WORD ALIVE … Bringing the relevance of God’s Word to our everyday life. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- LET US LEARN TO WAIT WHEN GOD WAITS, AND MOVE WHEN HE MOVES (Vol 2; No 188) Have you ever had someone made this statement: “God can’t steer a packed car.” The implication of the statement to us humans is that God cannot steer us when we are stationary but only when we are on the move. On the contrary we find out that in the life of the children of Israel in the wilderness God would keep them on the same spot for long and still steers and directs their lives. They only move when the cloud moves. “Whether it was two days, a month, or a year that the cloud remained above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would remain encamped and not journey; but when it was taken up, they would journey,” (Numbers 9:22 NKJV). The life of the Israelites in the wilderness teaches us that God does not only order our steps; He also orders our stops. God steers the missionary phase of our life as well as the stationary phase. The Psalmist admonishes us to “wait on the Lord ...” (Psalm 27:14 KJV). Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian, said, “Time lost is when we have not lived a full human life – time unenriched by experience, creative endeavour, enjoyment, and suffering.” In his book, the Total man, Dan Benson has this to say about Bonhoeffer: “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spent a good deal of his time locked in prison cell, could have been uptight about all the time he was losing. But he had a different perspective.” Though he lived greater part of his ministerial life in seclusion, Bonhoeffer was used mightily of God to touch lives of people not only in his immediate environment but also across the world. The inspirational master piece, “Pilgrim’s Progress,” which has been a blessing to many people across the world, was written by John Bunyan in his many years of seclusion in prison. It was during those “wasted years” in prison, as it were, that John produced his most significant work for the cause of the kingdom. Watchman Nee said, “It is a blessed thing to be wasted for the Lord. So many who have been prominent in the Christian world know nothing of this. Many of us have been used to the full – have been used, I would say, too much – but we do not know what it means to be wasted on God. We like to be always ‘on the go’: the Lord would sometimes prefer to have us in prison. We think in terms of apostolic journeys: God dares to put His greatest ambassadors in chains.” It was when Paul was in chains that he wrote most of his epistles that have transformed lives of people across world, which ordinarily he might not have achieved if he was always on the move and not immobilized by being put on chains. Let us learn to wait when God waits, and move when He moves.
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 09:25:21 +0000
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