I have been thinking about the craft of making movies lately. If I were to stand on a movie set, I would be surrounded by a film crew, actors, and a team of people who are making a story line unfold before me. In that setting, it is undeniable that if something is not done well, they will redo it until they get it right. The result is that the protagonist /actor will get the action right, according to whatever the script calls for. In the context of the story, the actor proceeds with certainty, whether the decision is right or wrong. It would be nice for all of us to proceed with certainty and know that the decision is the correct one.
The character in these scripts knows what they are doing. They will always be simple characters and we do not need their background. We only need a plot and an established chronology, and we know that the plot will work itself out by the end of the movie.
Having certainty in real life uncertain times can be difficult to sort out. When we long for certainty, there is comfort in the Bible. Genesis 28 tells the story of Isaac giving his blessing to Jacob, Esau decides to spite his father, and Jacob runs off because of his uncertainty for the outcome of the whole situation. In verses 13-15, God spoke to him in a dream and said “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac….All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go… I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
Jacob was very satisfied after that dream. When he woke up he set up a memorial marker, and his life went as God had promised.
undeniable value
We all would love to hear certainty during uncertain times, just like Jacob. Is it possible that today. we could know with certainty, that ‘God has our back’? The answer may sound dogmatic, but the truth is, it is a matter of believing His promise. How can we do that? It begins with faith. In Romans 4:13 it says: It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
Jacob’s certainty was not handed to him. When he woke up from his dream, he apprehended it by a declaration: Jacob accepted what God was giving, and he followed through on it. For any of us to accept God’s promise, we have to accept it and follow through on it. Trusting the message it is certainly easier for some than it is for others. I debated how I could provide an argument to encourage trusting God’s message with complete resolution.
Trust, with certainty
Here is my resolution. Let’s say I need to memorize a Bible passage. One tried and true way to do this would be by rote memorization. Saying the verse over and over again would ingrain the words into my head so I could remember the verse. Repetition helps us to get it into our heads. Getting to know God’s promises can work through repetition. This quote from Dwight L. Moody expresses a good way to make repetition a reality. It was written as a forward to Herbert Lockyer’s All the Promises of the Bible (1962 and later. Zondervan Publishing):
"take the Promises of God. Let a man feed for a month on the Promises of God, and he will not talk about how poor he is, You hear people say, 'Oh my leanness! how lean I am!' It is not their leanness, it is their laziness. If you would only read from Genesis to Revelation and see all the promises made by God to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to the Jews and the Gentiles, and to all his people everywhere - if you would spend a month feeding on the precious promises of God - you wouldn't be going about complaining how poor you are. You would lift up your head and proclaim the riches of His Grace, because you couldn't help doing it!"
