All Things

Our fellowship has known many troubling times through its existence and once again we are experiencing some turbulence. I can only speak for myself and from my own experience, but here at my vantage point I've experienced this shaking not only on the larger level that our group is experiencing, but also on a personal and local level.

The way we travel is a narrow one and at times it is difficult; it's supposed to be. (Matt 7:14 NKJV) If the way we were on was easy, that would only signify that we are traveling the wrong way. (Matt 7:13) There's nothing that says that because we are working under God's covering that makes us exempt from trouble or that we are due an easy life. If anything, we probably have a greater portion of trouble coming to us than some others might. (Luke 12:48) It is not out of character for God's people to suffer and we are called to maintain a proper attitude when we do suffer. (Acts 5:41) Our mindset should always be that we will press on, but when we do get overwhelmed, we will seek the Lord because we know that He will hear us. (Psalms 34:4) Run to the Lord, He will hide us and establish us. (Psalms 27:5)

I know that over the last year when things got hard, I learned to pray harder. When I felt lost, I learned to run to Him, and even though these times were fewer and farther between, when things were good, I learned be recognize God's hand and to be quick to declare that God is good. Now that I can see the beginning of the end of these troubles, at least on a local and personal level, I've still maintained a greater fervency in prayer, a greater sensitivity to the moving of the Lord and remained quicker to give God all the glory for what He has done. Also I've quit taking the good times for granted.

The shaking isn't over for our group yet, but I have something to say about what can come from it, and how we should endure it. In Psalms 40:1 David is reflecting on his trouble. When he says he waited patiently on the Lord, that means that he is confident that God will deliver him. This verse says that God inclined Himself to David, or in other words God looked down on David from on high and heard him. In the next verse David recounts how God delivered him. (Psalms 40:2) We sing a song "When He Reached Down His Hand for Me" and David is saying that God reached down His hand for him and took him out of his troubles and once again established his ways on the Rock. Psalms 116:8 repeats God's deliverance, not only from death but also from lack of assurance as well as the sorrow that goes with trouble. When God takes these things from us, He replaces them with something else: He replaces death with life, instability with a firm foundation and our sorrow with a new song, praise to our God. (Psalms 40:3)

So, in closing I say that we need to be confident that the Lord will strengthen us in our troubles and follow the example of the early church when they were suffering: CEASE NOT! (Psalms 27:14, Acts 5:42) Never forget that all these things that we are experiencing right now are our making, the process of a greater anointing. (Rom 8:28) I no longer question whether or not we will emerge from this shaking, instead I am assured that when we emerge, we will emerge better than we started.