Isaiah 45:2 “I will go before you and level the
exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the
bars of iron,
The KJV reads “I will make the crooked places
straight” to read this passages it is easy to see that the Lord is promising to
make the high places reachable, the crooked places straight, break down
barriers, and cut through excuses. Many people read this and think, “oh yeah, I
am in!” I follow the Lord, and the Lord will make my life easy……..sorry to be
the one to break it to those people, but that is not what was just promised in
this passage. Another idea taken out of context is the idea that the Lord just
promised me to take me where I want to go on this easy new road…….yeah…..here
again….no so much!
There is no doubt that the Lord will make the way
clear by leveling and straightening the road, but He did not promise that He
was going to remove all of the obstacles along the way. He said He would break
down barriers, and cut through bars, those would be things that we might not be
able to do on our own, however the day to day stuff, the interactions with
others, the hard choices we make, the difficult times, and seasons of doubt.
Those are all still there, and they are all still ours. Furthermore, often once
the path does become clear, it becomes very evident that where the path leads,
is nowhere near where we wanted to go.
I say these things not to discourage, but to
encourage you. You see God is with you, He is working right now on your behalf,
but you have to have faith that if He has left something in your path, then it
is something that you can deal with, overcome, and destroy. If you see where you are heading and it is
not where you wanted or expected to go, you have to realize that what you
thought would bring you happiness, will be eclipsed by the true joy that the
Lord has in store for you. To give you some examples. I am a pretty fit guy. I
try to eat pretty healthy, go to the gym regularly, and lead a generally
healthy lifestyle. I expect that I will have a pretty healthy life to
come…..nope, wrong answer, despite my best efforts I have found that I still
have health issues, ones that will require even more effort on my part. Not
exactly what I had planned. I have a friend that started off with a degree in
psych, and is now a lawyer for a non-profit, a friend that went to school for engineering,
and is now a Minister. You see God made the road straight, but it is still a
though road, and the destination changes to where He needs you, not where you
want to go. 8 years ago, I would have laughed had you told me that I would be
writing this today. Yet, as it stands now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
All of this is to simply say that we cannot
afford to live on our timeline, by our rules, heading to our destination. God
will straighten the path, and clear the “impossible barriers” but then we must
walk by faith. Knowing that anything left in our path, we can handle, any
difficulty we come up against is nothing more than The Lord leaving the light
work to us. When our lives don’t go the way we planned, it is not the Lord making
it difficult, it is the devil trying to knock us off the path. Living by faith,
is not just saying “oh sure I believe in the Christ. You see…..even the devil
believes in Jesus Christ. Living by faith is not just saying I trust in God, as
we continue to fight against His will. Living in faith is standing in front of
the Goliaths of the world with nothing but a sling. It is walking square into
the difficulties in our life knowing that not only will we survive, but we will
be victorious. He has brought the high places down, He has straightened the
crooked places, and broken down doors, and cut the bars…now all we have to do
is walk in faith, and if we can’t walk, then we crawl, and if we can’t crawl,
then Christ himself will lift us up and carry us. Know this, God did not go through
the trouble of straightening the road, only to make this life harder on you. He
did not send His Son to die for us, only to turn around and say that you are
not worth the trouble. You are important, you are loved, you are needed, and
you are stronger, faster, and more worthy than what you give yourself credit
for. Take on the hardships that come, walk through the season of doubt. Know
that even though you might not have seen yourself going in the direction that
path might lead….that is exactly where the Lord needs you…..and yes, yes you
can do it.
God
Bless,
Brian
Thetford
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading …
About Brian Thetford
I am merely what God has created, a person who is here to help with his plan, a cog in the wheel of life. That is where I find my worth, not in what I do for a living, or what I have accomplished in life, but what I have done that extends the Lord’s plan and expands his will, that being said, this is a little about me.I am a husband to a wonderful wife for the last 17 years. I have two outstanding daughters who help keep my heart soft, and young. For a living I am the Logistics Director for a foodservice company. For my love, I write about and minister on behalf of the Lord. It is here that I find my peace, purpose, and balance. I spend a lot of my free time, writing, reading, studying, or talking about the Lord and his teachings. I am working on starting a church in Leander, TX and if the Lord is willing it will be the beginning of a great journey. The rest of the free time goes to my family. As a result, I do not know what the score was for the latest game, no matter the sport, and I really do not care what Brittany Spears did yesterday. Some call me boring. I like to think of it as focused on what is important, my God, and my family.I believe that the Lord has intertwined all of the above into the perfect life for me, a balance of reality, fun, sorrow, and spiritual awakening. I find that for me, the journey is not about going up the road and trying to find the end; it is more about heading back down and helping others get past the same obstacles that I had to get around. I spent the first thirty years of my life on the run, usually in the wrong direction; I will spend the balance on my journey home, picking up as many as I can that are as lost as I was, doubling back when I hear a cry for help.
- Web
- More Posts (464)
|
|
Posted in 
Add to Google