The True Report
Luke 19:32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them.
Loosing the donkey that the Lord Needed
Can we depend upon what the Lord says? The short answer is “yes.” The long answer is that when it comes to the eternal blessings that He has told us about, the believer can not only depend on what the Lord says; but it is evident that the blessings will far exceed our expectations. When we follow the Lord’s instructions, we can be sure that we will find everything just as the Lord has said.
Preparing for the Last Supper
In Luke 22, the Lord told his disciples to look for a man bearing a pitcher of water and to follow him to a large upper room that would already be furnished for the Passover. When they followed the instructions, they found the room. It was found the way He said to find it, and it was prepared the way He said it would be furnished. They must have known by now that they could trust the Lord and that He would guide them in the right way. A man bearing a pitcher of water was not usual in that day when the women usually had that chore. But they followed His instructions and in Luke 22:13 we read, “So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.”
Do we Believe the Lord?
We say we believe the Lord, but do we really? The Lord can be depended upon to tell us the truth about the here and now, and He tells us the truth about eternity. It seems to me that we second-guess Him about the here and now and sometimes have doubts about eternity. But we need to have faith that when we follow the Lord’s instructions, we will find things to be just as He has said.
The Lord Jesus says that if we trust Him we are saved, but that isn’t good enough for most people. They add conditions to what the Lord says But I believe that when we trust the Lord we are saved for time and eternity. I am thankful that it isn’t what we do that saves, it is what Christ did for us that saves. And it isn’t until we trust the Father’s Son and Him alone that the Lord finds anything in us that pleases Him.
After we are saved, of course we want to do those things that would please the Lord who gave Himself for us. But we tend to second-guess the Lord when it comes to worshiping Him. He wants us to enjoy His presence and to be occupied with Him. It seems to me that we tend to call worship that which pleases us. We go to the churches of our choice. We want the kind of music that pleases us. We want to go where our friends are. We want to listen to the popular preachers. Really the whole business seems to be fairly self-centered. The Lord wants us to be Christ-centered and not self-centered in our worship—otherwise it is not really worship.
What About Eternity?
Many good Christians have come to the end of the road and have had Satan taunt them with “his fiery darts” (Ephesians 6:16). They begin to wonder what to expect when they take that last breath. Is there really a place that has been prepared for the believer called “the Father’s house” (John 14:1-3)? What will that place be like? Sometimes when we are weak and discouraged by sickness and sometimes loneliness, Satan manages to cast doubt on all that we believe. But I believe that all that the Lord has told us is true and that the half has not been told us. Solomon’s reign gives us a little glimpse into the future glory of the Lord.
The True Report
The Queen of Sheba had heard about the wisdom, riches and glory of Solomon. She had to visit him to see if all that she had heard was true. She found that what she had heard was only a fraction of what could have been said. In 2 Chronicles 9:5-6 she says to Solomon, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However I did not believe their words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You exceed the fame of which I heard.”
It will be just as He has Said
When in a moment of weakness, Satan gets us to believe our doubts and to doubt our beliefs, we should take courage. God says that the Christian has it made. The unbeliever, not so much. But for the believer our future is going to be better than anything we can imagine. Someday we are going to find out that the half has not been told us.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of April 26, 2015