…even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. (Romans 4:17b, NASB)
It is not at all clear to me that God’s primary motivation in creating the game of golf was to give us a game we could play to entertain ourselves. Rather, it seems as though the game of golf was, in some way, created by God so he could use it to teach us lessons about life. At least, that is the way it feels sometimes. Read enough of these devotions and you cannot help but be amazed at how much correlation there is between “the game” and living for Christ.
Consider the idea behind taking golf lessons. I know I want to improve, but I come to the point where I can’t figure out how to improve on my own. So I go to my club pro and ask for some lessons, believing that if I give myself over to her tutelage and manage to implement what she teaches me, there is a better swing in me that will be created, a swing that does not currently exist but will exist when we are finished. A key component in this equation is my placing my faith in the pro’s advice.
Think of what was going through Moses’s mind as he stood with his back to the Red Sea as Pharaoh’s army bore down on the Israelites. An escape route was something he could not see, but he trusted God would call it into existence. We know the rest of that story. Or Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac on the altar, unable to see how God would then go on to make him the “father of many nations.” He trusted that God would call into existence a way for him to do just that. And we know the rest of that story. And Joshua walking around the city of Jericho each day for six days and seven times on the seventh day….and then having to shout, trusting that God would call into existence a way for them to conquer the walled city. And we know the rest of that story. In each case, faith in God’s ability to make something happen coupled with some action on the part of the believer was required. Faith is (after all) “the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
When we live by faith, God gets the glory because we are making a statement about God’s character to all those watching our lives.The thing is, when we trust God and do something by faith without any knowledge of how it is going to turn out (because we cannot see the outcome), he seems to be greatly pleased with that. It doesn’t matter if it is loving someone we consider relatively unlovable, doing something for the poor, starting a Links Fellowship at our course, or simply inviting someone to a Fellowship meeting. If we are doing it by faith, it appears God gets pretty excited about that (“…but my righteous ones shall live by faith,” Habakkuk 2:4).
If it isn’t clear yet, here is the good news for today: God is in the business of calling into being that which does not exist (today’s verse). And here is some more good news: We can pray that God will enable us to do what he is asking us to do. When Paul was writing to the Thessalonians, he encouraged them with these words in 2 Thessalonians 1: “To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
When we live by faith, God gets the glory because we are making a statement about God’s character to all those watching our lives. We are saying, “We trust you. We trust in your word and we believe you are who you say you are.”
So today, whatever God is calling you to trust him for, understand that God is in the business of calling into existence that which does not currently exist, and he wants you to partner with him in its creation.
I am quite confident there is no higher calling.
—
Bob Kuecker
March 27, 2019
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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