I was listening to the radio not too long ago and heard someone tell a story about an encounter with a young teenager. He was a stranger to them, but when asked, the teen began to share his testimony. He stated that he had found himself so down and discouraged, that he had decided that he would end it all. He tried to commit suicide, he stated, “I didn’t know what else to do or who to turn to; but the rope broke.”
There are so many stories that we could tell in our personal lives about how God has intervened on our behalf, even if it is through unanswered prayers. So many times, unbeknown to us, He spares our lives from accidents or tragedies. He takes us out of relationships that may have otherwise ended in catastrophe. He puts us into circumstances that he knows will be good character building experiences for us. He has our best interest at heart because we are his children. We may never know how many times he has reached down and rescued us or detoured us onto a safer path. He takes his ‘big scissors’ from heaven and cuts the rope.
We have experienced Psalm 91:11 first hand in our family, which says, “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” Over ten years ago now, we had the privilege of having all four of our daughters together on one weekend, which is rare now that they are all married, so we decided to take a day trip to spend some time with them. We headed to Memphis, and my husband was giving us the grand tour of his childhood stomping grounds. We were at a red light in the left hand turning lane, about to turn on Elvis Presley Boulevard, when a cop came speeding through the intersection. This normally would not have been an issue, because it happens all the time, however, the little lady with her dog in her lap, not paying attention, proceeded to make her left hand turn and T-boned the cop car, and they began to careen at top speed, our direction, but God. He had already dispatched his angels to be on duty, that day, at that time, at that specific place, and they were on duty! I’m not sure how many angels it took, but they stood right in front of our vehicle, stopped the car, which was now on its side, set it down on all four wheels again, and literally backed it up and parked it right beside us on our right hand side, as if it was waiting with us at the red light. That is only an unbelievable tale, if you were not there to see it first hand, but that is how God works. Not only does God tell us this in Isaiah 55:8-9, but he says it twice for emphasis. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Our lives were changing drastically at that time, and our hearts were in turmoil, but after that miracle, we realized that God spared us for a reason. He gave us peace and the comfort of knowing that He would be with us every step of the way.
I have heard the expression many times, “I wanted to or tried to do this or that, but God!” When my husband and I pastored in Indiana, we had an assistant pastor who ministered alongside of us for about ten years. He once preached a sermon which he titled, “What comes after the but, is more important than what is before the but”. This made us all chuckle, and I have always remembered it, because of the title being so catchy, and it had a hook that caught everyone’s attention as they teach young ministers to do in their seminary classes. However, the message itself was very compelling as well because you could go through a long list of items you need and cannot obtain, circumstances or excuses of why you cannot do something or see victory in your life and feel that there is no hope, ‘BUT’ you are a child of God, and he is in control and provides and makes the way for you. You are sick with a disease that has not cure and the prognosis is bleak, ‘BUT’ God is still a healer. You did not see your life turning out this way and you feel like a failure, ‘BUT’ God knows the end from the beginning and does not weigh success as man sees it. Are you beginning to see the picture he was painting in this message. Yes, the things before the ‘BUT’ are real, did happen to you, make us disappointed, confused and hurt, however, what is after each ‘BUT’? GOD! He always steps in right on time.
You may have thought your life was going to turn out differently, but God put you on a different path in your life and career. You may have had your eye on a tall dark and handsome fellow you thought for certain you would marry and live happily ever after with, but God’s choice for you did not match yours. We all map out our lives and have such high expectations, but God sees from a panoramic vantage point and knows what lies ahead, therefore, we should say as James instructed in James 4:13-15, “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” Jesus’ prayer in Matthew is an example of the attitude we should have. Matthew 26:39 says, “And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
If any one of us are in the exact place we thought we would be ten years ago, I say wow, and kudos to you! So often life happens, and our plans, goals and dreams are sent into a tail spin, and we end up feeling like we are playing ’52 card pickup’. We used to play a game in my youth group when I was growing up in the church, called, ‘Fruit basket turn over’. Everyone sat in a circle, each one was given a name of a fruit to identify as, when peaches and pears were called for example, they would all get up and trade seats with the other peaches and pears, however, when ‘fruit basket turn over’ was yelled out, everyone would have to scramble to find a different seat than their original one, with one caveat, someone would remove one seat from the circle, therefore, one person would be left standing and be declared ‘out’! This would go on until you had the winner, being the one person who still had a seat. Our lives can be topsy turvy and take so many twists and turns that we can begin to question things and be blinded by doubt and despair, but God is with us and will carry us, if need be, when the quagmire gets too deep, or the enemy seems to be overwhelming us.
2 Kings 6:13-18 tells us this story, about the prophet’s servant almost losing heart, BUT God. “And he (the King of Syria) said, Go and spy where he (Elijah) is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. Therefore, sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! How shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.” David said it this way in Psalm 61:1-5, “Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.”
Jesus made two statements in John 10:10, separated by a semicolon, which is the BUT or conjunction word in the sentence. He stated, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: (semicolon or BUT) I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” In Ephesians 2:1-8 Paul paints the before and after picture of our lives, with the conjunction ‘BUT’ at the beginning of verse four, that changes everything. It reads, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. BUT God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”
Genesis 6:5-8 will be a familiar story to most, which says, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repents me that I have made them. BUT Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” The change came in verse 8 after the BUT.
Sometimes the change comes in unanswered prayers or unexpected answers. 1 Kings 19:9-12 talks about the pity party that Elijah threw for himself, “And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. And he (God) said, go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; BUT the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; BUT the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; BUT the Lord was not in the fire: BUT after the fire a still small voice.” Here we see several times here, ‘BUT the Lord was NOT’, however, he waited, and God showed up on His terms.
We must not try to give God directions on how to answer our prayers along with our requests. We must just put our complete trust in Him. That still small voice could be your BUT moment. A story is told of how a fellow drowned after a flood hit his home town, and when he got to heaven he asked the Lord, “Lord, didn’t you see me drowning? I called out to you for help, why didn’t you save me?” The Lord said, “I heard your prayer when you first called out. I sent a drifting canoe, but you felt defeated and would not make the effort to grab it. I sent the African American gentleman with the fishing boat, but his skin was not the right color for you, so you would not take his hand. I sent the helicopter, but you were too afraid to climb the rope.” We must lay aside our personal weaknesses, biases, and fears and lay hold onto the salvation that God is sending us in any given circumstance in our lives. Let us not underestimate the power of God or question His methods. He loves us, even more than we love ourselves.
We hear stories repeatedly of those wanting to end their lives and these are increasing, BUT many of them are thankfully still with us. They tried to overdose, BUT they threw up the pills. They tried to shoot themselves, BUT missed and were not fatally wounded. They tried to hang themselves, BUT the rope broke. God is reaching out to them, and they so often cannot recognize that it is Him, sending a boat, a canoe, a man, or woman to give them hope and they keep refusing Him. Doubt and fear will paralyze us. We must trust that God has a purpose for each of our lives. The book of Hebrews gives us this solution when we feel all hope is gone. Hebrews 12:1-3, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”
When we pray and call out to the Lord, he hears us. If you are feeling overwhelmed, accept that helping hand that your neighbor is offering you. If you are feeling afraid, answer that call that is coming in from a loved one. If you are hungry and have no grocery money, accept the invitation to lunch from a co-worker. These are not happenstances or coincidences, they are all ‘BUT GOD’ moments. God is hearing and answering the cry of your heart. God uses others to bless His children. Andre Crouch tells a story in his song Broken Vessel, how the vessel of clay, aka our lives, were broken because of the wind and rain, aka the storms of life, ‘BUT GOD’ in His compassion and love put it, aka us, back together again. The last part of the chorus says, “God picked up the pieces. Of my broken heart that day. And he made me a new vessel and revived my soul again.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 wraps it up with a beautiful bow, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, ‘BUT’ not distressed; we are perplexed, ‘BUT’ not in despair; Persecuted, ‘BUT’ not forsaken; cast down, ‘BUT’ not destroyed.” In Genesis 50:20 Joseph tells his brothers years after they had sold him into slavery, “Ye thought evil against me; ‘BUT’ God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.” Allow God to ‘break the rope’ in your life. He has a purpose for you today.