God's Confidence

One of the things that I love about Jesus is what I will loosely describe as His confidence, although it's something quite more than that. 

Over and over again during His ministry, He runs up against folks who have other plans for Him. They want Him to be a political revolutionary. They want Him to stop teaching or healing. They want to capture Him and do...whatever they want to do to Him. They want to keep children from coming to Him. They want to silence blind men crying out from the side of the road. 

And Jesus, calmly and coolly and totally collected, just says, "Nah. That's not the plan." 

There was even a time when they were trying to capture Him and He just slipped quietly through the crowd and walked away. Like "Nope. Not today. That's not the plan." 

In John 7, they are really trying to capture Him. There's all kinds of hubbub over who He is, whether He's the Messiah, what the crowds are saying about Him, how much trouble He's causing for the Pharisees by being greater than them - more loving, more generous, more forgiving, more gracious. For making God accessible to the people again. For going against the "custom" in favor of something greater. 

So they send the Temple guards to arrest Him, and He looks them right in the face and says, "Yes, I'm here, but I won't always be here, and when you look for me, you won't find me." 

And they don't arrest Him. 

Because how do you arrest a man who is standing right in front of you telling you that you can't find Him?

Brothers, it is not the time. 

Listen, they could have reached right out and touched Him. They could have put their hands on Him right there. They could probably smell the remnants of the fish He had for lunch on His breath. And yet, He just stands in front of them without any fear at all and says, "Now is not the time for that. That's not the plan." 

And then He just walks away. 

This is truly the greatness of God - to be able to set the time for things and to not get distracted by what men think. To not be troubled by what the world is trying to do. To not worry about what looks like a plan falling apart because He knows, without a doubt, that's not the plan. 

The plan is the plan is the plan and it's not changing, as men change, for God does not change His mind. 

To be honest, I'd love to have that kind of confidence. 

But I'll settle for a God who is just that great.