God - the Prime Mover

"The Prime Mover."  What does that mean? It means, He takes the first step. He created. He loves. He provides the means by which man can come to Him.

One of the reasons we often don't understand what God is doing in our lives is that we look at our situation through the wrong end of the binoculars. Imagine an army under siege, expecting reinforcements. As they look at their enemy through the small end of the binoculars (the right way), the enemy looks closer than they really are. But then the lookout turns around to look for reinforcements, but also turns the binoculars around so that he's looking through the large end. The reinforcements looks so small and distant! He feels despair that help is so far away.

When we read the great Psalms of hope in the Bible, David often rehearsed what God had done, often beginning from the earliest stories of the Hebrew patriarchs. He would proclaim the earliest stories of the Hebrew patriarchs. He would proclaim what God had done on their behalf. Then he would move on to the deliverance of the people from Egypt, God's provision in the wilderness, His leading them into the promised land and conquering the enemy. Finally, he would review some of the things God had done for him personally. By the time he finally got around to his own current situation, God's ability and willingness to hear his cry and answer his prayer was big and bold in his view! It was like looking at something already near through a pair of binoculars, bringing it even closer! God's love and provision were so near they were almost overwhelming!

We, on the other hand, tend to look at our present problem and never stop to think how He has delivered us in times past. We are like the apostles when Jesus said they were men of little faith because they "did not remember or understand." Any hope or solution seems far, far away - like a distant spot on the horizon through the wrong end of the binoculars.

Here's a view through the binoculars, New Testament style:
He blessed, chose, predestined to salvation through His Son, He did so according to the kind intention of His will. He freely bestowed His grace on us. It is in Him we have redemption through His blood and forgiveness according to the riches of His grace. He lavished His grace upon us. He made known the mystery of His will. He had a purpose in doing so. He acted "with a view to an administration" (with a specific plan in mind). In Him we obtained an inheritance. In Him we have been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will. (You can read about it in Ephesians 1:3-14.)

Some look at this passage to support their view that some are predestined to salvation. Others argue, "No, we who are saved are predestined to adoption through Jesus Christ." (Indicating the predestination has to do with the predetermined method, not with which individuals would or would not be saved.) Quite frankly, I don't think either view is worth getting up in arms about, much less worth dying for. (Jesus is worth dying for, but not our favorite pet doctrines.) The indisputable fact of Scripture is that God is sovereign. He does: He moves, He acts; He has a plan. He is not surprised by anyone or anything. As Jack Taylor so eloquently put it: "Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever 'occurred to' God?"

A God like that is worth trusting.