Hard times can lead us to good places
Inthis season of economic stress, many of us have had to lower our
expectations. We have struggled in new ways and are asking God hard
questions as we see our need for his help. And our
children have had an even more difficult time navigating an era of
fewer choices. 37% of them can’t find work.
But the good news is that after a year or more out of
work, some are coming to the end of themselves.
work, some are coming to the end of themselves.
Let’s
say you get to a
place in your life when you’re tired of trying to do things in your own
strength. You’re prepared to wait on God – to depend on him. What then?
What can you expect to happen as a result? Isaiah 40
says that “those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread
their wings and soar like eagles.” Obviously that’s a metaphor – what
does that look like?
say you get to a
place in your life when you’re tired of trying to do things in your own
strength. You’re prepared to wait on God – to depend on him. What then?
What can you expect to happen as a result? Isaiah 40
says that “those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread
their wings and soar like eagles.” Obviously that’s a metaphor – what
does that look like?
I
remember a lady in a church I attended telling me about her
degenerative nerve condition. She had gotten to the point where she was
hunched over and couldn’t walk. She was desperate – waiting on God,
pleading with him for a miracle. He didn’t respond and it got worse. But
she didn’t give up and kept praying.
remember a lady in a church I attended telling me about her
degenerative nerve condition. She had gotten to the point where she was
hunched over and couldn’t walk. She was desperate – waiting on God,
pleading with him for a miracle. He didn’t respond and it got worse. But
she didn’t give up and kept praying.
She
described how one evening as she was praying, something that looked
like lightening shot in the open window, through her body and left her tingling. When she
stood to her feet and checked herself out, she saw that she had been
completely healed!
described how one evening as she was praying, something that looked
like lightening shot in the open window, through her body and left her tingling. When she
stood to her feet and checked herself out, she saw that she had been
completely healed!
Over
and over again in Scripture, we see examples of desperate people waiting, palms
up before the Lord and then him answering their cry for help. David and
his men at Ziklag, Abraham ready to sacrifice Isaac, Moses backed up
against the Red Sea, Paul before the Sanhedrin. The list goes on and on.
We see God’s people dependent, then God shows up in power.
and over again in Scripture, we see examples of desperate people waiting, palms
up before the Lord and then him answering their cry for help. David and
his men at Ziklag, Abraham ready to sacrifice Isaac, Moses backed up
against the Red Sea, Paul before the Sanhedrin. The list goes on and on.
We see God’s people dependent, then God shows up in power.
So many of you reading this blog are in a tough spot in your life and you need God to show up. You’ve expended your reserves – I see it in the comments you leave and I see it when you write me to pour out your pain in a more private way. And I see it when I have conversations with my friends late at night.
You have been slogging it out for too long, calling out to God. Some of you have found ways of medicating the pain that brings. If I could do something to make it easier on you, I would, and I know that others who are with me in this journey would as well. We want you to win. We want to see you get your breakthrough.
You were made to soar. All I can tell you is to wait upon the Lord.
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Seth, I cannot tell you how timely this is for me personally. It is as if you wrote this just for me. God bless you for serving the Body in such a simple yet profoud way.
Thanks friend.
There is no character formation without pain.
And there is no growth without acknowledging that.
Blessings my brother…
All things work together for the good, for those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
Lamentations 3:26 “It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”
This verse caught me 3-5 years back & has never let go. It prompted to begin looking for all the “waits” in scripture & I was overwhelmed by all of them.
God is never in a hurry or rushing about to make sure that things work out. He works them out in HIS time. He ALWAYS heals His own, in His time. Whether it be here on earth or in eternity.
A friend of mine very nearly died after emergency surgery her first year of college. A D-1 athlete, she was told she was no longer cleared for competition. She was mad and wanted God to make things like they were. Life wasn’t fair & she couldn’t wait to get in God’s face & ask Him why this would happen to her.
Suddenly the thought occured to her, “Someday I will be sitting at a banquet table w/ Jesus. When that time comes, will I really consider this stuff all that important?”
“It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD”
Thanks Seth for this word. the Lord has been speaking to me on Isaiah 64:4
For since the beginning of the world
Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear,
Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,
Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
To me this is saying God is waiting to move on our behalf, to back us up. Our part in this is to wait on Him, not to move out ahead of Him but to wait for His voice before we move.
When we do hear His voice and move in faith He is there to back us up , He has our back literally and spiritually.
Wow! I pray for the Body of Christ to increase in faith and boldness in the Lord as we wait on Him, but when He speaks for us to move with the assurance, He has our back.
Blessings
Seth, a friend and I were talking about this over early morning Starbucks today. We both have been seeking God for such a long long time about areas deeply important to us.
Recently, we both have experienced God’s remarkable provision in lesser things-and witnessed it in other friends’ lives-the provision that only God can do. Wow.
And then it hit me, I enjoy and appreciate my new-to-me car so much because it was obviously a God thing. After my car died on the way to a triathlon a few weeks ago and then my scooter stopped scooting…I knew that I needed to step out and look for a new car. After looking and researching and receiving the generous research of friends and my daughter, Madi, I had to act. So I did and was so disappointed over the first few days. Finally, a friend reminded me to connect with his friend at a particular dealership and click click click-God moved.
By the time He moved, I was fully aware of my need for His intervention, my inability to purchase a reasonable auto, and was facing the very day when I paid for a chunk of Madi’s college, Kenan’s senior year enrollment (oy.), and more. For someone who does not like the confines of a car for more than a minute, I’ve found joy in driving about, sneaking out to the lake in the wee hours of the morning to look at the Perseid meteor showers, picking up pals, and allowing the fresh breezes to blow through the sun roof and to wipe out my going-to-work “do”. Joy in the oddest of places-the places where I am past the end of myself and wait on him.
And today we prayed over french roast, to wait on God, to trust him, and to come to the end of our efforts, meddling, and angst in the areas of our heart that mean the most: family, faith, a next step, and a hand to hold. And then your blog…
Thank you so much.
Today again the Lord brought me back to Isaac re-digging his wells. I’ve lost count how many times our Father has brought me back to those wells this year. Each time a different layer coming unearthed.
God re-affirmed the covenant and promise made to Abraham to Isaac that He would guide him to the land where he should go in GOD’S timing.
Isaac was walking in the same foot steps of his father including some of the same errors of judgment (lying about his wife) not relying on God for protection.
By Isaac re-digging Abraham’s wells, signified he was laying PERSONAL CLAIM to the possession of the land and the promises of God. The enemy or obstacles are allowed by God to prove his heart.
Will Isaac (or the child of God) rely on circumstances to guide his life or on the will and testimony of God’s immutable promises as contained in the Word of God?
Isaac did not “rest” on his “laurels” at Rehobath where his enemies did not resist him any further…no, the Bible records that he went on to Beersheba where AFTER his enemies came and asked for his blessing of peace and forgiveness and RECOGNIZED GOD as His Sovereign Lord, THEN and only then did God reveal the Well of His Oath (Beersheba) as the proper place for Isaac.
These past days the Lord is bringing me into a place, a season, a time of proving, to remove all that is preventing from receiving the fullness of His grace, His joy, His peace and blessing. We are not of the world but in it.
Our kingdom is spiritual and we are being tested on what we believe.
Any material blessing or spiritual, are to be used to strengthen and build up the Body of Christ, His Church, His Bride to reproduce the Love and Life and Light of Christ in this dark world and overcome its evil with God’s good.
I am believing for this to be fulfilled in my walk. AMEN.