And One Do

12.31.11

Revelation 22.8-9 8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9 But he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!” NIV

Twice now, John admits to falling down to worshiping at the feet of an angel (Cf. Rev. 19.10 and 22.8-9). Twice he is emphatically admonished, “Don’t do that!”. I think we could put it this way: DON’T DO THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are certain things that shouldn’t be done and John is guilty of doing the same thing twice. I mean you can hardly blame him – he was blown away by what he was seeing and hearing. He did what came naturally when he bumped into something more grand and great than he’d ever experienced in his life – he was so caught up by it all. But the angels on both occasions said, Don’t do that!

Today I’m thinking about my past week at work and I can tell you, as a traveling salesman, it was a rough week. I am caught in a very strange place in my life of knowing confidently that God is doing something in me, and fearing terribly what He is doing. Don’t do that! I am trying to shed a belief that suffering is for someone else and I will get a lighter sentence. Don’t do that! Worship God!

I got to the place of despair yesterday where all I could do was moan – and so that’s what I did: before God I moaned. I moaned believing that: Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8.23 NIV) Except, I moaned outwardly. The reality is God is calling us to something so vast our tiny little pea-brains can’t handle it. God is transforming our lowly bodies into something so glorious our visions of the future can’t take it all in – now we do indeed see through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13).

But maybe yesterday was the birth of hope. Maybe the pain of such a week (I’m 100% commission, do the math: small production = small commission) was taking me to that place where I can truly say, He gives and takes away, may the Name of the Lord be blessed! There are things in us that have to go and God will use whatever means to move them. We are indeed being fitted for heaven where our being will be so vastly different than earth that we will implode and worship angels unless we’re prepared otherwise. So, there are some Don’t Do That’s along the way.

Don’t doubt. A friend of mine says her New Year’s resolution is simply: “I LOVE resolutions, but this year I can't seem to come up with anything more than "hang on and trust hard." (Thanks Bo!) Maybe that's okay.” Hang on and trust hard even when hard trusting proves hard.

Don’t defer. Trust now. Praise now. Repent now. Worship God now. Now is the acceptable time and if anyone is going to pull us through whatever it is we’re facing, it is only God. Trust Him now!

Don’t do that! Whatever our conscience is nagging us about now ought to be something we pay attention to now. Whatever our reaction to our circumstances, if it is anything other that praise, worship and thanksgiving to God: don’t do that! We are being fitted and sometimes fitting is through severe trial and testing. The desired result is praise from a willing and trusting heart. Anything else is as unacceptable as worshiping an angel.

And one do: Worship God – the end is worth (infinitely so) the means…