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Amazement

Some days I am just flat out surprise at what God does through His Holy Spirit. I don’t see it coming but it happens. It is bewildering. It is amazing. It is astonishing.

  1. God is in a good mood and He sends His Holy Spirt into our lives. God does what He wants to when He wants to do it. That can surprise us but that is just the way God is. God knows what He is doing. We don’t much of the time.
  2. When I scan the biblical story, I can’t help concluding that following God brings a life of surprises.
    1. Whatever plans God makes and however I’ve tried to figure out God’s plans, I’m constantly greeted with surprises.
    2. I face turns in the story that I never would have anticipated. God’s plan again and again included things that would not have been included in the story if I had been doing the planning.
  3. One of the reasons for this is that I tend to focus on outcomes. I simply want things to go well and turn out right. God surely does care about the end of all things, but he is graciously at work in the process as well.
  4. To us, often God’s order looks like disorder, and his wisdom looks like foolishness. God’s lovingkindness often seems to be anything but loving, and definitely not kind.
    1. All of this has to do with one humbling thing that we all have to admit: as sinners, we want our own way.
    2. We want life to work according to our plan.
    3. We don’t want to have to face the unexpected or deal with disappointment.
    4. We want life to be smooth and predictable.
    5. And we want all of this because we are more concerned about our comfort and ease than we are about the processes of grace that are at work in us.

Jesus is my Master (Owner). His decisions surprise me.

  • Acts 2:6–7 (NASB) — And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
  • Acts 10:45 — All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.