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Call To Me

              This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:2-3)

                Do you call to God? I think I call to Him, but there may be a difference between whimpering and whining and calling. It’s not unusual for me to get out of bed in the morning saying, “Help, God. I need help.” Before I reach the hall, I’m already failing. I know this is a habit of mine, so I try to ignore it, but the point is that there’s a difference between that and “Good morning, God. What do you want me to do with today?” And that is different from “Good morning, God. You promised to tell me great and unsearchable things I don’t know. I’m listening.” And then actually listen.

                One of the things these verses at least suggest is that one of the things we might hear is that God is the Lord. We may claim we know this. It’s said often enough in Scripture. But that’s head knowledge. We need to learn it better. As noted a couple of days ago, we need to do God’s Word, not just hear it.

                Another thing the passage suggests is that we may hear that the Lord made the earth, formed it and established it. Again, we know this, but how many times does Scripture remind us? An idea comes to mind from my last non-solo road trip. I didn’t drive, but I couldn’t not respond to traffic and other stuff that I would have responded to if I’d been driving. We may say we know God is in control, but we have to back-seat drive, ask “Are we there yet?”, etc.

                A third possibility is found in the phrase “unsearchable things you do not know.” This is another case of our wanting to be in charge. Sure, tell us something we don’t know, but make it something we want to hear. Tell us something that makes us look good, or at least makes someone else look worse. Don’t make it too hard, complicated, or costly. And perhaps above all else, don’t tell us something we’re going to have to trust You for, nothing involving faith.

                God doesn’t tend to work that way. Faith is the thing we need above all else.

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