A Secret Wonderful Plan

Transcript

Alright. Thank you very much. Always nice to be put on the air with folks whom I know are my friends. Appreciate you. And hello again radio friends, how in the world are you? You doing alright today? Yes, that little corny greeting establishes the fact that this is your friend, Bob Cook. And I’m glad to be back with you to share from the Word of God. I look forward to these precious times. On many a time my eyes are wet with tears as I look at God’s Word and realize that it’s speaking not just to you, my beloved friends, but me. God is saying something to Cook. And I take it and take it seriously, and try to obey it just as you do. Always when you read the Bible, ask the question, “Lord, what do you want me to do about this today?” It will make your Bible study dynamic rather than academic. Always when you read your Bible, ask the question, “Lord, what do you want me to do about this truth today?” That will make your Bible study dynamic, not just academic. We’re talking about some of these things that our Lord Jesus associated with the process of abiding in Him.

The last time we got together we talked about His friendship. “I have called you friends.” In verse 15, in connection with that friendship, he said, “Not slaves, I call you not slaves. The slave doesn’t know what his master’s doing. I called you friends.” Why? “For all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.” Abiding in the Lord Jesus involves His blessed revealing of the purposes of God to your heart. Over in Psalm 25 you’ll find the verse, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and He will show them his covenant.” The secret of the Lord. To know what God is up to, and to obey what He tells you as a result, is one of the sheer delights of living the Christian life. Now, surely you can’t see around the corner. You can’t tell what’s gonna happen an hour from now. I know that. But you can be in the hands of your blessed Lord. [chuckle] I often think of what happened a few years back. What was it, ’83 or ’84? Sometime in there. I was on my way to a meeting. I’d left my dear wife, we drove two cars to a wake.

We had to show up because a loved one related to one of our friends had passed away. And so, we went to the funeral home. And so we drove two cars and then after we had finished greeting the friends, I stood outside I said, “Well sweetie, you go on home and I’m going to my meeting.” And so she drove away and I started. Well, I thought, “Now I’ve got an hour’s drive and I better pray and seek the Lord.” So I did. And of course, you don’t close your eyes when you pray when you’re driving, I had ’em wide open. You may be sure but I was praying. And now and again the tears would spill over my eyes as God would touch my heart. I had a most wonderful time of fellowship in prayer there for maybe 20 minutes. Then I came to a narrow place in that particular road. Just a two lane highway, which it was a bridge. As a matter of fact it was the bridge over the New York Thruway, two lane highway. And as I was going across that bridge, here came another car in my lane. And there wasn’t any place I could go. I put on the brakes but that didn’t help much and we had what is commonly known as a head-on collision.

Well, my glasses flew off and everything was disarranged inside the car. I had my seatbelt buckled, and so that kept me from banging up against the windshield and against the steering wheel. The impact broke a couple of ribs it developed. But I remember sitting there and thinking, “Now Lord, what is all this? [chuckle] I just been praying.” Finally realizing that nothing was seriously broken, I got out of the car, walked around. And the old gentleman who had been driving the other car got out and said, “I think I must’ve fallen asleep.” [laughter] I was wishing then that he’d stayed wide awake just a little longer. But then, you don’t know. Praying one minute and right in the middle of an accident the next. Did God make a mistake? No. He doesn’t make any mistakes. He doesn’t make any mistakes. Out of that experience came new insights for yours truly, new growth I trust in my own soul. A new understanding of the hurts of people who’ve been involved in traffic accidents and all that. Great many things that I learned out of that. I wouldn’t wanna go through it again. I still wince a little when I feel that side of my torso where the ribs were broken. But hey, His purposes. Jesus said, “All things I’ve heard of my Father I’ve made known unto you.”

One of the delights, one of the delights of surrendering absolutely to the Lord Jesus Christ is that he lets you in on what God wants to do in your life. Now, this doesn’t come all at once. Someone is out of a job and praying for a job. I had a desperate letter a while back from someone who said, “We’ve been without work and we’re running out of money and we pray so hard and nothing is happening, has God forgotten us?” Well, a little later on I got a letter that said, “Father got a job that’s much better than the other one, praise the Lord.” We don’t always get what we’re praying for right that minute, God’s timing is perfect. Jesus didn’t run into Bethany when he got there, he stayed outside the town long enough for the word to get around that he was there and for Martha to come out and have that conversation which resulted in her saying, “Yes Lord, I believe.” And going to get Mary for the same purpose. God’s timing is perfect, let Him do what He wants in your life, will you? “All things that I’ve heard of my Father I’ve made known unto you.” Let Him whisper His secrets to you and let Him deal tenderly with your life, just in the areas where you have need. He will, He will. He loves you with an everlasting love and He will answer your prayers. The secret of the Lord, this matter of understanding, Paul prayed for the Colossians for it.

He said, “I pray that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” Interestingly enough, we never get answers to our ‘why’ questions, we get answers to the ‘who’ questions, and the ‘what’ questions. Let me illustrate it. Job, you remember the story of Job? In just a few hours his fortunes were swept away, his family was all killed with the exception of his wife, and then just a little later on his health was destroyed. “And he was covered,” says the Bible, “with boils from head to toe.” Excruciating pain and misery on top of sorrow and heartbreak, think what it might be to lose all your dear ones all at once. Something you could scarcely bear. Well, Job said, “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” What a saint he was. But now he says, “Why? Why did this happen? Why did this have to happen to me? I’ve tried to serve God. I’ve tried to keep my eyes on God. I’ve tried to do the right thing, why did this happen to me? Why was I even born? Or why didn’t I die right after I was born? Why did God let me grow up to see this? Why? Why?”

He never got an answer to the ‘why’ questions and for the most part, beloved, neither do you and I. But at the end of the book of Job, God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind and revealed Himself to him and said, “Now Job, what do you got to say?” And Job said, “I’ve said too much already, I’m gonna lay my hand upon my mouth, for I’ve heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eyes seeth thee and I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes.” He said, “Now I’ve been in touch with God.” God reveals Himself to you instead of answering the ‘why’ question. Now, that’s what I’ve learned through the years. And if it seems too simplistic to you, beloved, well then you’ll have to cope with it yourself. But I know that this is the way it works. You’re up against something you can’t understand and you don’t like it. Maybe it breaks your heart, maybe you’ve lost a loved one or a job, or maybe there’s a child that has broken your heart through wayward and prodigal ways, or whatever it may be. And you say “Why?” Seek your Lord and let Him whisper His love to you and you’ll find that He becomes the answer to your heart cry. Because it’s not why but whom that really counts.

You follow that? “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.” Spend time with your Father in Heaven through the Lord Jesus Christ so that He can whisper His secrets of love and His purposes to you. When you pray, have a piece of paper, a notebook handy, and a pen or pencil to write down the precious thoughts that come to you when you’re praying. Some of the most valuable ideas I’ve ever had in the work of the Lord have come either during or right after a prayer meeting. Don’t let them slip away in forgetfulness, but when God speaks something precious to your heart write it down and then you can pray it back to Him later on and enjoy His secrets that He gives you. Good idea? “All things that my Father has told me I’ve made known unto you.” Now, he says, “You’ve not chosen me,” and that of course is an understatement. We’ve run away from him oftentimes. Haven’t we? He said, “Ye have not chosen Me but, I have chosen you, and ordained you, and then sent you forth.” Time will be gone before we can get into that. Just let your heart revel in the fact that Jesus picked you out. He looked at you and he said, “I want him. I want her. I have chosen you.” You’re one of God’s chosen. Let Him reveal His plan for your life today.

Dear Father, today we’re thankful to be your friends through Jesus. Oh, may we live in the light of your divine purposes for us. I ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!