Listening to the Holy Spirit:
Each day is as a battle; against the flesh you are to war. The world calls without pause, diverting the holy to the common. Each strike of the enemy also against the saint. For those who call Me Lord, the day grows heavier to carry with righteousness, but strength is given to those who do not choose to fall. Great trouble is the lot of many – challenges of fault, and those outside of their cause. Sin calls from every side, and peace very distant in mind. Run to Me; stand in the fortress of My Word and promise. I do not fold in anguish, nor bow to weariness. You have the nourishment you need. Your load is heavy, but you are able to bear it. My strength is with you, and My help near to My children. Temptation abounds, but strength of heaven, and forgiveness of the stumble, abound all the more. Stand strong against the wind. You shall prevail. My fortress in you will stand.
Ps 18:2-3 (ESV) – The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
Ps 65:4 (ESV) – How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You. To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.
Ps 73:28 (ESV) – But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Taking It to Work:
I was just talking in my FCCI group this morning, where about a half dozen of us business leaders get together for a weekly meeting of how to lead in our companies for maximum Kingdom impact. We were talking about trials in the workplace. It turns out, one of the common denominators in the discussion was the fact that we all agreed that we grow the most, not in the easy times, but in the hard times of life. None of us liked that.
It seemed that when the Lord allowed difficult times in our life, or when we brought them on ourselves, that’s where we pulled closer to God, and became better leaders, in general. We talked about the endless barrage of challenges that are out of our control, which God uses to grow us, and also of the mistakes and poor decisions on our parts, that caused us many issues as well – which God also used to build us. He seems not to waste any opportunity, our doing or His.
There was also some discussion of not always handling the trials the way we should, where instead of learning, getting into His Word, praying, we dug more of a hole for ourselves, making some of the trials almost unbearable. We all decided that the best time to grow would be when things were going well, to pull close in thankfulness instead of crisis; doing so might keep the training trips through the valleys at a minimum. That’s a real discipline though…we seem to stray the most when things are easy.
Scripture says the Lord is our strong tower, a refuge and rock stronghold for when we are under attack. We often think that refuge as one we run to only when we are dealing with something we are having a hard time handling. That might be exactly what it is if your job is a constantly stressful one, but for those of us who typically have some calm in-between the storms, we may want to pull close in the calm, instead of waiting for the next storm, or hoping it never comes. It is very possible that our Lord thinks many of our storms are necessary because we don’t pull close in the calm.
If the sky is fairly blue, and you find yourself in pretty calm waters today, take a leisurely, thankful walk to the Strong Tower of your life. Visit Jesus in His Word and listen to His voice as you sit as His feet. You will be amazed how much better you can hear Him when your not in a panic; and who knows what storm you might be evading in doing so, as His Word works in you, today.
