Summer Refreshment Series — Guaranteed Remarkable Life

Summer Refreshment Series* – Live ABOVE the Chaos – You are a mathematician

Your life is guaranteed to produce remarkable results when God has the “calculator” in His hands.

Laurie O’Connor, Live ABOVE the Chaos (Alpharetta: Booklogix, 2014), 89-90.

God is always doing what I now call “mustard seed math.” Jesus fed thousands with a few fish and loaves … twice … with leftovers! (Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:31–44; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:5–15). Such results can only be attributed to the kingdom of heaven.

God asked Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea; then He drove the sea back with a strong east wind (Exodus 13:21). Moses stretched out his hand over the sea again, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place (Exodus 13:27). God asked Joshua to organize a procession led by a trumpet-blowing marching band, and then He commanded them to march around Jericho seven times. Immediately thereafter, God made the walls of Jericho come tumbling down (Joshua 6:1–21).

If God parted the Red Sea with one man’s outstretched arm (Exodus 14:21–31) and crumbled city walls with an army’s circular march and trumpet blowing (Joshua 5:13–6:27), what will God do with the dollar bills you give to support a teenager’s mission trip to Africa? What will God do with the time you spend
with a neighbor over tea talking transparently about both your common day-to-day activities as well as your spiritual life? God clearly demonstrates in the Bible that whatever action He asks us to take for Him will shrink in comparison to what He then does with it for His name.

If we live in God’s strength and for His purposes, instead of our own, God will do things with our lives that cannot be explained by human calculations. Watch someone trusting God with the addiction of a family member, or parents trusting God with a child’s illness, or a woman trusting God with marital heartbreak, or a father trusting God with unemployment, and you will see something beyond the mathematical predictions of this world. When this happens, you know you are watching something from heaven, and that it is not those who are struggling who should be praised, but the God who sustains them.

God’s math is the only math I like. It’s the best deal in town. I honestly have no clue why anyone would turn Him down. He first makes a way for us to be rescued from eternal darkness, and then He gives us the chance to include our dot in a calculation that never fails to produce remarkable results.

*Summer Refreshment Series runs from June 10-August 12. Each week, this series will provide an excerpt from Live ABOVE the Chaos, selected specifically to encourage you in the heat of your summer months.

Picture Explanation: Someone had a birthday this week. As I told one friend, I am looking forward to another year with Jesus as the clock ticks toward heaven. I started my day spending time with Jesus, listing what I am grateful for in life. I am overwhelmed by His goodness to me. The days are long but the years go fast. I honestly would have no hope if it weren’t for God breathing life into the ordinary happenings of life.

The older I get, the more I realize I can do nothing apart from Him. My desperation for Him increases each year as the lure of what this world has to offer lessens each year. Except for the people. They are what matter, but I can’t cause an effect in any person on the globe. If my life is to matter to any person, He has to do that too. The calculator of my life is in His hands.

Looking forward to another year of a life that matters. Loving God. Loving People. The end.

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