FROM THE CEO 04
FROM THE CEO 04
September HeartBeat
I want to share a few thoughts and hopefully encourage us about how God directs our steps. Sometimes, what seems like a tragedy is really God shaking foundations, stirring our emotions, and moving us in the direction He ultimately wants us to go. Often, He moves us in ways we would not have gone on our own, because His thoughts and ways are higher than our thoughts and ways.
The Bible is full of examples of people who followed God in adverse circumstances. You can look at Abraham and Moses by reading the Scriptures to understand the difficulties they faced, but at all times they were at the center of God ' s will.
We can look at Moses in Exodus chapter 3; He was on the backside of the desert by himself with the sheep when God spoke to him. No one would have thought of his location being a good thing for him. He had been a part of the king ' s family. He was raised in the best of schools. He had the finest things, yet there was a yearning and a calling on his life, and God was molding and mentoring him to move to take the children of Israel out of captivity. It looked like he had totally messed that up, because he ended up on the backside of the desert. He was in a place where he probably felt all alone and in seclusion. For a lot of people, he had just kind of disappeared. Yet we know the story of how God led Moses and equipped him to lead the children of Israel out of bondage and to give them the promised land He had set for them, but it was difficult; it seemed to be such a difficult situation.
We find in Psalm 37:23( NKJV):β The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.β And that is so true. But in our American-thinking, I believe, within our church environment, we paint a narrative that if we are in God ' s will, then everything is good, that there are no issues and no problems, but that could not be any further from the truth. We paint a narrative that if you just accept Jesus, everything ' s going to be okay. Well, ultimately, when we trust God, even in the midst of the trials or tribulations, the molding process, we have peace because we ' re trusting and following Jesus. But that is the most difficult time.
As God directs our paths and makes us who He wants us to be, I know from my own experience that this walk of faith can sometimes be harder than I ever expected. But even in the midst of that, God has accomplished His will in our lives. We will never be who God has called us to be if He leaves us the way we are. We will never accomplish great things unless we ' re willing to be used and spent, and we ' re willing to go through the fire and be molded. We talk about spiritual warfare. We are in a battle. We ' re not only in a battle for ourselves, our families, and for those that God sends us to minister to in the highways and byways. Weβ re in a battle for God to accomplish His ultimate destiny in our lives. And that comes with things that appear out of order, things that seem to bring stress and chaos. Yet many times they ' re the very tool God uses to put us where He wants us to be and to accomplish His will and purpose.
Think about Jonah. He was swallowed by a big fish; God wanted him to go someplace he didn ' t want to go. He was in rebellion against God. So, God prepared a big fish to get his attention. Maybe in my life, in your life, God ' s
As God directs our paths and makes us who He wants us to be, I know from my own experience that this walk of faith can sometimes be harder than I ever expected.
preparing the fish, or something similar, to guide us. Itβ s ultimately for our good, so God can lead us and accomplish His will. After