Genesis 19:18-20 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.
When I do not know how to act, or in my present situation, react, I often look to examples within the bible and try to be honest with myself. “Am I being like that?”
“Thy servant” really? If I consider myself to be a servant of the Lord, am I being obedient in what I am told to do, or am I bartering with my Lord to get my own way?
“I cannot” really? Did my Lord save me only to bring me to a place to see me destroyed? Does grace end just because I cannot see what it offers next? Do I let my own fears replace gratitude for grace extended?
“Behold now” really? Lord you haven’t thought this out, let me point out a few things. Really, is that any way to treat my Lord? Do I trust my own wisdom above His?
“My soul shall live” really? And what makes him/me think I am not living now?
Do I see myself in any of this according to my present circumstance? The answer is for me to find, much as it is for everyone else.
What I see in myself is what I do not see in Lot. Grace extended. Lot is not alone in these verses, his daughters are with him. There is no mention of them, only about himself, his own concerns. He has received grace but has not extended it to his daughters.
2 Corinthians 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
I am not in this circumstance alone, but I look to my own without extending grace to my fellow traveler.
But that’s just me.
This is powerful and challenging. How often I have said, “Oh not so Lord” and “Let me….” – I have reaped the consequences my ‘bartering’. Thanks for this great word.
Anneke and I wrote to each other for nearly three years before we met. My first letter was “Thanks for dinner.” I was still stateside, ready to head off for basic training. She and her co-workers began praying for me … for my salvation and protection. Based on your blog entry yesterday, one could say that she was laying a foundation of trust. Army life was busy; she wrote to me more than I wrote to her. When orders for training with Special Forces came, I gave the danger no thought. For the next five months I slept in a ghillie suit and doing my job.
The point: I did not make a decision for Christ in my life until I met her in the Netherlands in late 1970. “Jesus loves you.” Those three words arrested all of my fancy comeback replies. I received Christ in my life. At that moment, I embraced what her prayers had done for me. I was living under the shield of grace through my training and on the battlefield. Even during a brief capture and subsequent crossfire, God was there as Jehovah – El Elohim. Grace: God’s unmerited favor. I deserved death, but her prayers, which effected the Grace of God, protected me, when I deserved nothing from God.
Lastly, when we relocated to Harrisonburg, VA to be closer to our grandchildren, it was a shoe-in to attend Grace Covenant Church with our son-in-law and daughter.