Morning Devotions – From the Edges – Where is God?

Morning Devotions – From the Edges

Pastor Calvin Cook 3/6/2024

LENT – Day 19 – WHERE IS GOD

Scripture focus – Proverbs 1:22-27 “How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?  How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? Repent at my rebuke! Then I will pour out my thoughts to you, I will make known to you, my teachings. But since you refuse to listen when I call and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand, since you disregard all my advice and do not accept my rebuke, I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when calamity overtakes you— when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

I wanted today’s time to be about answered prayer. I desired to share some comfort with those who feel God isn’t either hearing or answering their prayers. Making the excuses “I have tried” or “I am a good person” or “I have been faithful” statements just do not seem to work, and we find ourselves lost in a sea of uncertainty and doubt about God and our relationship. We give no consideration to the fact that the problem might just be us and that we want God to be want God to be, when we want God to be God and we have become micro-mangers of this relationship with God. The first time something happens, travesty, sickness, pain, loss, etc. etc. we blame God for God’s distance from us or at least what we construe as distance.

This morning as I opened my Bible, I came upon the Proverbs 1: 22-27 text and felt the tugging toward this scripture and sharing it this morning instead of the other scripture that I was going to share.

Proverbs 1:22-27 paints a vivid picture of God’s plea and instruction to all of us today. That amidst the busyness of life there is a reminder that if we continue to live carefree in our relationship with God. Choosing other things and vices of the world we are not going to feel the presence of God. Maybe right now we can hear the words “How long will you love the simple things of the world?” Even when God is desiring relationship our response to God’s direction and the need for redemption is met by indifference, resistance, and defiance.

How often have we been the ones who turned away from God, following a path of foolishness and cannot figure where God is? Why our prayers aren’t answered, why do we continue to live in a sea of  chaos.

However, there is hope – verse 23 “Repent at my rebuke!”. Repentance is this piece of the puzzle we don’t always talk about and many in the modern theological world don’t talk about. Repentance is the invitation to acknowledge our sin, to turn from sin and to open our hearts to ALL that God offers through grace. Verse 23 continues that the fruit of repentance will be a revelation of the thoughts and teachings that guide and guard.

There is also a warning of the consequences of rejecting wisdom.  Maybe that is where we are when we think we are not hearing from God or experiencing God’s outstretched hand. We have dismissed or buffered the relationship which has caused the separation.

As I said this past weekend in preaching, we don’t need to pray for more of God to be poured out, we need to pray for ourselves and the places where God is ignored. God is all powerful, all present, and all working we just need to allow it to happen –

Prayer for today – Thy will be done in my life, thy will be received in my life, Thy will move me forward, In Jesus name I pray – Amen