A few months ago I heard a great sermon about Defining moments. The scripture used was the story of David and Goliath and how the fight was a defining moment in David's life. It changed the course of his destiny forever.
In the past few weeks I have had more people than I can now count come to me for prayer for feeling discouraged. Some feel that way in life, in marriage, with their kids and in their walk with the Lord and almost all of them have a common thread, they are all believers, committed Christians.
I think as we look on Face book, watch T.V., meet others for lunch and hear all the great things "the Lord is doing in their life, ministry, job and so on we can feel let down,like our own life feels useless and ineffective. Even sometimes when we read the Word and learn about all the great things Paul, John and the others did it can leave us feeling lame, lacking God's power. But as I read about Abraham this morning it hit me, the bible is like Face book for our faith. I mean no disrespect, stay with me here. What I mean is, when we read it seems that all the people in the Word lead these amazing lives filled with non-stop action but the truth is all we are reading is the snap shots, the high and low lights if you will. When you read about Abraham, for example, It reads like he talks to God, has lunch with angles. God tells him where and when to move, gives him dreams, gives him son's and so on, all excitement and crazy God encounters, but if you read between the lines there are years in between all of these events. Just like our lives. You will have amazing mountain top days in your life. The day you met the Lord and catch fire for His people. The day you hold your first born, (and every other born for that matter. As a second born myself I like to think our parents were just as excited when we showed up too. =) Then there are those amazing moments. The times someone tells you "the Lord really used you to help me." or when you get the honor of leading someone to Christ. These are our "bible highlights, our big or defining moments.Sure it's easy to feel great when we have these times.
It is in the "in between time" that we start to feel down, discouraged, like our faith, our walk does not matter. When we live the day to day, striving to serve the Lord but not really feeling like we get anywhere.It is in the times when I feel like... "Is this mic on? Can anyone hear me?" That is why reading the word this morning refreshed my heart because it reminded me that Abraham, father of all Israel, spent years of just plodding along doing God's will without any bible worthy mentions. Whole lives would pass in the word until they hit a defining, huge moment and then come in to play again. Like when the the bible says "so and so was born. and then the next time you hear about them they are getting married or having a baby. Even Jesus has a lot told about his birth and a bit about his very early childhood and then his story gets really quiet for a while before He comes back on the scene as a 30 something. Does that mean all of those years of His life were meaningless? That the day to day life of Jesus before His next bible entry did not matter? Of course not!! All our days matter. In fact, the down time between the highlights might matter the most. It is in these times that we see how much we really need the Lord to "pull us through". We draw close to Him in the pain of the lonely moments, the dark times. These might be more the defining moments of our lives then when we experience the mountain top times. How we struggle through the "dead times" the "dry times" the times when all your heart wants to do is serve the Lord in a mighty way but nothing seems to go right. Those are the times that show where our true faith lies. I used all these words just to say what the bible sums up in Galatians 6:9 perfectly ~ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.~
Please know that the Lord IS using you, even if it feels like the world is coming at you and it seems no one cares or is listening, they are. They see. they hear and God can use your faithfulness in the little things, the down times, in the day to day to change the eternity of someone else's life. Keep fighting. Keep seeking the Lord. Keep him before you in all things, even the tiny and you will reap a spiritual harvest in due time.
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