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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him.
Isaiah 8:17
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Life can be tough. Anyone who lives it can attest to that statement.
Sometimes, life can get very hard for us, bringing challenges that pressure us to the point where we don’t know what to do, where to turn, or how things will turn out. The future becomes lost in the present and every day it seems like we are just trying to hold on and get through, praying that there may be a better day ahead even if we can’t see it happening.
Have you been there? I know I have been and on more than one occasion.
So how do we deal with these matters of life when they come? How do we cope with the difficulties and hardships of life that can weigh us down to the point where we can hardly breathe?
God’s word has the answer for us today and thanks be to Him for the assurance and comfort He brings. Look at this simple verse from Isaiah, Chapter 8:
I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him. v. 17
The Israelites were facing God’s judgment, judgment that would involve attacks by marauding forces from Assyria and Babylon, forces who would lay to waste the beautiful, holy promised land God had given His people, a people who would be hauled away from their homeland into exile in foreign lands.
Talk about coming hardship.
And yet, in the midst of facing all this adversity he knew was coming, the prophet Isaiah spoke these incredible words of faith:
“I will wait on the Lord. I will put my trust in Him”
That’s it. That’s what the word of the Lord instructs us to do in all matters of life. To place our full trust in Him, in good times and bad, knowing He is fully at work in all situations of life and working things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). And since we know He is working things for our good, we need to be patient and, like Isaiah, wait on the Lord.
That can be easier said than done, right? Because in our humanity, we have a tendency to want to try and control our situations, so much so that we tend to interfere with the Lord’s work through our impatience. It’s little wonder that patience is on the list of the fruits of the Spirit, fruits we are to seek to embody in our lives, fruits that the Holy Spirit will impart if we just place our trust in the Lord and allow Him to conform us to His image.
I recall a time when I was less than patient and the Lord spoke to me powerfully in the midst of my difficulty, imploring me to just wait and see what He was doing. Let me share this testimony.
I was stationed abroad in Djibouti, Africa, away from my wife for a twelve month tour. It was long and grueling duty with many, many hours spent working to manage the base where I was assigned. The Commanding Officer who I worked for advised me that the tour would be a marathon and not a sprint. He was right because I felt like I had run a full 26 miles plus when I was reaching the point where I would be able to return home.
I was about three weeks away from that time of return, highly anticipating the reunion with my wife and carrying out the plans we had made together, when my office phone rang. It was my relief on the other end and he shared that he had some bad news. He was going through medical screening before coming to take my place and they had disqualified him from the duty. He wasn’t coming and there was no alternate. My heart sunk as I knew right at that point that I wasn’t going home on time and I would have to call my wife and share the news.
Needless to say, that wasn’t a fun call to make and maybe the worst part of it was that I couldn’t tell her when I was coming home because I didn’t know. Once a relief was identified, they would need screened and sent through the special training for the job before arriving to take my place. It was going to be awhile.
Well, confession time. I didn’t take this news very well and sulked around, feeling sorry for myself for about three days or so. Then one day, the Lord sent His Spirit into my heart and convicted me as He so often will do. He spoke to me asking me to consider that there might be a reason and purpose for all that was happening, to open my heart and mind up to the possibility that the Lord was up to something here that was well beyond me not going home on time. Maybe, just maybe, the Lord was going to use me for something amazing that would add exponential value and significance to the next few months before I would get to finally get home.
All this, changed my perspective. Like Isaiah, I placed my trust in the Lord and then waited for Him to show how He was going to work things out for the good. And the Lord delivered for He called me to use my extra time in Africa to teach a marriage bible study class, one you might have heard of before called The Love Dare. It was eight weeks long, exactly the time I would be there before coming back. Isn’t that just the way the Lord works?
Anyways, I received the materials and marketed the class. Sixteen people attended and one person in particular was in a bad way. He sat in on the first lesson and I could tell that things were rough for him. After class, I approached him and asked if he wanted to talk. He did and shared about how his relationship was failing and he didn’t know if it was going to last. He was at a loss about what to do but then saw the Bible study offer and thought it may be a chance to try and make things better. He wasn’t sure it would but he was willing to give it a try.
The second week came and he was still in the same mindset. Things weren’t seeming to change but he was willing to trust the Lord and wait on Him to work things out for his good because this person loved the Lord. The change would come before week three’s session.
For on that day, this man came into my class and was a whole new person. I tell everyone I share this story with that his face was illuminated with a countenance that just spoke of the Lord being active in his life and circumstances. For the first week, this man was at peace, filled with joy and hope as he started to experience a turn-around in his marriage. You see, his wife was starting to wonder about what was wrong with him because he was changing his attitude about the Lord and his life to include his relationship. She was so intrigued by what was causing this change that she went and purchased The Love Dare book herself and started working through each challenge. Of course, the Lord was at the heart of all this, using the mighty power of His Holy Spirit to transform and change as only He can.
Well, long story short, this man’s marriage was saved and on the way to being better than either partner could have imagined. And it all happened because the Lord chose to keep me in Djibouti a little longer to fulfill this purpose.
The message today is clear friends. For we are to wait on the Lord and place our trust in Him. For we can never know what He is up to.
Fast forward ahead a couple of years to after I had retired from the Navy and began working my current job, still supporting service members and their families every day. I was manning a resource table over on the naval base when a Sailor approached me. It was the same Sailor who sat in that Djibouti classroom years before and saw his life change forever. He didn’t hesitate to share with me how his marriage has flourished since he returned home to include a new child that had just entered the family. I rejoiced in his testimony, so happy and glad for him and how the Lord had made it all happen. Our chance reunion only reaffirmed the importance of trusting in the Lord when circumstances might seem awry because we never know what He’s up to.
Tomorrow, I want to write a little more on this subject but for today, please place your hope and trust in the Lord, waiting patiently for Him to work things out for your good. Believe me when I say He will deliver.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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