The Christian life never moves in a straight line. Certainly it is not a straight line upward. Quite often it is a series of apparent contradictions that may leave me perplexed and bewildered. That is bipolar Christianity, the Christianity that gives me no room to presume, to relax, or to take God for granted, but that which gives me ample room to trust, to rely on, and to cling to God for support.
There are sharp bipolar experiences that sometimes leave me breathless. For example, God assures me: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5, KJV); yet my experience quite often is, “Why hast Thou forgotten me?” (Psalm 42:9, KJV), or “Thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off?” (Psalm 43:2, KJV). I look at the people of the Bible — Joseph, for example — and see how disconnected their lives seemed to be at the time. It was only in the “afterward” that Joseph saw any semblance of sense in the way God had led him. Those are all bipolar experiences!
Those men, as all of us, were led from point to point in a seemingly disconnected way, as if God had abandoned His blueprint. There seemed to be no running pattern of continuity in it all. Yet that is God’s eternal way with sinful people. The constant shuffling of the nest keeps us constantly clinging to Him for understanding, guidance, and support. God knows what He is doing! I must not judge Him stupid, and certainly not cruel. I must honor Him by trusting Him and please Him by gladly accepting my “disconnections.” Nothing delights God’s heart more than my trust in Him even when I walk in darkness and have no light. In times like those I am to stay myself upon God (Isaiah 50:10).
“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).
Daily with the King 