Thursday August 29, 2013

I really don’t recommend it – telling God you need a little more proof that He’s calling you, and that He’s got your back!  Moses questioned his calling.  “Who am I?” he asked Jehovah at the burning bush.  God had heard the great cries of all Israelites in captivity in Egypt.  This was the one hope of Moses, that God would release the captives.  Now, when God was about to answer by sending Moses back to Pharaoh, Moses’ faith had a hiccup…. “Uh, God….ME?  Would you give me some kind of sign here?  Suppose they don’t believe?  I don’t speak so well.  Why don’t you just go down there…..?”

Fast-forward about 3700 years.  Elizabeth and Russell are living in a little Gulf Coast Florida town, and Russell is struggling with a call to ministry. 

Russell:  “Umm…me?  I know you spoke to my heart, and I’ve been encouraged in all this, but…well, I’ve got a wife, three kids, a mortgage, car payment.  God, I just don’t see any way.”

God:  You don’t remember that part about “walking by faith not sight, do you?”

Russell:  “It’s a really big mortgage”.

God:  Bigger than the cost of Solomon’s temple?

Russell:  “Sometimes it seems that way”.

That’s the fictional part of my prayer life (at least the part where God answers in English).  Here’s the rest of the story:

I asked God if He would help us find a way to sell our house and settle our debts, so we’d have that off our back during seminary.  A few weeks later a couple from Michigan decided that our little town would be a perfect place to retire.  Sold! 

But that wasn’t all.

They paid cash – up front!  They gave us the full asking price, half-again what we’d paid for the place only three years prior.  And they couldn’t move in for several months, so we were able to still live in our home and finish the kids’ school year before the move.

But that wasn’t all.

The rent they asked was only half of what we’d been paying on Solomon’s mortgage!

Is That Enough?

Mortgage gone, debts paid-off, extra money in the bank, pathway cleared.  Yet there were “heel marks” in the sand all the way, when the way got scary.  

And, at times, even to this day when the road looks a little bumpy, the sky a little foggy and I can’t see where He’s leading, I have a “Moses faith hiccup”.  Sometimes the threadbare condition of my “faith” is astounding!  

Lesson?

Sometimes, when your faith is puny and threadbare, God is gracious and patient; He will give you a sign you asked for.  But, the question afterwards is always the same:  “Is that enough, child?  Are you ready to follow NOW?”

When it comes to “walking by faith and not sight” there will never be a time when every doubt, debt or disturbance disappears completely.  Life always has a few curve balls to throw at you.

But His promises are true and trustworthy.

Stay with that…(even when there’s no burning bush or migrating Michigan home buyers).