For someone who struggles with anxiety telling them to stay
calm in the mist of an upset is hard. And when so many things seem to be
falling apart (sometimes literally) all around you it is hard to stay
confident. But I know that there are times when I see an opportunity and I rush
ahead of God.
Sometimes I try to put myself in the place of the characters
in the Bible story I’m reading. So let’s put ourselves in the place of the
Israelite children. For me, as a former
slave who has just been freed, I’ve seen the hand of God move in the plagues on the Egyptians and the protection of my people. Now I’m at the base of the mountain and
the edge of the Red Sea feeling trapped because here comes Pharaoh and his men
angry and ready to attack. I’ve cried out to the Lord for help but also blamed
Moses for bringing us out here to die. At this point I’m sure I would be
looking for a passage way up and over the mountain or a boat to take me across
the sea, or at least some bamboo to strap together to float across the sea,
maybe even some coconuts to make into a radio…okay too much Gilligan’s Island
in my life. But lets face it we all do
it – we are faced with an obstacle or decision in our life and we try to figure
out what we are going to do on our own.
Here is something that just happened to us as a family and
how we handled it. I was recently offered a job with a friend who lives out of
state. Meghan and I had been praying that God would open doors for me, we
prayed that I would find another job and here it comes, almost out of the blue,
and we feel like it is a no brainer. We prayed, God opened a door, must be the
job I’m to take. So we start planning a move. We started calling contactors to
help do house repairs; roof, drain pipe, AC unit...we start painting, we start cleaning out the old stuff
we don’t need to move...It all became so overwhelming so fast. Long story
short, it is not the time for us to move, doesn’t mean we won’t move in the
next six months to a year, but for now it is not the time to move.
We got ahead of God – we didn’t stay calm, we were
overwhelmed with what needed to be done and the amount of time we felt we had
to get it done in. Our Confidence was in
us, not in God. And worst of all, we were working this out in our timing, not
in God’s timing. We felt like everything had to be done now, this minute and we
needed to work around the clock to get it done. We felt so overwhelmed by what needed to be done we couldn't start doing anything. The reality was, God was working
things out and He still is and we just need to relax and wait on him.
My screensaver on my computer has this image on it –
This is a great reminder that Stress is a human thing and
faith is a God thing – when we focus on us, things get stressful, but when we
put our faith in God we have reassurance in Him. Since the move is on hold I
feel less stressful and more peace about God’s timing.
These are my thoughts and I hope you got a nugget out of it!
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