O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. (Psalm 71:17)
As stated in the previous devotion, coming into the fulness of what God has called us to be is a process — sometimes a long process, at least from our point of view. That is not to say He can’t or won’t do a quick work in our life because, as Paul said, “the Lord will make a short work upon the earth” (Romans 9:28). But this statement is actually referring to the culmination of a work already in progress. After years — or in the case of the Day of the Lord, millennia — of an ongoing process and all the particular points that define the process, suddenly, the climactic moment that reveals the purpose occurs. For instance, it is written: “And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple” (Malachi 3:1).
With people, the development required to fulfill one’s purpose doesn’t typically happen overnight. According to David’s statement, God starts preparing those He has chosen from their youth by teaching them the skills, principles and life lessons they will need later in life. Scripture recounts the lives of many, who at an early age, learned to trust the Almighty — those whose younger years prepared them for the purpose for which they were born. Before David, there was Jacob who experienced the rugged life of a shepherd as he watched over Laban’s flocks, not yet realizing how this would equip him for other challenges. But it was needful that he suffer “the drought by day and the frost by night” in order to be the esteemed patriarch of a family destined for trial and triumph.
All of this reminds me of a movie from many years ago, in which a young man who desired to excel in martial arts, tried to ingratiate himself to a much older martial arts master. He expected to be taught the techniques and principles that would serve him well. However, rather than being taught in the way he expected, the old man had him waxing his car and painting his fence. His direction to the young man was “Wax on, wax off, Paint the fence; up, down.” Not appreciating being taken advantage of, the young man finally refused to do any more work, insisting that he be taught what he had signed up to learn. That is when he was made to realize he had been learning all along. Suddenly, it became abundantly clear that the master had been training him throughout the tedious process.
I say all of that to say this: we shouldn’t expect that we will just wake up one day and be immediately transformed into the overcomer we are called to be. No, the fruition of our call is the result of the training that we are be subjected to now. The three Hebrews didn’t decide on a whim to refuse to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image and face the fiery furnace. Long before they were faced with such a decision, they had already disciplined themselves not to forsake their call; they had already determined not to defile themselves with the king’s delicacies, and thus stay true to their God. And as a result of their faithfulness, the king of Babylon declared the wondrous works of God.
If we are to be those who overcome the Adversary by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, then we must also be those who love not our lives to the death. That means, if the Master puts us in a situation that we weren’t expecting and says, “Wax on, wax off,” we must do it — He is training you to become what He has called you to be.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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