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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Details . . . and Adoption

We are praying through some crazy stuff right now.  Praying for clarity, wanting a very detailed roadmap, knowing all the while that when God callls, our job is to follow. 

In the midst of that, this came to us via a fellow adoptive mama on our Yahoo Group who shared this recently . . .


A common phrase you often hear from people is, “I don’t do details.” Usually they mean they’re more big picture people. They don’t like to get bogged down in minutiae.


In His own way, God doesn’t do details either. At least when it comes to His commands to people in the Bible. In fact, He can often be painfully vague.


He told Abraham simply, “Go to the land I will show you.”


When He beckoned Peter to walk on the water, He simply said, “Come.”


On His command to Moses to free the Israelites from the most powerful nation in the world, He merely commanded him, “Go, I am sending you to Pharaoh.”


God didn’t use any detail. He didn’t lay out a step-by-step plan. He just issued the command and expected obedience.


Sometimes people wanted more detail. Moses wanted to know how it was going to happen. What should he tell the people? But God didn’t fill in much detail here either.


"I will be with you."


"Tell them, I AM has sent me to you."


That helps.


On the one hand, you would think God was kind of winging it. On the surface, it would seem that His plan was just to deal with the details as they came about. And that’s not very reassuring. Not when you’re being asked to step out on faith.


On the other hand, when you read on in the stories, God had every detail covered. Abraham’s journey. The plagues. The Red Sea. Even Peter’s ability to walk on water. And that’s very reassuring.


God is extremely meticulous. He is all about the details. Far more than you’ll ever be. He has everything already figured out. Every pitfall and possibility accounted for. Every detour arranged to get you to your final destination.


So God definitely does the details in terms of His plan and working it out.


But God doesn’t do the details in terms of what He communicates to you.


That’s because He knows there are some details you’re simply not ready for.


And ultimately it’s because He’s more interested in your full obedience than your full understanding.


Don’t worry. God has every detail in your life covered.


He just doesn’t need you to know them first to follow Him faithfully.




written by Pastor Steven Furtick

3 comments:

  1. I'm so glad He doesn't give us all the details beforehand! If I'd known what the last 12 months of our lives would entail, it would have been harder to obey when He called us to this adoption. On this side of it, I'm so thankful that we didn't miss it.

    Praying for you guys and hoping that clarity comes to you soon! Let us know if we can do anything for you.

    wiggins family

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  2. i'm so glad we connected, what an inspirational family! congratulations on getting the referral! written w/one finger on my left hand ;)

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  3. So glad I stumbled across your blog and this post- most needed tonight! Thank you for sharing!

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