Being and Becoming God’s own

They say (at least I’ve heard it all my life and experienced it) that “the devil is in the details”. Have you ever heard that phrase? Here is the meaning: The idiom “the devil is in the detail” refers to a catch or mysterious element hidden in the details, and derives from the earlier phrase “God is in the detail” expressing the idea that whatever one does should be done thoroughly; i.e. details are important.

In other words, if God is not in the details, the devil will be, to try to trip us up while we are working to accomplish God’s will in our lives. That’s why Paul reminds the Corinthians AND us to be diligent in all things. The devil’s only ammunition is to get into the smallest detail that will cause havoc later in the bigger picture while we are to busy to notice or turn our heads away from focus on God. God must be in every detail. His Word says He even “delights” in the details of our lives and His purpose for us!

2 Corinthians 6, The Message

6 1-10 Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,

I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.

Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

11-13 Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

14-18 Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:

“I’ll live in them, move into them;
I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.
So leave the corruption and compromise;
leave it for good,” says God.
“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
I want you all for myself.
I’ll be a Father to you;
you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”
The Word of the Master, God.

What do we learn?
–Don’t frustrate God’s work by missing the smallest of details.
–Our work is validated in the details!
–Others are watching to see how we work, what we do when we mess up and how God works in and through us. What do they see?
–We are not fenced in by God. We limit our limitless God by our on thinking and behaving!
–To live expansively, in the wide open spaces of God’s territory, we must trust Him with every detail. “The smallness we feel comes from within us”…not from God.
–Of greatest importance while paying attention to every detail of our lives…“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.
I want you all for myself.” says the God of all, who created us.

Dear Heavenly Father, What a mighty, holy God you are that You would delight in the details of our lives. May Your will be done, in all the details of today and all our tomorrows, on earth, as it is in heaven. Keep us alert and focused on You. We lift off the ceiling limit of our own making and long to live in the wide open spaces with You. I’m yours, Lord. Do what you must in my life to transform it, but be gentle. Thank you, Lord.
In Jesus Name, Amen