Day 72 – God of MeansGod could just open up the sky, reach through, and situate everything so it’s perfect. But, that’s no fun. Instead, God uses means—He works through people and through events in history.
God’s nature, that He works through means, relates to His patience. He’s not in as big of a hurry as we often presume we should be. But, in the End, we will see that everything happened as quickly as it possibly could have—all because of the means God chose to work through. This part of God’s character has great ramifications for our own.
Ronald Reagan was often considered a lazy president, merely because he was so effective at delegating. “If you want something to be done right, you’ve got to do it yourself,” is the motto of people who don’t get much done. Many things might have the appearance of “being done better” if God just bypassed us, decided we were useless, decided that nature doesn’t matter, and just positioned everything like a collection of inanimate toys—but we each too valuable for that.
God wants us to participate with Him as He does great and wondrous things. As you understand God as the God of Means, you will become a human of means. Then, the people in your life will no longer seem like obstacles in the way of perfection—those people will become more important than your projects just as you absorb the truth that you are God’s craftsmanship, among the greatest reasons why He uses you. God is not actually accomplishing the work you do through you so much as He is accomplishing your perfection by means of your participation in His work. God uses us as a means to achieve as a means of achieving us.
The Book of Esther never once mentions God, but His fingerprints are everywhere. Esther made the famous statement, “If I die, I die,” when she decided to risk death to save her people, all because her uncle Mordecai said that she may have been made queen for, “such a time as this.” That God is arguably best explained in the book that doesn’t even contain God’s name, but beautifully demonstrates His means.
