“…You open Your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing…” (Psalm 145:15)
When storms hit and damage is done, insurance companies can use phrases like “acts of God” or
“natural disasters” to help put a claim into the claims office for consideration of payment. I have never appreciated those terms for I do not believe that God causes any of those things to happen either to the just or the unjust. It’s just not the way I have been raised to understand the work of God.
However, I do believe that God works—all the time. And, all of that time He is working for you and for me. Damaging winds and torrential rains are not a movement of God’s hand but rather the force of a cold and a warm front coming together, with a few other factors like wind speeds, humidity, and the like. All factor into trouble a lot of the time!
I also believe that God works in a natural order. I’m going to speak about this Sunday in a sermon entitled, “Wide Open Hands” which is based on the above scripture passage. If you read carefully through the 145th psalm, you’ll see a very natural way that God responds to the needs of His children and His earth. He is all encompassing, encouraging, and caring. He shows no partiality to who gets what, and is faithful to everyone He encounters! He’s never too far away and He always has time to watch over those who love Him.
The Gospel for this Sunday is the first 21 verses of John chapter 6. It’s the story of Jesus and the feeding of the 5,000 people. People for centuries have tried to figure out how this happened – from the traditional view that God multiplied the little bit of food they had to the fact that everyone shared what they had with them (which was pretty unusual for Jews in that day with all their strict dietary and cleanliness laws [which didn’t encourage sharing food—especially out in the open like that!])
What matters is that God provided for the people. He does it all the time. He does it for us all the time as well. How often have you dreaded an assignment or project or work task and found after it was over that it wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be? How often have you volunteered for something and then immediately realized that you wished you had never raised your hand—only to find at the end of the day that it was really “a piece of cake”? I believe in the work of the Holy Spirit—who guides and directs our every step (IF we allow Him to do it!). I think that is God’s natural way of being a part of our everyday lives!
And this is just the tip of the iceberg! God is with us all day every day! He is working in us even when we haven’t asked Him to do it!
God’s hands are wide open. All the time. No one can snatch us out of His hand, so why not get comfortable and do God’s work every day? I know you can do it!
God loves you and so do I!
Pastor Jim