Dear Members and Friends of IBCZ,
Last week I wrote about God’s faithfulness to us as revealed through the prophet Hosea. This week I would like to continue that theme by considering God’s faithfulness from a particular angle: God is faithful to us even when we are not seeking God or His will for our life. Even when our plans crash and our hopes are dashed, God is faithful and working out His perfect will for us.
The insightful Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias, who recently was called heavenward, tells this story from his life. As a teenager growing up in Delhi, India, his life was marked by failure and the path he was on was only going to magnify that. At the time, India was at war and the Defense Department put out a plea for young men to be trained as pilots. Ravi thought maybe this would turn his life around.
After a period of rigorous physical and mental testing, Ravi was certain he would be selected. Three hundred applicants were competing for just ten slots. With only a psychological test remaining, Ravi had the third highest score. He called his family to tell them that he was all but guaranteed to be chosen.
But after the psychological test, Ravi was informed that he was being rejected. When he asked why, he was told, “Psychologically you’re not wired to kill, and this job is about killing.” Feeling dejected, he went home, having failed again.
But Ravi was to learn that God was faithfully working out his purpose for him. If Ravi had been selected, it would have meant making a 20-year commitment to the Indian Armed forces. As it turned out, one year after his rejection, his father moved to Canada, and Ravi went along. In addition to meeting his future wife, that presented Ravi with the opportunity to engage in theological training. With that foundation, Ravi would later begin what would become a worldwide ministry of teaching Christian apologetics at conferences, and speaking before skeptical and even hostile audiences at major universities, where he skillfully and sensitively defended the Christian faith. God was faithfully bringing His perfect will for Ravi’s life to pass, though at the time Ravi could not understand that, and felt only rejection.
We sometimes go through experiences that are difficult, that we do not understand, and that are contrary to what we had planned. But God is faithful, so we can trust that God is working all things for good (Rom. 8:28).
Grace and peace,
Pastor Bob