How many of us have hit a midlife crisis? We ponder, and we say to ourselves, where have these years gone? You have been running on the treadmill of life and now you're in your forties and you hit a wall, you look back at your life and you have gotten married, got yourself a job or career, a mortgage, in the mean time you have had a couple of children, you find now your life is divided by two loves, your spouse and children all wanting a piece of you, in the meantime your weighted down sinking towards the bottom of the ocean, blowing bubbles, with a caption that says help me, a quiet desperation?
Or, you have had all the above but are now divorced, looking back on your life you wonder what went wrong, everything seems like it is an illusion, a part of you that was happy, content, but is now a blur, a bubble.
Or you have been ground to dust you have spent too long in the ring with the devil, ducking and diving, but here comes the sucker punch and as you go down, you here the count 1,2,3,4,5,6..10 and now the bell, except it is the death null DING DONG ong,ong,ong,. You have lost everything, your spouse, your children, your house, your job, and now your dependent on social and you believe you're losing your mind.
I hope you never experience the last one. Even if none of the above applies to you, you may be fresh out of College or just living a single life, but you ask yourself one of Life's questions what do I do? What is my calling in life? What has God got in store for me? What is my future?
All very good questions and all are valid ones. What are we called to do in life? The scriptures say 'But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint (Isa 40:31).
Yes Brethren we are to do just that, to wait upon the Lord. How many of us rush into things without taking time out to pray about it. You see as Christians, we are to stop and pray about all matters concerning us, and to take it to the Lord, and yes wait. We live in a society whereby life's challenges go by and some of these challenges may result in a quick decision, you see an opportunity and you say to yourself if you don't get in, your going to miss out on the next Gold Rush, but at times like this we should see the warning signs and backup before leaping into what could be your biggest regret. Okay, you may say, but I'm an impulsive person and I like to take risk and or my job requires me to take risk or a gamble if you don't try it, you'll never know what you missed. We'll let me tell you after making mistakes all my life, and at my age I have learnt that wisdom is the best medicine. Like Gideon in the bible I will put my fleece out and wait upon the Lord.
'And Gideon said to God, if you will deliver Israel by my hand as you have said, behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said. And it was so. When he rose early next morning and squeezed the dew out of the fleece, he wrung from it a bowlful of water. And Gideon said to God, let not your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Let me make trial only this once with the fleece, I pray you; let it now be dry only upon the fleece and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night, for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground' (Judges 6:36-40).
Well there you have it, Gideon a Soldier for Israel and defender of the faith, a man of military might just like our modern day David Ben-Gurion.
Brethren if it is good enough for Gideon to wait on the Lord, then how much must we wait on the great I Am.
Often it is said we lay and make our own bed, meaning as a result of our decisions we own them and take responsibility for those decisions, be it good or bad. But we don't have to go through the rest of our life in anxiety, perplexity and uncertainty.
I don't know about you, but I have thrown in the towel, and have given up on self, making the decisions as it only results in failure. I am learning to wait on the Lord, as it takes out all the uncertainty. Also many of us are impatient and want an answer now from God, or we say a 5 min pray and that is it. It requires much pray, maybe even fasting.
How do we know it is from God?
Well this is a good question and a valid one. I remember hearing a sermon from Dr Charles Stanley and he simply said 'Clear a Pathway', a direction, the heart must be in synchronicity with the heart of God, we can't have known sin in our lives, and we can't be living in sin. Our attitude and actions need to be in line or in tune with God. Ask God to clear the pathway, a line of direction, remove those things that do not fit into my life, get rid of those things that are not Godly and remove them from your life. Just like cleaning out your garage, a spring clean, get rid of the junk that has been clogging up our lives, unhealthy relationships, living in sin, going to clubs, drinking, drugs, gambling and all vices that we as Christians know to be a curse, and as a result, blocks our relationship with the great I Am.
Come to a point of neutrality, this means that when you petition God with your request you are to leave your desire with him to a point of being impartial and non- allied to a particular bias. Along with this, your strong desire, as it is now in God's will and not yours. It is now a trust, a submitting of our will and to trust that God will give you an answer, maybe not immediately, but in Gods time and by clearing the pathway you will hear from God and it will be crystal.
Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause (psalm 25:3). Yes brethren, patience, no quick decisions, be willing to submit to God's timing and wait upon the Lord. Don't let people pressure you, wait, wait, wait and fill your mind with the thoughts of God and ask for clarity and ask the Lord to speak to you. Read from the bible and meditate on it as it is the meditation of his word that will reveal the presence of God talking to you and it will be obvious, so learn to tune your mind to be in line with his scriptures. The devil will prompt you to act now immediately,' you don't want to miss out on this opportunity' he says, 'once it closes that's it and you will surely miss out'. But those of us who no God will remember how he has led us from the Red Sea and in his time has provided divine intervention in all our dealings from the time we started our first job, marriage, children, buying our first home and other blessings accordingly.
You see Jonah was commissioned to go to Nineveh and what happened, Jonah decided to go to Tarshish, somewhere that is far away from Nineveh, away from the people he detested, these Assyrians were the worst, they were pure evil to the point of absolute detestability, he just could not tolerate them and to cut to the chase a giant fish spits him out on the foreshores near to Nineveh. You see even when we make our own decisions leaving God out of the equation; he will kind of bring you back from where you went off course, providing you are willing and not in opposition.
Finally, if we are to keep our sanity in this world we live in, we will certainly need to come to that place, that place where our soul bleeds out and yearns for reconciliation with Jehovah Rapha the great healer and restorer that will effect that perfect peace that surpasses all understanding see (Phl 4:7). Let peace and Christ reside in the heart, take the perplexity of sin, shame, confusion, doubts and unrest and cast them to the uttermost depths of the sea, never to return. [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Rom 8:1).
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