Abiding
Sometimes the Lord puts you in a place in your life that you don’t fully understand. You don’t feel like you’re a perfect fit where you’ve been pegged. You’re round, trying to squeeze uncomfortably into a square hole. Maybe you’re in a company, and your boss is less educated than you; maybe you’re in a position of leadership at some social club, and you feel ill-equipped to be leading; maybe you’re one of many pawns in life’s chess game, and you’re used at whim to be the fall guy for someone else; maybe you’re in a position where you need to submit yourself, put yourself under, someone else who exhibits a general lack of spiritual direction; or maybe you’re a missionary, alone in a place where you know hardly anyone, and the people you are ministering to don’t seem to even want you there.
Whatever situation you find yourself in, it’s difficult sometimes to remain. It’s difficult to stay where God has you posted; you’re ready for a change of guards. Maybe you’re a Gideon, the least in his family, and his family being among the lowest tribe in Israel, hiding from the Midianites low under an oak in Ophrah, and God greets you with, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." Or you might be Jonah, running from Nineveh, to which God has sent you. Or maybe you are like David before he ascended to the throne, running from the mad King Saul, praying for safety, praying for renewed energy, praying for, at the very least, abdication.
God has placed you exactly where you are, and it’s a challenge sometimes to abide.
Gideon, Jonah, and David all went through this self-doubt. They questioned God’s intentions, even to His face at times, but essentially came to the conclusion that He is God, and they are not. They humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God and ultimately did not leave their post. Yes, some of them wanted so very much to leave it, and some of them almost succeeded, but finally, they stopped running and accepted His will for their lives with humble sacrifice and patient endurance.
Lord, make us more like these men of faith, humbly putting ourselves under Your mighty hand.
Whatever situation you find yourself in, it’s difficult sometimes to remain. It’s difficult to stay where God has you posted; you’re ready for a change of guards. Maybe you’re a Gideon, the least in his family, and his family being among the lowest tribe in Israel, hiding from the Midianites low under an oak in Ophrah, and God greets you with, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior." Or you might be Jonah, running from Nineveh, to which God has sent you. Or maybe you are like David before he ascended to the throne, running from the mad King Saul, praying for safety, praying for renewed energy, praying for, at the very least, abdication.
God has placed you exactly where you are, and it’s a challenge sometimes to abide.
Gideon, Jonah, and David all went through this self-doubt. They questioned God’s intentions, even to His face at times, but essentially came to the conclusion that He is God, and they are not. They humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God and ultimately did not leave their post. Yes, some of them wanted so very much to leave it, and some of them almost succeeded, but finally, they stopped running and accepted His will for their lives with humble sacrifice and patient endurance.
Lord, make us more like these men of faith, humbly putting ourselves under Your mighty hand.
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