Silly Points of Note

Getting Groceries

Your walk with and your faith in God is like getting groceries. You have run out of groceries but you know where the grocery store is and have the means to get some when you get there. Now there is the issue of distance and time but beyond this, there is also the issue of your state and status.

That is, at that point when you realized you have run out of it, you are actually in a state of lack. There is something you need that is not there and you hope to have. However, your mental state will find it hard to acknowledge this as lack or see it as a desperate issue simply because of the things we have already pointed out. That is, you know where the grocery store is and you have the cash to get them.

Naturally, there will be no sign of desperation about getting it accept if there are issues relating to it not being possible to get them. So if we eliminate all imagined issues (e.g. scarcity, a run at the stores because of bad weather or a state of anarchy), you will not feel any sense of desperation or despair even when it is evident that you have nothing at home.

You know where the store is and you will not naturally be in some desperate rush to get it. You might even branch out to talk to someone on your way to the store. There is this unnoticed and unacknowledged confidence in you about getting them groceries simply because you have everything you need to get them and it is a non-issue.

Let us step back a bit and look at this. You are in a state of lack because there is something you do not have. You are grocery poor. Yet you are unmoved about this and not even dwelling on it because you do not just have the means to get it but you are on your way to get it and are completely casual about the whole issue.

Now let us replace you with God. God is completely untroubled and very casual about getting you to a promised place.

He has everything thing He needs to get (you) there. He too knows He has the cash as well as where the grocery store is located. He knows that He will be getting them groceries once He gets to where He will buy them.

There is a problem with this though. When we first looked at this, it was just you. That is, you had all the answers. You recognized you had run out of groceries. You knew where to get them. You had the means to get them.

When we looked at it with God, it was also just Him. He recognizes the lack but knows where to get it and has the means of getting it.

The problem at this point is that two beings have to walk together. With God, you may not have all the answers. That is, some aspects of the issue are with you while others are with God.

Usually, the problem or the recognition of the lack is something we get to know easily enough because we are the ones experiencing the lack. We may not have the means and know where to get it. This eliminates that casual and untroubled peace.

Faith is about you knowing that God has the other part and walking as if you have everything with you.

The more confident you are about those parts that are not with you but are with God, the less troubled you are about getting them groceries. Your groceries may be a child, marriage, job and a thousand and one things.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end" Jeremiah 29:11

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid" John 14:27

However, your lack may become magnified when this confidence is either not enough or it is nonexistent. Every aspect of getting them groceries becomes an issue. It may take a lot of persuasion and heartache before stepping out and heading towards a direction you (at that point) are not really sure of as such.

"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee:" Genesis 12:1

At times, you will not be told where the grocery store is located even though God knows it.

At times, the actual journey to the grocery store becomes a wilderness experience. A thousand and one issues come up along the way.

We can go on to describe in detail the dynamics of what might come up but there is a solution we must emphasize. That is, concentrate on trust and confidence in God. The more you have these, the more pleasant your journey to that grocery store will be because it will really look like the picture we first painted. You ran out of groceries. You know where the store is located. You have the means to get them.