, is a demon sucking at the spring of your life.”
Lord Jesus, here; take our fretful hearts and draw them near to Thee. Fill us once again with that blessed assurance which comes from casting all our cares upon You, knowing that You care for us. Lift our vision higher and set us walking once again on the path You have chosen for each one of us."
Today let us become those who are “taking the paths which He prepared ahead of time, that we should walk in them; living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live.”
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