Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Between Pinnacle & Pit - Part 4

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful!  But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.  So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.  Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.  Hebrews 12: 10-11

We are continuing with our investigation of the gap between the pinnacle of genuine faith, and the pit of unbelief

Chastisement, or when God disciplines, is what God does to make us “fit for use”. That is the whole purpose of training, to become useful for God’s Kingdom.  The sermon[1] upon which this series of devotions is based, includes an illustration of God’s purpose to take our brokenness and use it for His glory, and puts into perspective those difficult times of testing and training we all experience:

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.  John 15:2

A week, or so, ago (in 1978) the muffler fell off my car.  It’s that big Mercury, so you know it’s a long dude, and it’s heavy.  I got under the car trying to put that muffler back on for what seemed like an hour-and-a-half.  I was getting weary; I was on my back with arms in the air lifting that muffler for an hour-and-a-half, but I just could not get it right.  The pipe I tried to use to get the muffler back together was too long for the space.  It just wouldn’t fit. 

After trying so many times I was exhausted.  The point here is that I finally gave-in; I gave-up.  I prayed at that moment, out loud, under the car:  Lord, I give up.  I can’t get it done; you gotta do it.  You know me – I don’t have anything left.  I waited a few minutes for the LORD’s answer, and decided to try again.  I pushed it and the whole thing fell apart.  Now, a few years back the old Russell would’ve gotten angry, looked up and said:  Hey…why…what have YOU got against me?  But not this time.  I just said, OK…looks like you have some other plan here.  I crawled out from underneath the car.  I was picking up stuff to put in the trunk and walk home, but as I got to the back of the car, I noticed the muffler clamp on the back end was still attached.  I saw how impossible it would be to put the muffler back together. 

When I waited on the LORD, I saw the solution to the problem that was there all the time.  I backed off, gave it up, listened, and the LORD showed me the right way.  I had taken the wrong approach…I was doing it my way.  I waited until things came unglued before I prayed and trusted.

That’s the way of instruction.  A lot of times you don’t see the LORD’s instruction until retrospect…that time when you stop doing things your way,  look back, and it dawns on you, oh yeah! 

Imagine your life as a sweater being knitted.  God’s the knitter, and you decide to take the needles.  You make a mistake (don’t we always) but God’s not going to continue where you left off; He’s going to take out the error.  That’s called purging.

For You Today

The sweater or muffler in your life may be different than mine, but the principle holds…we can continue struggling with doing it our way…or we can learn early in the process to give-in, and give-up, to God’s teaching.

Tomorrow we’ll have the unveiling of God’s glory in this whole process.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these:                                                                 

         Why Does Bad Stuff Happen to Good People? and Seeing and Following the Light - Part 1      

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©  


[1] From a sermon, Chastisement, June 7, 1978, Russell Brownworth

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