God Takes The Initiative
Are you in a place where you feel that you are seeking God and trying so hard to hear from Him but you just don’t seem to find Him or hear from Him? I cannot count how many times in my faith journey that I have experienced that. It is a very difficult place that can be very discouraging at times. If that is you and where you are at in your walk with God I want to encourage you this week to cease striving and know that God is with you.
God has made us many promises that are now ours in Christ. One of those promises is that He will always be with us and that He will never leave or forsake us. Do you remember when Elijah was on the run from Queen Jezebel and was so discouraged in the fight that he was in that he wanted to just give up and quit. He was so desperate for relief that he said he just wanted to die. God met Him in that very place of desperation:
“... And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lordwas not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” I Kings 19: 11-12
Often it is at the point of our greatest desperation when we finally decide to give up and seemingly quit that God is finally able to help us to realize that He was actually there speaking all along. We often want to hear him be loudest in our life. When things are crashing in against us we often only hear that noise in our lives and when our attention is only there we lose sight of Him. We even think at times that God must even be behind them, but in reality God is there in the quiet and the stillness.
The truth that will set you free in this is to know that God is within you and He is always working in you and always speaking to you. Just rest and know that He is God over your life, that He is in control, and that He is always speaking. You will hear Him when you cease striving and simply rest and let Him be God. He is the One who is taking the initiative to communicate with you and love you. Just rest and let God.
-- Pastor Shane
