Now, Hold on! I am not placing myself in the company of these giants of the faith….or am I? Do we think that they are “above us” and out of our league? I think not… Just like the disciples, they were ordinary people doing the extraordinary by grace through faith. Each of them went through dark times and experienced extraordinary challenges that required big faith in a BIG God. If we don’t believe that God can be BIG in and through our lives then, chances are…He won’t and Satan will have realized his goal of rendering us ineffective for the Kingdom of God. I especially relate to Moses and Abraham because they were late bloomers like me! And I also relate to Esther, because she became so aware that God had placed her there for “such a time as this”! As I have walked through the last 6 years I have sensed God was preparing me for something special- bigger than I could imagine! But it has been the experiences of the last 6 months that have taken me to a much greater level of expectancy and understanding of what God is up to. I believe He has prepared me for “such a time as this”.
Here is an update on Divine appointments….. They have come back in abundance! People are coming out of the woodwork talking with me or around me about Colorado. Most of them have been at Kudu coffee shop where I do my blogging. But last week I went to the Christian book store to pick up my next John Eldredge read, Epic. And the gal that rang up my purchase had just moved here from Breckenridge! By the way, I highly recommend this book. I will soon blog about all of the influences I believe the Lord has used to prepare me for this adventure I call my Wild Goose Chase. I close with today’s devotional from Streams in the Desert. This one speaks of the faith we need to live extraordinary lives like those who have preceded us. Jesus spoke of the greater works we would do after He left and sent the Holy Spirit/ The Wild Goose…… Aah.. the church bells are ringing….Joyful, joyful we adore thee. Yes, Lord we adore the that you humbled yourself and came near that we may have life to the full when we abide and trust in thee.
Prayer-
Thank-you for the dark, dark hours I have logged with thee by my side. For it is through the darkness that we are perfected and made more like thee. In the darkness of my mothers’ womb you formed me in your image and in the darkness of life you refined me to reflect you more fully. You were there all the time!
Night of Pure Faith
“Lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him” (Gen. 15:12).
The sun at last went down, and the swift, eastern night cast its heavy veil over the scene. Worn out with the mental conflict, the watchings, and the exertions of the day, Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and in that sleep is soul was oppressed with a dense and dreadful darkness, such as almost stifled him, and lay like a nightmare upon his heart. Do you understand something of the horror of that darkness? When some terrible sorrow which seems so hard to reconcile with perfect love, crushes down upon the soul, wringing from it all its peaceful rest in the pitifulness of God, and launching it on a sea unlit by a ray of hope; when unkindness, and cruelty maltreat the trusting heart, till it begins to doubt whether there be a God overhead who can see and still permit–these know something of the “horror of great darkness.” It is thus that human life is made up; rightness and gloom; shadow and sun; long tracks of cloud, succeeded by brilliant glints of light, and amid all Divine justice is working out its own schemes, affecting others equally with the individual soul which seems the subject of special discipline. O ye who are filled with the horror of great darkness because of God’s dealings with mankind, learn to trust that infallible wisdom, which is co-assessor with immutable justice; and know that He who passed through the horror of the darkness of Calvary, with the cry of forsakenness, is ready to bear you company through the valley of the shadow of death till you see the sun shining upon its further side. Let us, by our Forerunner, send forward our anchor, Hope, within the veil that parts us from the unseen; where it will grapple in ground and will not yield, but hold until the day dawns, and we follow it into the haven guaranteed to us by God’s immutable counsel. –F. B. Meyer
The disciples thought that that angry sea separated them from Jesus. Nay, some of them thought worse than that; they thought that the trouble that had come upon them was a sign that Jesus had forgotten all about them, and did not care for them. Oh, dear friend, that is when troubles have a sting, when the devil whispers, “God has forgotten you; God has forsaken you”; when your unbelieving heart cries as Gideon cried, “If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?” The evil has come upon you to bring the Lord nearer to you. The evil has not come upon you to separate you from Jesus, but to make you cling to Him more faithfully, more tenaciously, more simply. –F. S. Webster, M.A.
Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, but to Himself; and when He plunges us into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through the agonizing darkness. Oh, for faith that brings the triumph When defeat seems strangely near! Oh, for faith that brings the triumph Into victory’s ringing cheer– Faith triumphant; knowing not defeat or fear. –Herbert Booth
