Divine, but Weird...?

Father, I pray that You speak to me about my life and it’s circumstances through this blog at this moment.  Make straight my path and clear my thoughts and mind to hear what You are saying to me specifically. Holy Spirit enlighten me to the Fathers will and desire for my life. I ask this in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

"And He must needs go through Samaria" ~ John 4:4

Divine and weird, those two words seem to go in the opposite direction.  When we think about divinity, we tend to think about the good things, things that are rational, things that bring us solace and peace, confidence and contentment, but sometimes divinity is extrememly “weird.” 

In the text we find Jesus making an odd decision, a decision that most people in His time would have questioned Him about.  Some of the questions may have been “why would you do that Jesus?” or “who do you think you are, have you forgotten about your roots?”  As Jesus was leaving Judaea and going into Galilee we find the Bible telling us that “He must needs” go through Samaria.  Samaria was a place where no Jew would ever “must needs” go through.  In order to appreciate what the Bible is saying you have to understand and remember the Jews and Samaritans were never good friends, as a matter of fact when Jesus was explaining to the Jews who the true children of Abraham were the Jewish leaders struck back at Jesus with slander expressing that He was a “Samaritan.” (John 8:48) The Jews didn’t like the Samaritans, they claimed that they were true Israel, that they were closer to God and knew where to worship and knew the purer form of religion.  The Samaritans were half-breed Jews. Jesus actually desired to destroy the prejudice and racial bigotry by way of a parable we know it most as “the Good Samaritan.” (Luke 10:30-36) Further producing Gods way of breaking the spirit of prejudice and racism Jesus explained that there was a Leper that worshiped and praised God after being miraculously healed of an “incurable disease” after 9 others ran away pre-occupied with the self-life. (Luke 17:16)

Jesus statement was more to the reader of the Bible than just a small quotation, the words “must needs” always provides a solid foundation of the will of God.  “Must needs” is a way of saying it has to happen by divine prompting. Later on in the Book of Acts Peter expressed that Christ “must needs” have suffered betrayal by Judas. (Acts 1:16) Later on in the Book of Acts we find Paul saying that Christ “must needs” have suffered and died for our sins. (Acts 17:3) But what does this mean for us?  Jesus “must needs” go through Samaria.  It sounds strange to the human mind that God would chose for Jesus Christ to go down a path that wasn’t trodden by many in His day that were of the same religion/race, but God did. It may seem strange to you where you are right now.  Maybe you feel as though you should be father along in life than you currectly are, or maybe you feel you should be involved in owning a business instead of opening one at the moment, regardless of yoru circumstances, some things are weird that God does.   Some things that God allows in our life are weird, but they are divine.  Many things we fight and comtemplate on how to get out of are the very things that are divine, but weird!  The things God has planned for a Christian are strange, some days are filled with blessings and breakthroughs, but the truth is some days aren’t and most days wont be able to compare to the mountain top experiences you have every so often, but nonetheless it’s not about the ups or downs its about the divine and weird promptings of God.  Jesus Christ never plans on taking us down roads of life where we expect to be, most of the path of a Chrisitans life is unvisited by him or her. God desires to take us out of comfort zones to stretch our faith and grow us in oru faith as a Christian.  Many times in our life we are face to face with brick walls, placed by God where we are face to face with things we don’t want to see.  Most of the time the things God faces us with is our own sin, our sins, plural.  God places us face to face with things we don’t like to see and most of the time we are face to face with things that we don’t even want to know, why do I have to let go of shopping all the time, don’t I earn the money? Why do I have to stop bragging about what car I have or will have, don’t I deserve it?  Many times in our walk with God we are face to face with a “must needs” and a weirdness called “Samaria.”  It doesn’t make sense why unemployment can be a gift from God when you feel as though you have the perfect place, they ar ehiring and you have the qualifitications, you may even know the person taking the application but you still get turned down. Divine, but weird! It’s strange to the mind for God to allow you to see people who you would love to be involved with, date, etc. etc. and God say “no.” It’s strange, its divine though! It’s weird for you to have the desire to be married, maybe even think you met the right person and God still say “no.”  It’s weird, but divine! God has a way of working miracles though strange things.  Never exprect the path of God to be laid out as a bed of roses with the paparttizi taking pictures of you an dposting them on instragram.  God doesn’t want a Christian pre-occupied with tehe world and it’s glam and glitz. God isn’t involved in making us great, God is involved in helping us understand that He is great.  Your circumstance may be strange, possibly you are angry at God about it, you’ve tried to get out of it in many ways and it almost worked, but it didn’t, its because its divine, but weird!  God takes us through places to get us to His place, not our own place.  Many of us have to go through some struggles to get rid of some little small sins that we just refuse to let go of.  We think of our past, looking back and realize God took us through that and when we are face to face with “this” we are terrified, we don’t know what to do, we don’t like being alone, we don’t like being unemployed, we don’t like struggling with our finances, we don’t like being homosexual, but we are still fighting these things, its divine but weird! Don’t forget though, these weird moments are preparatory moments for the other side of the mountain.  Jesus Christ had to go through Samaria to get to a woman who was at her wits end. After encountering Jesus she went and spread the Gospel throughout her whole city an dmany people came to believe.  Could it be possible that God has you in your divine but weird spot so later on and in time many people will come to believe?  Are you face to face with the sin of selfishness right now?  Do you find any value in God allowing this struggling moment of your life in order to further the Gospel in the future?  Do you plan on becoming a wife or becoming a woman of God? The questions God allows us to face aren’t always “do you want this color car” or “do you think she is ok with your personal preferences or should I try making another person?” Most of the time they are centered at who we are in Christ, they ask us about our holiness, our walk with God, our commitment and dedication.  The questions God asks us aren’t always easy to our ears, in so much that Paul the Apostle wrote and said that in the end days people will because of their own lusts grab hold of people who will tell them what they want to hear. (2 Timothy 4:3) The truth is, we don’t always want to hear what God has to say, but it’s true also that the weird ways that God leads us, the weird ways of our problems and how we cant seem to get out of certain circumstances are also….divine.

Jesus “must needs go through Samaria” for the result of “and many more believed because of His own Word.” (John 4:41)