"LEAD US NOT INTO FRUSTRATION"

                 " For God is not the author of confusion, but 

                     of peace as in all churches of the saints."

                                    1 Corinthians 14 :33

 

Question: How did Paul bring the Gospel to Europe? Answer: in response to the Macedonian call. That is good, true, and biblical answer. But it is also a bit too neat. It omits something of considerable importance. God led Paul and his band of missionaries to evangelize Europe by the pathway of frustration.

        They were visiting churches with the directives of the Jerusalem council. They decided to preach in the province of Asia but the Holy Spirit prevented them from Doing so. They then tried to enter Bithynia, but again the Spirit would not allow them. So they moved on to Troas, and there Paul had his vision Of the Macedonian man begging him to come (Acts 16:6-10).

         Luke tells us that the apostolic band then got ready to leave, "concluding" that this was the Lord's guidance. The verb he uses (sumbibazo) is an interesting one: its root meaning conveys the idea of laxing things down beside each other, putting things together. It was not so much the strange dream on its own, but the dream set in the context of their recent ecxperiences, that convinced them that Macedonia was the way ahead.

        But even to say this misses an important strand in Luke's narrative. This may even be masked for us by the two-fold reference to the Holy Spirit. God is, after all, not the author of confusion. But His ordering of things can sometimes be exceedingly confusing to us. It is certainly at times deeply frustrating. If one door closes, another will open, we say to ourselves. But sometimes the other door closes as well. It was by this very process that brought Paul to Europe. The frustrations were necessary elements in the Lord's guidance, essential aspect of His providence.

       In an evangelical world that places tidiness and life-management high on the list of marks of grace, we must remember that the Lord sometimes (often?) leads His people into and by means of frustration. Things do not work out as we plan; we find ourselves in a service wilderness and we cannot understand the ways of God. We recall the words of the preacher. "Consider what God has done: who can straighten what He has made crooked? (Eccl.7:13, NIV).

       Here is Joseph speaking to his brothers: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done" (Gen. 50:20a, NIV).

       Here is Paul, struck in prison, writing to the philippians: "I want you to know, brethen, that the things which happened to me have actuall turned out for the furtherance of the gospel" (1:12). He was teaching them the lesson that had brought him to them in the first place (Acts 16:10-12).

       If God is indeed sovereign, should we not learn to take that quite literally and apply the principle in detail to the frustrations of life? How do we do this? Here are sons guideline:

       1. Make sure you have Romans 8:28 etched into your mind and soul. It does not promise a tidy life, but a God -directed one. The only way to be comfortable with God is to share the purpose He has in view, which is ultimately, to glorify Christ by conforming you to His image (Roman.8:29).

      2. Hold your own plans in the open palm of one hand. The Preacher guides us wisely here once more: " Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind" (Eccl. 4:6, NIV). How often we think we fully understand God's purpose when we take the first steps forward into some new stage in life. We assume that if God is leading us to do X then He means to accomplish Y. We cannot second-guess the Lord; sometimes obedience leads us into difficulties and trials. We need to hold our own plans and expectations for the future with a light touch. Otherwise we will see frustrations as curses rather than bridges into the next stage of His guidance.

      3. Learn "the cul-de-sac principle." Suppose you are en route to visit friends and have made good time. Thinking you know the road, you turn left and drive two hundred yards to a dead end. Frustration! But when you eventually get back on the highway, you pass an accident that took place just a few minutes before in which you would have been involved. You breath a sign of reliief and, yes you thank the Lord for sending some frustration into your life. You got back into the traffic at a safe time. That pattern is evident in scripture (and is repeated in the experiences of countless Christians). Think of  the cul-de-sac Joseph found himself in the pit, Potipar's house, prison- each was an essential part of the Lord's strategy to bring him to the right place at the right time.

      4. Remember that, often unlike ourselves, the Lord is more concerned with what we are becoming than with what we are becoming than with what we are accomplishing. There is no other way to develop patience, for example, than through frustration. There is no other way  to develop the ability to wait for the Lord than having to wait for Him! The bottom line is this: what we become is pernament; much of what we accomplish is temporary. All of God's guidance has in view the pernament.

        Thrice bless is he to whomIs given

         The instinct that can tell

        That God is on the field

         When He is most invicible.