Mind the GAP
Dear Friends,
As OCTOBER is the month the clocks go back to widen the GAP between darkness and to give us more natural daylight to both see and be safe by, I was taken with the idea of how every GAP can impact us!
Anyone who has ever taken the London underground would have heard the warning MIND THE GAP on the arrival of their train. Injury can occur and even lives can be lost if the gap between the train and the platform is not taken seriously. The gap between our teeth can cause gum disease and tooth decay if left unattended. The gap between our income and our outgoings can be debt ridden if we don’t budget well and live within our means. The gap between what we say and what we do can destroy our trustworthiness, whilst the biggest gap of all between us in our sin and God in His holiness can leave us lost forever if we don’t come to Christ who crossed that gap for us. Some GAPS are wider than others and some GAPS impact us more than others but all GAPS are to be minded if we are not to fall into the danger each GAP represents.
Think of the GAP between WHAT is promised and WHEN it is delivered. That GAP can be a chasm for many of us. When God promised to take Israel out of the land of lack (Egypt) and into the land of plenty (Canaan) they ended up living in and grumbling about the land of just enough because they had a poor GAP mentality.
They couldn’t see past what was to what was to come, so remained forty years in a dry and discouraging desert of doubt and death. They blamed anyone and everyone including God of course for their miserable situation. But how often in one of God’s strange and wonderful ways, He allows something to be taken away so He can ultimately replace it with something so much better! It is in the GAP between what is lost and what is gained where the difficulty lies. MIND THE GAP. I don’t know what you may be missing or have had taken from you, but I do know that there may well be months of faith-stretching, heavy duty praying, and soul-searching, before God brings you in His always perfect time, to the upgrade and abundance you long for.
God did do for Israel what He had always promised to do and what at least Caleb and Joshua believed He would do. He took them out of Egypt and into Canaan. He replaced their loss with something much better.
This was Job’s painful experienced too after he had lost everything, his fortune, his children and his health. The Bible says, “The Lord made him prosperous again, and gave him twice as much as he had before.” (Job 42:20) Indeed it goes on to make clear that, “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first… He also had seven sons and three daughters… nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters.”
I don’t want to minimise the loss you may be suffering with or lessen the GAP you are confronted by. I would however encourage you in it, not to discount the goodness of the Lord.
You may not be able to imagine how He could replace what you’ve lost, or what you’ve surrendered to Him, let alone with something better. I certainly don’t know what it is going to look like or even when it is going to come, but I do know we have a Saviour who loves us, who knows what we need, and who desires our best.
In the GAPS we struggle with we must trust Him who is the God of the greater good. This OCTOBER when the clocks go back I urge you again to MIND THE GAP and remember that one reason God allows crashes is to upgrade us to something better!
Your Friend and Pastor
Shaun