Positioned for a Miracle

Do you ever feel that where you are right now is not compatible with where you are going?

Like a lame man looking up a sheer cliff face at his mountaintop destination?

It is curious to notice, though, that this is the place God puts His children in at least once in life. All of His best heroes have spent time in this spot.

And why?

Because this is the spot where we learn what faith is.  This is where we either give discouraged, throw in the towel, and never reach our potential...OR we lift our chin and ask, "I wonder what miracle God is planning here?"

You see, there's always a miracle.  In the exact right time, there is always the perfect miracle.

Look at Joseph. Years in prison - forgotten in prison - but one day the Pharaoh happened to have a dream, and his servant happened to hear of that dream, and that servant had happened to previously been in jail with Joseph, and he had happened to have a dream in prison, that Joseph had happened to interpret, and so the servant happened to tell the king of Joseph, and Joseph happened to be able to interpret Pharaoh's dream, so Pharaoh happened to make him second in command of all of Egypt, happening to fulfill a dream God had given Joseph years before.

Coincidence?

Or was God orchestrating every detail to perfection in Joseph's life so that at the peak time everything slipped effortlessly into place?

Maybe, right here in this uncomfortable place that seems so far from where you're going God is crafting a miracle.

And just maybe that miracle will change your life.

And it won't be coincidence.

But don't get impatient...the delay just means you haven't reached the perfect time yet.

Yet.

And you know what that means...

...it's means your miracle is still coming.

My Pledge

There is a great desire in all of us for relationship...especially a marriage relationship. It's a God-given desire, and it is a good desire. But as a Christian single, we encounter many pressures. From the church-world, everyone wants us to get married almost as bad as we want it ourselves. Our friends want to set us up. The world thinks we're crazy to keep ourselves for the one God chose for us...in short, it's hard to wait.

I recently came across a pledge that I wrote the year I graduated. A pledge for my future husband.  It encouraged me once again to remember what it is that I am being patient for and convicted me to uphold, still, the same firm standard that I did then.  If you are single and still waiting for match God has for you, don't grow weary in well doing. Don't give into the temptation to settle or to bend your standards because the waiting has grown long. Remember that that promise of God is that we WILL reap if we do not lose heart.

MY PLEDGE
I will wait for you, the man who is waiting for me.
I will be patient though it be years.
I will be ready though it be tomorrow.
I will not run ahead of the Lord’s plan; I will not lag behind His desire; I will not be distracted from His will.
God’s purpose will be my all-consuming passion.
I will love Him more than I love you; and I will love Him more than I love the dream of you.
I will let no impatience hold me back from the destiny the Lord has for me.
You are part of that destiny.
I will wait, but I will not be idle.
I will be giving myself constantly to the call of God for myself in faith that as I do I will also be preparing for our call as husband and wife.
I will be steadfast, unswerving, unwavering, undeterred. I will be committed to God's charge to me as a woman and as a Christian.
I will keep not just my body, but my heart pure and unstained from the affections of any other.
I realize that emotions may come and go within both of us, but my decision to give my whole heart will happen only when the Lord releases me to love you.
I will not allow heartbreaks in my past or hurts that I have suffered to affect how I relate to you.
I recognize that God is the Healer of my heart, and when He heals, He heals completely.
I will not hold you to account for the actions of others, nor will I withhold my trust and affection in anticipation of you making the mistakes others may have made.
I know that there may have been failings before you came to Christ.
I pledge myself to complete forgiveness, realizing that "everyone who is in Christ is a new creation...all things have become new."
I will lay any of my own failings under the Blood of Christ so they will not have any ground in our relationship.
I pledge to you that the day I say “I do” I will harbor no regrets.
I promise that the day I give myself to you I will come to you as a whole person ready to run, hand-in-hand with you, into our destiny.

Revival!

It has been a prayer of mine for many years to see a revival in my lifetime like the revivals in the past. I read stories of the Great Awakenings, the Welsh Revival, the Layman's Revival, Azusa Street, and the rest and my prayer is, "God, do that here!"

I attempted to sit and write about the ingredients of revival, but as I began to read the promises of Scripture and the stories of revivals past I found it impossible to try to clinically lay out a series of sure-fire steps to revival.

I read of the young man in the Hebrides at a prayer service called by two elderly ladies who were concerned about the lack of young people in the churches. The young man said, "It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God." And then lifted his hands asking,"God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" At that moment the power of God fell on that place and a revival began that completely transformed an entire community.

No preacher delivered a convicting sermon that all heard, no great evangelist organized a crusade. The Spirit of God swept, with no human help, through the towns and villages. Farmers in their field came under conviction of sin in an instant and fell to their knees to repent. Drunks in the pub were struck with the weight of their sin and got on their faces to cry for the mercy of God.

No, my friends, I cannot spell out any ingredient of revival beyond what God promised in the oft-quoted verse in Chronicles, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land."

It seems the important thing - the only important thing - is for you and I to have the same heart as that young Scotch man. "God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?" For when you and I are revived, we become conduits of revival. When we, the people of God, consecrate ourselves to holiness and are convicted of our  sins, we open the heavens over our communities for God to convicted of sin. But until you and I are revived, no amount of studying, of organizing, of waiting, of wanting will pave the way for revival in our generation. Until we, Christ's church, are holy our culture will remain unrepentant. That is the simple way of it.

If I want revival, I must be revived. So God, bring a revival...and start it in me.

Today's Cross

"Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."
Luke 9:23 (NKJV)

This verse has been often on my mind lately and cause me to stop once more and examine my daily life. Today have I denied myself? Am I carrying my cross?  Then I ponder further: What does it mean? What is my cross? Because I am not suffering, does that mean I am not "bearing my cross"?

The Cross of Christ means so much more than suffering. Anyone can suffer, but the cross is more than that. The Cross is ultimately about obedience.  When Jesus requires us to take up our cross, He compels us to dare to obey. Philippians 2:8 speaks of Christ's own obedience to the point of death. It is His footsteps we walk in.

Notice that when Jesus says to deny ourselves, to carry our cross of obedience, He does not speak of just the "important." He said, "Daily." He talks of the habitual tasks, the moment by moment decisions, the little things.  He asks me to deny myself by denying my "right" to do whatever I want. He asks that I be a slave to His will (hard words for our pride to handle).

We often find it easier to obey in huge life decisions, but often we forget to inquire the will of God in the small, common-place areas, too. Yet, this call to follow Christ is a consuming thing. Every decision from here on out must be focused on one goal. Isn't this what we committed to in the first place? From the time I wake up in the morning to the time I lay my head on my pillow at night, I am in the service of Christ. What He tells me, I must do. Where He commands me, I must follow. There is no aspect of a Christian's life that God's authority does not reach.

I encourage you, find out what the will of God is. Right now. This moment.
In your thought processes, does He approve?
In your motivation, is He priority?
In your words, are they the words He wants you to say?
In your spare time, is He still in charge?
Do you speak to the people He wants you to? Do you do what He wants the way He wants it done?

Don't just not do what He has forbidden. Take another leap of obedience and take time to find out what He WANTS you to do right this moment.