Trusting in the WILL BE

I mentioned yesterday that we had a devotion at our officer's training about silence. It was a DVD, and the man who was delivering it was speaking about Elijah (1 Kings 19). Elijah is told to go to a particular mountain -- that God will be there.

What I particularly noticed about the way the speaker phrased it was the tense of the verb he used -- "God will be there." Not "God is there."

I don't often climb mountains. In case no one ever mentioned it to you, mountains are high. Great effort is usually required to climb to the top, and that is complicated by the idea that you can FALL OFF of a mountain side.

In effect, Elijah is told, "Go climb up this mountain. Risk everything, and climb to the summit. God's not there, but he will be, so wait. Trust. Be patient. He'll show up."

Truly, if I were to climb the mountain, it would take me so long that God would have been there, and already left, but we'll set that aside for a moment.

Isn't life like that sometimes? Do we find we are in a place where we thought God had sent us, and we stand there, waiting? How difficult is it to stand in faith, knowing that our response to God has been based on the idea that God WILL BE there?

I listened to a song by Barlow Girl this morning called "Never Alone."

I waited for you, today
But you didn’t show, oh, no.
I needed you, today.
So where did you go?

You told me to call
Said you’d be there.
And though I haven’t seen you
Are you still there?

I cry out with no reply
And I can’t feel you by my side.
So I hold tight to what I know
You’re here.
And I’m never alone.

So what do we do? It's easy to trust when God is present. It's easy to know we are on the right path when we can feel God holding our hands, but life's not always like that. Trust is cheap unless we have it when we can't feel God. Trust can't be based in how we feel; it has to be based in faith. It has to grow from a faith that says, "God has promised, and I believe that his Word is true."

The song goes on to say:

And though I can not see you.
And can’t explain why.
Such a deep reassurance
You’ve placed in my life.

We cannot separate
Because you’re part of me
And though you’re invisible
I trust the unseen.

So we can climb the mountain with the firm knowledge that God WILL BE there, because he said so.