God's Protection

Introduction

Aren’t there times that you would like for God to just clearly lay out for you exactly what you are supposed to do next? We pray. We seek for God’s direction. We get input from others. We talk. We pray more and we try to discern what God’s will for our life is. Jonathan Daniels was such a man. Jonathan was a student at Virginia Military Institute during the 1960s. He loved life but he was looking for something more. He graduated from VMI and entered seminary in 1963. But the 1960s were such a tumultuous time, that Jonathan eventually decided that he needed to be involved in making a difference rather than studying to make a difference. He prayed for God to lead him in a new direction and doors began to open up for him in the South. In 1965, Jonathan Daniels moved to Selma, Alabama to begin working for what he believed was God’s desire to see integration take place. As an Episcopalian, Jonathan began bringing black boys and girls to the congregation where he attended. Although allowed to come, they were often ignored. Jonathan was arrested and detained for his work in helping to organize marches in the city. On August 20, 1965, Jonathan Daniels along with four others tried to enter a local store only to be met by a man, Tom Coleman, with a shotgun who told them to leave or be killed. After a brief confrontation, the man raised his shotgun to aim at a girl in the group. Jonathan Daniels pushed her aside and took the full blast of the shotgun. He was killed instantly.

How is something that tragic explained? Jonathan Daniels wanted to do God’s will. He wanted to help other people. He believed that God was leading him to the heart of the Civil Rights Movement and it cost him his life. Did he have enough faith? Was God angry with him? Was this Jonathan Daniel’s punishment for some past sin? Sometimes Christians think dumb things. The assumption is if you have a clear sense that God is leading you to do something, everything will work out great. If it doesn’t then the decision you made must not have been from God and you did something wrong. The truth is you never know where the road of life is going to take you.

Dealing with Wrong Thinking

Take marriage for instance. Christians enter marriage believing that the partner they have chosen is a blessing from God. We enter our marriages thinking that God has helped us to choose this person. Few of us do not think about things not working out well. Yet, we take say those promises “for better or for worse.” Did it not cross our minds that at the very best that marriage would be a learning experience? We pray to God about jobs. We pray for him to open doors for us. We pray for a good job. And yet jobs have problems and difficulties and sometimes we get dismissed.

We pray to God about houses. Or at least some do. We pray about living arrangements and security. We pray for God to protect us and yet thieves still break in and the roof still has to be replaced and the plumbing still doesn’t work right. We pray to God about our kids. We pray for them to know God and to love God and to be right with God. Had any surprises from your kids? Or maybe it is that life has just thrown you a curve ball. You are confused. Life is upside down right now and you are wondering where is God in the mess you call life.

You never know where the road of life will take you and just because you have a sense that God is leading you doesn’t mean that everything is going to work out well. This is a twist on our last lesson. When we are pursuing happiness instead of obedience to God, we find ourselves disillusioned at times when things are not going well. We pray for God to lead us in the right way and then expect him to do so and when things don’t turn out the way we think they ought to turn out, God is to blame. He didn’t protect us. He didn’t alter situations so that we could be happy. This dumb thinking leads us to believe that we look for the ways which will bring great success. Our reasoning goes something like this: “Since God knows the future, he should lead us from the worst job to the best one; from the worst neighbors to the best; from crises to triumph.”

Do not misunderstand—God deeply cares about where you go, where you live, and the things of our lives. But God cares mostly about how we live rather than where we live, how we apply ourselves in the job he gives us instead of grumbling about it. We pester God about leading us to the best thing instead of concentrating on doing the right thing in whatever the situation is. “Whatever my circumstances, I have learned to be content” (Philippians 4:12). This is possible. You can be content.

God’s Will or a Bad Dream

Too often as Christians we connect feeling good and things going well with God’s will. And on the other side if we are unhappy and things are not going well then we must be outside the will of God. The truth is sometimes we are doing the will of God and things do go well and sometimes we don’t do the will of God and things go well and sometimes we feel terrible and things are not going well and we are in the will of God and sometimes things are going well and we are not in the will of God. There is no general truth here except this one—being in God’s will doesn’t mean everything works out well. We never know where the road of life is taking us.

This is where faith comes in. If we spend so much time and energy thinking about what could’ve, would’ve, and should’ve, then our faith is not active but passive. Active faith means we seek God’s direction and go. We pray for God’s guidance and move. In Acts 16, Paul is God’s chosen apostle for teaching the Gentiles. There is no doubt he is doing God’s will and there is no doubt that he doesn’t have all insight into God’s will.

So in chapter 16 we find Paul trying to discover God’s will. Look at verses 6-8. Don’t skip those two verses. Paul is trying to discover God’s will and he doesn’t have a clue. These verses tell us that he spent weeks trying to discover God’s will. Look at a map. This is not a short journey. He is walking aimlessly around in what is today modern Turkey trying to do what God wants him to do. All he knows is that God did not want him in Asia or Bithynia. No explanation is given; no other suggestion; no real options except to keep walking.

He keeps pressing forward still not knowing God’s will precisely. And then Luke tells us in verses 9-10 that Paul has a dream. Someone from Macedonia is pleading for him to come on over. Finally, Paul has his answer and so he goes. Was God leading him? Sure. But a lot of things go wrong. Skip down to verse 18. There is a young girl who is possessed by a demonic spirit who keeps annoying Paul. Paul in verse 18 sets her free from this spirit and then things start to happen. Paul and Silas are dragged before the city officials; they are severely flogged and thrown into an inner prison cell with their limbs in chains. And at midnight in that dark disgusting jail they start to sing hymns to God (v. 25).

If it had been one of us in that cell with Paul, the conversation might have gone like this: “Say, Paul, could you run through that Macedonian vision once more? Was that God or the second helping of baklava you had the night before? If I had known then, Paul, what I know now, I would never had made this trip with you. If God had led us here, everything should have worked out just great. I’m not so sure anymore about the leading of God in this. After all, why would such a good God let such a bad thing happen to two of the nicest people you could ever meet?” There was none of that. Instead, they demonstrate their faith by singing songs. And pretty soon the lives of numerous people are changed forever by the power and grace of God.

You never know where the road of life will take you, but wherever you end up, you can be sure that God is there to meet you. Just because God leads you to do something doesn’t mean that everything is going to work out well. But like Paul and Silas you can sing hymns to God, you can praise your way through it. You can remind yourself that this personal suffering may not be about you at all, but there is one thing for sure—those around who know that you call yourself Christian are going to be watching to see how you handle adversity; to see if Jesus is as real in your life as you say he is; or if you just praise him when he makes you happy. Following God doesn’t mean everything is going to work out. Wherever God leads you, you can be sure that he is there to meet you and walk with you.

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