Day 10: God Completes What He Has Begun

I heard second hand about a meeting of John Wimber somewhere in which he had little groups pray for one another. A Catholic lady was asked what she wanted to pray and she said, “I want to have the same feeling for the Church that Jesus has. After that every time the word ‘church’ was mentioned, she burst into tears.

His message was from Jesus: “I want my Church back”. Can you identify with that? Let me give you a little parable. Here’s this fine Christian family, a father, mother and three wonderful children. One day the father sees this old tramp sitting on a bench in the park, shivering, dirty, ragged, underfed, unshaved. He takes pity on him. So he brings him home, they find a room and a bed for him, they get him cleaned up, they buy him some new clothes and they say, “You can be a member of the family. You can join in with us.” And he begins to get well fed, respectable. But after a while he begins to take over the family. He begins to tell the wife how she ought to cook, to discipline the children, and in general to act as if he were the head of the house.

You see the parable? We were the tramp sitting on a bench in the park. Jesus took us into His family, cleaned us up, fed us, cared for us. And after a little while we get so arrogant, we say, “Jesus, I think you should do things a different way. If you want to know what I think, this is how you ought to bring up your children.” How many Christians are busy telling the Lord how to look after His children? You need to bear one thing in mind. When you criticize God’s children you make Him angry.

I want to come particularly to the area of taking the initiative. God is only committed to complete what He begins. If God hasn’t begun it, He’s under no obligation to complete it. We will read Revelation 21:5-6:

“Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.”

And I think that must have been such an astonishing statement that John the revelator paused. And so He said:

“Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

It is like he said: “You can trust me, it’s really going to be that way.”

“And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”

Those are two titles that God reserves for Himself. Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. But what I want to say is this. If He’s not the Alpha, don’t expect Him to be the Omega. If He isn’t the beginning, don’t expect Him to be the end. God is not committed to complete anything that He hasn’t begun. If we take the initiative out of God’s hands and make our own decisions and our own plans, the end will be frustration because God will not endorse what He has not begun.