Check Mate!
February 25th, 2024 (Week 58)
Jeremiah 29: 11-13
There are about 8 billion of us living on planet Earth. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be involved in the lives of all those people at the same time - I have enough trouble working out the plot of a novel in which there a just a few characters and when I have to do too many things in too short a space of time, I can get close to blowing a fuse. In fact, in recent years I’ve come to the realisation that I’m of no practical use whatsoever when I’m running around chasing my tail.
In the comedy film Bruce Almighty the main character is given the job of being God for a while. In doing it he sorts out all manner of situations from traffic jams to answering millions and millions of email prayer requests – which is filmed in a very fast, forward motion to replicate the speed needed to do such a thing.
Contrast that with how the Greek and Roman gods were often portrayed in much older films. In Clash of the Titans Zeus appeared only to be taking interest in the life of Perseus to the total exclusion of everyone else. Only the specific chosen ones mattered it seems. So, what’s happening in the lives of the other 7,999,999,999 whilst good old Perseus is having fun flying around on Pegasus?
Fortunately, our God isn’t like any of these screen portrayals. But how do you imagine God? Right now, as you’re reading this, possibly with each member of your family away doing something else, maybe something quite hazardous, how do you imagine God is dealing with each of those situations? As He’s speaking to you how do you imagine him also speaking to millions of others? I can’t help wondering if, like me, he might also blow a fuse!
I used to like to play chess. It’s a slow game, where each move is thought through many, many moves in advance. Chess Grand Masters are usually thoughtful, careful, and strategically minded. It’s easy to think of God similarly, carefully planning my life, step after step, considering the next best move for me. But our God is not like that either because, as Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, He (alone) already knows the plans he has for us, plans for good and not disaster, and for the future we hope for. God’s plan for us isn’t written on the hoof. He wrote it before we were even born and it’s still there for us to walk into.
Yes, we have the greatest Grand Master of them all and He wants to say Check Mate for each one of us. But how He manages to do that in your life and mine at the same time is way, way beyond me!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you that you are interested in and know each one of us intimately. Thank you that you have a good, perfect, pleasing plan for each one of us. Please help us to yield every area of our lives to you to enable us to move into a position that glorifies you.
Neil Bromage, 25/02/2024