Thought for the Day 02/02/21 - Unimaginable

AUDIO

'It was TOTALLY unimaginable!'

Normally we seem to use that phrase of some sort of atrocity or stormy weather or disaster ... generally of BAD things.

Hardly ever do we hear it being used of something good.

We use it to  try to evoke a thought we are having trouble describing because of how extreme it is.

But the Bible is a book that so frequently challenges our expectations ...

"just as it is written, 

“Things that 

• no eye has seen, 
• or ear heard, 
• or mind imagined, 

are the things God has prepared for those who love him.”

1 Corinthians 2:9

If you want to get something into your head, there's a limited number of pathways to get it in there ... drilling a hole in the side of your skull, of course, isn't an option ... you're stuck with ears and eyes or some other of the five senses.

Paul recognises here, though, that if it's a concept about what God's got in store that you wish to convey, you're really down to eyes, ears and imagination - and that's what Paul's going with here.

He is trying to say:

 'what God's got in store for His people is just too big to get into your head 

by conventional means. 

It's so amazingly GOOD, 

you simply can't even imagine it.'

Privileges aren't universally available

By definition, privileges don't apply to everyone!

So Paul goes on to say this astonishing privilege is just that - a privilege - and isn't just naturally available to all:

"The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. 

And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."

1 Corinthians 2:14

Privileges are not always unconditional

Now we can't run away with the idea that any privilege is going to be unconditional ... and Paul spells out the relationship that's the key to keeping this one:

This privilege is to receive "the things God has prepared for those who love him.”

The Greek participle there describing 'those who love Him' characterises the group of people who LOVE God as the ones who will be getting the inexpressible privilege.

Those who LOVE Him are the ones who receive this privilege that is beyond words ... it's sustaining loving RELATIONSHIP with God that brings it to you.

You get the same thing said, but personally applied, in Revelation to what had been a GREAT church  in Ephesus:

"you have persisted steadfastly, 

endured much for the sake of my name, and 

have not grown weary. 

But I have this against you: 

You have departed from your first love! 

Therefore, remember from what high state you have fallen and repent!"

Revelation 2:3-5

The point

Life can feel pretty gloomy and glum.

It can even make you wonder what the point can possibly be of carrying on with your Church, your Christian service ... the cost of faith.

But the rewards of this race are inexpressible, and they lie at the end.

The point is this astonishing privilege God gives is not so much for those who do great-looking acts of service for God (like the Ephesians did but lost their love).

It's for those have turned from sin to trust Christ and who sustain a daily loving relationship from the heart with their God ... and on account of that walk on in His ways.

It's a matter of tending that relationship from the heart.

The takeaway

No relationship can stay healthy without regular maintenance checks, and taking time to put wear and tear right.

God's got great things, too great to express, to give people ... people who have come into a relationship with God and then go on to take care to maintain the loving relationship they first came into with Him.