“As for me and my house…we will serve the Lord”
Hello Chosen brothers and sisters - chosen for greatness in Christ!
Transitions. How are we doing with change? Seems that everyone I know is facing pretty radical changes in their lives. Many are experiencing milestones of being at that age of retiring, or should I say “refiring” into new ventures and opportunities. Many are facing the dreaded task of having to move, downsize, relocate, etc. Some are facing physical issues that have forced them to adjust behaviors and patterns. Financial issues, changing relationships, losses, heartaches, and the list goes on. It seems like I have already written on this subject, yet here we are again. Change is inevitable! What is the Lord saying? What is He doing? Simple: stretching us; pruning us; making us more like Jesus; showing us that we are capable of more if we just release what we have and trust Him with everything. So…let me ask you again, “how are you doing with change?” As I am reading through the Bible, I come upon the quintessential book of change, Job. The first two chapters are an incredible window into heaven where Satan challenges God by assuming that the only reason Job is such a godly, righteous, obedient man, is because God has protected him from harm and blessed him in every way possible. Satan’s rationale is that if God removes all his blessings, Job will surely curse God. Well, you probably know the story: God gives permission to Satan to remove the blessings. So, as it happens, all of Jobs animals are taken and the servants killed, and all his children died in a windstorm. Instead of cursing God, Job falls down and worships God (1:21). Satan’s plan failed, so he asks God for permission to afflict job with severe illness (2:4-8). The boils Job experiences are excruciatingly painful. He takes a piece of pottery to scrape himself while sitting in ashes. You say, well how bad was the affliction he experienced…this bad: “When Job’s three friends… saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was” (Job 2:11-13). No one knew what to say to job, so they sat in silence for 7 full days!!! Like a diagnosis of terminal stage 4 cancer – you sit stunned, trying to process what has just happened. What went through his mind? Did he curse God? NO! He cursed himself and the day he was born. Not even his wife could get him to curse God. When he lost all his possessions and children, his response was: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, Blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:21). Now in agony, the correct response is to say nothing. The wrong thing is to blame God, or worse to get mad at God. As Job endures his trial, and worse endures the bad theology of his three friends, he is taken to new heights in understanding the person and character of the God he has come to love and worship. The goal of the suffering is to know God more! God restores Job’s wealth and children, and blessed Job more than He had in the beginning.
Is there any deeper revelation of God without drastic change and transition? Was Abraham able to discover the God of the Bible without packing up and moving his family from Ur to Canaan? Was Moses able to discover what God had for him without leaving Pharaoh’s palace and becoming a shepherd for 40 years? Was David able to go from being a shepherd to being a King without defeating a giant or two along the way? Is there any person in the Bible who does not first have to overcome huge obstacles and endure major life changes before experiencing the purpose for which they were truly created? Could Queen Esther ever have been able to free her people from death without first being an exiled orphaned Jew? Friends, the Bible is a collection of stories of people from humble circumstances, ordinary people with fears and hangups, that accomplished awesome things for God because God brought them through incredible change and transition.
Hebrews 11 contains a list of people whose lives were turned upside down when God showed up in their lives. He shook up their world, brought major changes and transitioned them from nobodies to somebodies. What was the key to enduring and overcoming, and fulfilling God’s call on their lives…faith in the One who called them: Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, Deborah, Samuel, Daniel, etc. All experienced incredible victories and accomplished great things for God because of their faith in God. They were willing to leave their comfort and believe God for the impossible that He wanted to do through them. You can’t know you can kill a lion till you encounter one; you can’t know you can survive a fire till you’re in one; you can’t know you can defeat an army till you pick up your sword and fight (Heb. 11:32-34). Changes are not something to be feared, but opportunities to grow in faith and discover that you are stronger and more able than you think you are because of WHO is in you.
Joshua had an incredible task. He had to replace the great Moses, who led God’s people out of slavery into freedom. Two million people, so estimates say, who were led by the great stuttering prophet. Now the prophet is gone and Joshua is in charge; the baton has been handed off, and the destination has yet to be achieved – the goal was the promised land of Canaan. Many battles would have to be fought! Lots of moving and transition as Joshua learns to trust God for continued victory – you can’t get to your destination without challenges and without change! It’s been years of moving and change, being displaced and overcoming obstacles – that is life! The good news is that God gets you to your destination if you trust and submit to Him. Joshua’s message to a people who are in continual transition: “choose this day whom you will serve…as for me (and my house) we will serve the Lord”. Trust Him, follow Him! It’s the same invitation Jesus offers to us: “trust me; follow me”. “I know the plans I have for you…welcome the change I am offering, trust me through it, and watch where I will take you and what I will accomplish through you.” A season of change is a season to grow in faith and trust in Christ – welcome it!
Let faith arise!
"Advancing the Kingdom of God by releasing Spirit-filled followers to serve Jesus in freedom and joy."
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