Thinking about how God works

"God is subtle but he is not malicious." -Albert Einstein

As I start reading Ezra it strikes me that God works through kings and rulers in ways that often surprise me. His work at times mystifies me, but he is directing the affairs of men to accomplish his goals. Here's an example from the first verses of Ezra,

^{Ezra 1:2} “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:

“‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. ³ Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. ⁴ And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”

⁵ Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. ⁶ All their neighbors assisted them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuable gifts, in addition to all the freewill offerings.

⁷ Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. ⁸ Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah."

The reason this caught my attention is the fear I hear so often from my Christian world friends. They fear the world is doomed, we are "going the wrong way," all is lost! And yet in this story of a pagan Persian king God moves him to send the Jewish people back to build the temple and he funds the whole project!

We waste so much time worrying about things that God says he is in charge of. We worry about the direction our government is taking when God says he directs those affairs, he moves the hand of the king. How is it that we worry about things that aren't our responsibility and neglect the things that are?

Our job, our main role as Christians, is to love one another and make disciples of all men. The rest of this is God's job. And besides, how will my worrying change anything in Washington? How will my protests make a difference when this is not my job or my responsibility? Pray, love, disciple. The rest is Gods. Pretty simple when you sort it all out, isn't it?