SURPRISE!

God loves surprising people. Here is a partial list of God’s surprises: The gift of woman surprised Adam. A new world surprised Noah. The incarnation was a surprise to Mary. The resurrection was a surprise to the disciples. Conversion was a surprise to Saul (he thought he was converted!). The gift of the Holy Spirit surprised the early believers, suddenly. The church was a surprise to the world. And in the end, we, with unveiled faces, will be gloriously surprised with a new heaven, “Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him…” (Revelation 1:7). With this very partial catalogue of heavenly surprises God seems to be saying, “Get ready to be surprised! I am a God of surprises”.

If any of us could predict a surprise, it would not be a surprise. The God of all creation is an ever-working God whose power is limitless and unconquerable. God's sovereign working is not an excuse for us to sit back and drift with whatever tide comes our way. No, a thousand times no. Even though the undertows of fear and discouragement may bring us down the power of Christ, living in us, will pull us out of the storms of life. Life’s uncertainties must not be allowed to magnify our problems or diminish the power of our great God.

The prophet Isaiah said, “Forget the former things, nothing compares to the new thing I am about to do. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland"(Is. 43. 18,19). Does the Lord himself not tell us that his Father in heaven will move and gift us from heaven, if we would only ask? (Luke 11:13). And in another setting Jesus said, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” (Jn. 5.17). And lest we forget the words of Paul, “being confident of this, that he that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1.6).

Contemporary writer Henry Blackaby states, God is always at work around us and that, God invites us to join Him in His great work. The challenge comes, says Blackaby, is that our ‘joining up’ with God will cause in us a crises of faith. Why? Because ‘the surprise’ is something that we have not been a part of before. As daunting as God’s invitational surprise may be we must remember that Jesus is a powerful stronghold and a strong tower. You absolutely cannot be defeated from an enemy that has already been rendered powerless through the cross of Jesus Christ. Get ready to be surprised!