Under New Management

What do you think of when you hear this term? Is it an instant positive; Woo-hoo, what great things are coming for this organization? What is “new & improved”? Or, for those of us prone to being a little more nosey, does it perhaps make you wonder what transpired that necessitated the need for the change?

Interestingly enough, our nosiness isn’t reserved just for business transactions. Oh, no, we offer equal opportunity to the people in our everyday lives, wondering, even speculating our expert opinions, as to how the need for whatever change occurred arose. Then based on these speculations we begin charting a well-thought out course for how they could recover. Now, if only we could take these adept skills and begin applying them to our own lives rather than the lives of others.

As believers, we are invited to a process of being increasingly under new management. You know that business that has a “going out of business” sign up? For the third time? This month? Shameful, right? Who do they think they are fooling? What if I told you that if we are to be viable Christians, we are actually called to be that business? We are being invited to participate in the process of peeling back one distorted, marred layer of “less than God’s design” at a time from the masterpiece He originally intended us to be.

Have you ever been at the point that you fully believed you had surrendered every piece of your will that stood in abject refusal to the Lord, only to have Him gently point at another area, “And what about this?” I’m dumbfounded by the Creator of the Universe’s gentle inquisition, “What do you want to do about this?” I’m humbled by His consistent respect for my choices. If my answer to his inquiry is “Nothing.” His response is, “I can wait.” And He does so without losing an inch of love for me. I marvel at the perfect balance He is of patience and of passionate pursuit.

Have you endured pressures beyond your capabilities in this life? Have you felt like you were less than favored by God because of these struggles? Have others, even believers, seemingly delighted at scenes from your delectable story and provided you expert testimony on how to move forward? I dare say we all have. Why would God allow such things?

Here is my deepest thought to date: I don’t know. For you. I’m reforming my nosey, “figure it all out for everyone else” ways and I’m going to be fine with the fact that I’m not God and I do not know.

All I can speak of with any degree of authenticity is my own challenging experiences and the words of comfort God has given to me through these seasons. Consider Jesus’ foreshadowing of things to come for Simon Peter, “And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren (Luke 22:31-32).”

So many nuances of the reality of the spiritual battle in which we are engaged daily are depicted in these two verses. First, did you notice that Satan had to ask permission? His having to ask permission inherently demonstrates the authority of God. Next, consider with me, why is wheat sifted? What will remain following this process? Only the choicest grains, clean, and ready to provide nourishment.

I am reminded of the struggles in my life where I left all I had in the battle, even when all I had may not have been that much to begin with. God reminds me that just as the widow who gave her single coin was named by Jesus as “generous,” even beyond the measure of those who had quantitatively given much more, He also sees my heart and perfectly knows my situation. God knows. And honestly, the rest of us need to shut up and keep our “truth” to ourselves.

Not only do we need to stop trying to control other people with our opinions, we actually need to stop trying to control ourselves, too. I’m not saying we should live in lawlessness. What I am saying is that I am to be completely yielded to His control, only acting in submission to His authority through well-trained spiritual ears that are able to detect His voice for me. I am then filled with His power, fully equipped for the tasks to which He has called me. I am meek and malleable, completely at His service. John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Strangely enough, it does not say, “my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they tell everyone else what they need to get busy doing.”

I find it beyond touching that in the passage in Luke, next Jesus comforts Simon Peter with the words, “But I have prayed for you.” It delights my heart when I get a message from someone saying they have prayed for me. Partially because it means they were thinking of me, partially because it means it is likely that God brought me to their mind, which is a reminder that He is thinking of me. Can you even imagine looking into Jesus’ eyes across that Passover table? The man who had just washed your feet (although you originally refused), and who had fervently desired to have this perfect, deeply significant meal with you, and then hearing from God’s own lips, “I have prayed for you.” I think my heart would have stopped.

Most people I know keep their prayers to themselves. They quietly tuck them away, and for good reason, as they are often intimate, heart matters. “It’s just between me and God.” But consider this, Jesus boldly made known the content of His prayer to Peter; for his faith to remain, for him to return, and then for him to offer support to others. You see, grain that is sifted is grain that is ready to nourish others. And I wonder, does Jesus pray the same thing now for you and me?

In this story, I so clearly see that what Satan uses for misery, God would use for ministry. But Satan will try to disqualify and keep us from it, especially through the wagging tongues of others. Perhaps you, like I, have a list longer than measure of the ways you (even unconsciously) chose to walk away from God. Perhaps He is bringing them one by one to your mind, beginning His work of installing new management in every area of your life. I only hope that in this process you do not feel shame. Do you remember what Jesus said of the woman who was criticized for even touching Him as she washed His feet?  Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little (Luke 7:47).”

Again, I can’t speak for you, but I’ve been forgiven much. And I’m actually hoping there will be another going out of business sale again sometime this week because with each revamping, I’m both experiencing and then flowing much love into my life. Bring on the “new & improved!” Based on the verse above, it appears that our ability to experience love comes in degrees. I believe that those of us who willing participate in this process of coming under new management (again. And again. And… well, you get the picture) will experience PASSION that will simply escape others. I have known a little passion in my life. Enough to know that I don’t want any that I may have coming to escape me. And so, instead of shame, I hope that you experience greater degrees of freedom and of love, and that your heart can’t help but sing.

2 Corinthians 4:7-9, 16-18

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.