by Pastor Bob Lawrenz
We have all heard the story of the man trapped on his rooftop during the springtime flood of a nearby river. As the waters were cresting the highway, a Rescue Squad came by to help him evacuate. “No, I’ll trust the Lord,” the man said. The waters rose still higher and a neighbor in a boat came up to him as he was hanging out the second floor window of his now flooded house. “No thanks, I am trusting the Lord to save me,” he said to his neighbor, as the neighbor shook his head and navigated away. The waters continued to rise, and he was now stranded on his home’s roof. A police helicopter spotted him and offered to pull him to safety as they hovered over him. “The Lord is going to save me, I’ll wait for Him,” and the man waved them off.
The flood waters rose further still and were filled with mud, trees, and debris. The surging water was eventually too much and house collapsed under the man, and he drowned. Standing before the Lord, the man’s disappointment was evident. “I waited for you to save me from those floodwaters; why didn’t you come?” the man asked God.
And God answered the man, “What more did you want? I sent you a Rescue Squad, a boat, and a helicopter. And you refused all that I had done for you.”
People often overlook the obvious when it comes to God’s salvation. Many of the unsaved think, “It can’t possibly be that easy.” They minimize God’s mercy and grace, and think something so easy may not be worth it. Or perhaps you have prayed long and hard about something, and didn’t see the answer when it was right in front of you the whole time?
Has Jesus ever answered a prayer for you in an unexpected way? We might be expecting a miraculous, earth shattering, bell ringing, sky rockets bursting type answer from Him, but in His mercy and His humility, He does not turn answers to prayer into spectacles.
Such is Asaph’s message to us today. God speaks in parables and “dark sayings” to those that have a mind, and a heart to understand what Jesus wants to teach us. Have you an ear for God’s teachings and His Word?
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me;…”
~ John 10:27 ~
