Walking with God, Part Two

Grace Moment by Moment-column
At the moment of salvation, Christ enters our being, illuminating all the dank, dark corners filled with dust, disuse and dirt. Christ rolled up His sleeves and started cleaning: first all the trash strewn about is bagged up and thrown out. Then He washed the walls, cleaned the corners and set up His office. The sign on the door reads "office hours: Open for Eternity." But wait a minute! Sin, like smoke, is pervasive and all encompassing. It seeps as an oily substance into the nooks and crannies of our hearts, lingering, waiting for the right time to strike out and surprise us with its power.
Just when we Christians think we are on track--witnessing, enjoying prosperity, standing firm in the faith, sailing along with no thought for the morrow or having to worry about consequences for wrong actions or bad decisions (after all, we are forgiven!). Wham! We hit a brick wall of resistance/reluctance and Christ draws our attention to something we've neglected to do--Trusting Him to lead and provide for us--its the whole reason He died. Christ suffered at God's request for us! With nothing to gain but bringing salvation through His death and resurrection to humanity for eternity. Why? Because He loves us. Why then do we get angry, frustrated or self-righteous when adversity comes into our lives?
God's design is that even through adversity, people who have never known God as anything other than a cuss word, will see Christ reflected in our lives. How we respond when trouble comes speaks volumes about the depth of our Christian faith more than anything we can say. The more we experience and observe through life, the more junk comes to the surface for Christ to clean so we better reflect Him to the world. In other words, Life as we know it, prepares us for eternity and while we might like to get out of suffering situations that seem to go on forever, it is not our right to dictate to God when or if we will. God alone knows the length of time required to teach us the true wisdom of walking with Him.
Walking with God means doing more than saying the words, living prosperously or planning for retirement. The act of walking implies listening to what is said, as well as implementing obediently to our lives, the advice that is given.
In the end, God's Wisdom is more precious than gold or silver, Trust in God more of a treasure than anything we might think we need.