This post is from 2019 and it serves as the prologue for the journey you and I are going to embark on starting next week. For the next couple of weeks we’re going to heal. But before we do that, we’ve got to sit down, be humble.
God seems to enjoy having His way with my blog and I don’t mind at all. I had one thing planned that was entitled “Guided by Grace,” coming from John 13, but I felt led to do something else, then last night when I completed the backup post and saved it, 20 minutes later it was somehow deleted off my iPad. Admittedly, the second post was a lot of frustration that I see in this nation and the American Church and maybe a lot of it was not out of love. I wasn’t upset that the post was deleted, it let me know that God did not want me to post that and what I learned from that experience last night is that it may be best to type the message and not press send. Get it all out of your system, but do not hurt anyone else just because you are hurting. That is not what we are to do and as a brother in Christ I do not want to hurt anyone in any way (convict, yes but I do not aim to condemn). So, this morning in prayer I asked God what He wanted me to talk about and I was led to the Bible app and I looked at my notes. Almost six months ago I was studying the life of Abraham and how his life exemplifies what it looks like to have faith in God. With that being said here is what I wrote when I was studying Genesis 16:
“Abram may have been faithful but he also acted foolishly. In Genesis 15, God gives Abram, who seemingly has given up on having children (Genesis 15:2-3) a promise. God tends to wait until we’ve lost hope just to give us what we’ve been hoping for. Abram’s hope was in something that took time: a child. God tells Abram he would become a father in his old age and in turn he tells his wife Sarai. Have you ever gotten any good news and couldn’t wait to tell someone? It seems to be human nature to want to share the best news with those you love the most, but some things you can’t tell to everybody because not everyone has the same vision you do. Instead of just sitting there Sarai wanted to do something. When God tells you to wait, don’t do anything because you’ll create problems and not fulfillment of promise. The conflict in the Middle East today is a result of the birth of Ishmael; if Sarai had waited on God, Hagar would not had been kicked out with her son, Israel would not have been at constant war with the Ishmaelites, nor would there be an Israeli-Palestinian conflict over Israel today. Foolishness has the same effect that faith does; it can harm those that come after you. Living in America and being surrounded by technology it is hard to just sit and wait. We’ve always been told to do something. We never take time to appreciate the moment; everything has to be recorded or a picture has to be taken, just sit. Don’t work. Sit. Don’t just capture the moment, live it. Enjoy it. You don’t have to do anything when God says it’s yours. When things are rushed mistakes happen. That is why David says he walks through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4) because when you run you miss things, when you run you can fall, when you run you aren’t paying attention. But when you walk you can observe, when you walk you see things you couldn’t when you ran, when you walk you are careful. Our society makes it seem normal to rush, to always be at work. God says it’s normal to be patient, to always be at rest. That is why Jesus corrected Martha in Luke 10 because she was unbalanced. Too much work is bad. Martha didn’t like to sit. God did not create us to be busy. Never say “I’m busy,”—that is not your identity. He made us for rest. Resting does not mean you’re losing time; you cannot, will not, and shall not die because God has spoken a word over your life and it cannot return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11). Don’t just do something… sit there.”
A lot has happened to me in the last six months that has completely shifted my plans for my life. I feel like in some ways I had false hope in people and ideals and I’m realizing how foolish I was. I am saying this retrospectively, because I lost hope in what I used to hope for. Like Abram and Sarai, I gave up on things that took time. I gave up on people because I didn’t see with my own eyes how something could turn out, but when I began to sit and wait on the Lord things started falling into place. There is much that I am still waiting on but sitting and resting in God, trusting His word, I have become more patient. Sometimes I get frustrated being patient waiting on something I have wanted for a long time, but patience leads to perseverance. The very first thing God tells us that makes us look like Him is in the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:8-11, to keep the Sabbath holy and do not work (the term for work is actually worry). Rest. Do absolutely nothing when God has you in His waiting room. Do not worry when it’s the time for rest. Do not move out of anxiety because you don’t know how things will unfold—God knows and that’s enough. Often times we want to always have a hand in things as if God cannot accomplish anything without our help. We always want to be right even at the expense of not seeing other people. We tend to only see the mistakes people make and identify them as such and we keep our distance, not getting to know anyone because we always want to be right. God loved us even when we were wrong.
People who are “only after the truth” (whatever that entails) or all about being right or telling what the “right thing to do” is, tend to miss things in their restless quest to be right. The best thing to do sometimes is admit that we do not always know the answer and that is okay! When you admit you do not know, you are resting in the word of God that no matter the circumstance His word is true and He is just. So whether you are like Abram and Sarai and have lost hope because you feel that you’ve run out of time—be it a relationship, job, ministry, business, a child, whatever it is, rest in knowing that God will perform a good work in you. Or maybe you’re like Martha and always feel the need to have your hand in everything; you feel like you just have to be a part of something and you don’t take time out to simply kick off your shoes and relax your feet (and party on down to the Xscape beat). Simply rest. Healing doesn’t come in doing the familiar; it doesn’t come by blocking when that urge to reach out hits. It’s easy to call familiarity “faith” when we’re fearful. Do the opposite of what that instinct tells you to do. Take time to yourself and read a book, engage in your favorite hobby, laugh a little. Or maybe you’re like Job’s friends who always have to be right no matter the subject. Shut up and rest. Admit that you don’t know from time to time because it is okay to not know— we serve a God who does.
Until next time, continue to stay guided by grace,
Tra
“But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”— Isaiah 40:31
Guided by Grace 