Have you ever had those moments where things just don’t make sense, until they make sense. The car breaks down on the way to that interview – you know, for the job you really wanted? Or delayed flights leading to trips cut short?
You know… that sort of thing. The challenging or uncomfortable times where you are given a moment to choose your attitude and believe there must be something bigger at play than you can see in that moment.
But Time ticks on and when you look back you see something far bigger at work than was visible in that moment.
Different and fulfilling career paths you would have never chosen yourself or personal connections made in airport waiting rooms that lead to life long friendships. Discomfort and inconvenience leading to a life far more fulfilled than you would ever have imagined.
Today, we join Peter in one of these moments. A crossroads in his walk with Jesus where his heart attitude and willingness to embrace challenge could lead him deeper into a wild life of gospel growing faith… or not.
And it started with discomfort. Simply put, Peter was hungry. He was up On the rooftop praying, doing all the holy things a Jew should do when God broke into his day with a vision that spoke challenge into his heart. And God used his hunger as the means to emphasise the change that was needed.
God gave him a vision where a sheet was let down from heaven holding a large variety of animals. A voice accompanied this vision inviting Peter to get up, kill the animals and eat them. The conundrum here was that the animals represented were all considered by Jewish law as unclean to eat. And eating them was something any self resecting Jew just would not do. Simply put, This vision just made no sense.
But behind this vision to Peter, God was saying something far more impactful than a lunch invitation. His message to Peter was not actually about food at all, however Peter’s hunger and desire for a tasty lunch opened up the way for God to speak to him about something much deeper – His fixed religious mindset about what was clean and unclean.
In my life, I have found that God uses the uncomfortable moments I face to shed His light on my theology. If Peter had not been hungry, the invitation to eat something unclean would have held no power over him. His strong will would have been enough. But in this instance, Peter’s hunger tipped the balance. While being hungry may have made his stance before God appear more righteous, what it actually revealed in this situation was his religious and dare I say it Pharisaical mindset. “I would never do that God!”
Challenging situations shake out of us the depths hidden in our hearts. And what is then revealed can be challenged and changed.
Peter’s indignant response revealed his true heart. You see, this little vision showed Peter that he was far more judgmental than he first realised.
What Peter perceived as as purity, God revealed as judgmental. But it was Peter’s hunger that revealed this.
I do not for one moment think that God was upset by Peter’s response. He already knew what was residing in his heart, but he was offering Peter the choice to change.
God was preparing Peter in that moment for an opportunity to speak into a Gentile household. According to the customs of the time, a Jew would never set foot inside a Gentile home, let alone eat with them.
Rather ironically, even before Peter’s challenge on his understanding of cleanliness, God had already set in motion an invitation for Peter to travel to a Gentile home to share the gospel with them – and that invitation was almost at his door. Can you imagine Peter’s response had God not come and prepared him first?
We all, by nature, desire to be happy and comfortable. But, if we are not careful, this desire for comfort can close our minds and hearts to those around us and the move of God in us. Instead of allowing that, God uses the moments of discomfort in our lives to work in us in order for Him to work through us to affect change in the world around us.
Next time we are in those tough moments of decision or discomfort, perhaps we need to stop and ask God what he wishes to do in us in that moment, before we beg him to remove the challenges.
Because challenges can grow is far more than feather pillows – if we let them.
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 139:23-24 NIV
