DON’T FORGET… God is in the Details!

Psalm 139:16  Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your Book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.

We have this tendency to summarize our life and the lives of those around us, in a series of events.

We choose the major events, discard any events we do not see the relevance of, and write our opinion as an overall summary of the life lived (kind of a “living” obituary).

Then, we summarize the summary, so that we can attach our judgement as to the importance, the goodness/badness, the blessing/suffering cost, and the success/failure of the management team for such a life as this, and of course express our sympathy and/or celebration of the life we are viewing.

We tend to ignore the details that brought our life, or the life we are viewing, to the event that has our attention now. Details of all the days are seen as unspectacular and therefor unimportant to the narrative of the life story (unless, of course, the details culminate to prove the judgement I put forth).

Depending upon my overall emotions toward the events, I will either bless or curse (probably both) those who MADE this happen.

To me, THIS casual disregard for the details of a life lived, is our greatest failure. By disregarding the details we miss the momentous moments and focus on the minutia of the so called big moments that come and go and are quickly forgotten for the next big moment.

We miss the momentous moments that have all been ordained to culminate in God’s vision of the fearfully and wonderful made life He blew His breath into.

This habit of summarizing is certainly expedient when we do not have the time, nor the desire to take the time, to know ourselves and others as God knows and loves every creature He makes. However, this habit also gives a false narrative (a narrative missing the whole truth and nothing but the truth).

A false narrative that leads to a false conclusion and ultimately leads to a false response from the viewer. For example, we CAN’T love our enemy because we summarily KNOW he/she hates us. We CAN’T love a God who summarily ALLOWS our enemy to hurt us in terrible ways. We CAN’T love ourselves until we can summarily PROVE we are perfect.

Without the details of life, major events cannot showcase the unconditional love necessary to bring each and every player to an event. Unconditional love that is the life-blood an abundant life!

Joseph is a good example. Events (see Genesis 37-50)… spoiled youngest (at the time) child, brothers jealous and bitter, sold brat to traders & reported him dead to his father, household slave to Potiphar (and his wife who wanted what Joseph wouldn’t give), unfairly put in prison for years, released and made 2nd in command to save the world from famine.  

How could a “good” God allow such injustice… such suffering… such grief?!  Check, out what Joseph had to say…  But Joseph said to them (the brothers who initiated the mess), “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” Genesis 50:19-20

God knew what He was doing! And… He was doing it from the time His eyes saw Joseph’s unformed substance!

We think in event mode and wonder why. God plans in life mode and knows every moment the life He gives breath too, must have to live abundantly.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 

And here is the REAL CLITCH for us humans.

We define EVERYTHING GOOD on a scale of happy, healthy, and wise. We define EVERYTHING BAD on a scale of sadness, suffering, and unwanted. We may be grateful (for a minute anyway) for a life of “goodness” but we will hatefully declare unfair (til the end of time) for a life of “bad things happening”.

If we judge God (or anyone else) with our event mode mindset, every story told (in the Bible and in life) can be seen as God not caring enough, God not gracious enough, God not involved enough. The tales of war, and slaughter, and slavery, and famine, seen only in the dimension of THIS IS HAPPENING NOW, leave out the very important facts of who, what, when, where, why and how did we get to this HAPPENING NOW that would indeed give us an inkling of the truth, the whole truth.

God lives in LIFE MODE! He is the God of details.

From the moment we were created (Let Us make man) to be His children (in Our image), He prepared to live with us and prepared us to live with Him. In order to give us TRUE & UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, He gave us the gift of free will, the ability and responsibility to CHOOSE to love Him, others, and ourselves, with the love we inherit from Him.

Even when we broke His heart by desiring AND taking what we shouldn’t have and thus opening a position for evil in God’s Kingdom which cannot allow the presence of evil.  

We gave evil access to our lives and he (Satan) demanded a price that would take us from God… the wages of sin is death! Immediately, God put into place His plan to destroy death and return us to life – ETERNALLY!

Every story, every event, every chosen person, place, and happening, became the DETAILS of God’s Will for His entire creation. EVERY detail is the fight to win the war against therulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12) for the abundant, eternal life with Him that He desires for all of His creation.

God’s plan is written in every detail and every detail is written in every story until His plan is accomplished. When you see God’s Story (the Bible) from this point of view, the details of God are so much more important than the events we wrap our lives around.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:10-11

God is the God of Details!

Whether we understand, or approve of, or give gratitude for, EVERY DETAIL is important to God’s plan for the whole of this life and the opportunity for eternal life.

If the detail weren’t important or useful, it would not be. 

WE KNOW that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become  conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. Romans 8:28-30

WE KNOW that God is GOOD ALL THE TIME… and all the time GOD IS GOOD! If there is a detail in your life, please don’t doubt that God is in the midst, fighting the enemy who means evil against you and turning Satan’s attempts to destroy you into His plan for your salvation, redemption, and resurrection.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:31,33-35

Trust God to plan His work and work His plan in your life and in the lives of those we love (which should be all of our neighbors).  

in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:37-39

**All Scripture quoted comes from the “Bible Gateway” app and is the NASB version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.