In the Christian life we will take wrong turns. Let’s call them alternate paths. These alternate paths may not have been Gods ultimate will or outcome and are the result of a decision we made. The decision making process could have been arduous, perhaps because there was a lot at stake. We may have become impatient- and rushed ahead in assumptions. We may have been persuaded by someone else, someone who was well meaning but didn’t quite know our situation as well as we hoped. We may have needed to take a harder step in the decision making process to seek Gods will, such as a fast, but we were not prepared to go that far at the time.
Sometimes in a decision-making process there is a confusion that can come upon us from the enemy, that is from the enemy because ‘God is not a God of confusion but of peace’ (1 Corinthians 14.33)- and this kind ‘may only come out with prayer and fasting’ (Matthew 17.21).
There is a point on the chosen path where we realise, this
is not what I wanted- and we can visualise the other path parallel to us in our
minds eye, the one we now see is better.
We can recognise that because we have lost some
things, maybe a lot of things, and I am not talking from a worldly point of
view, I mean; peace, opportunities to love and serve those we hold dear better,
rest we needed, good desires of our hearts met by God…
Such grief can consume us and such discouragment, as we must
keep putting one foot in front of the other knowing we are on the harder
path. We may be consumed with the ‘if
onlys’ and replay critical points of knowing this or that was God directing me
and I missed it, or berating ourselves for not recognising the enemy’s hand and
playing right into his schemes. I have
been there. I am there- reaching forward
to hope. And that is why I write this,
in the hope, that as I am encouraged, others will be also- now or in the future.
I made a decision to take a path of study that turned out to, I feel, almost destroy me and in that all my other good hopes and plans. God hasn’t allowed me to be destroyed, in fact he has turned it all for my ultimate good in a certain sense, understood biblically in Romans (8.28). I had to lean in to God like never before- I prayed more consistently and fervently, I worshiped away depression and hopelessness, I heard from God in a personal sense more frequently and directly than I feel I ever had in my whole life. I relied on others more than ever for prayer in my dark days. As I come out, I believe, to the end of this period of suffering and difficulty to the dawn of a new season, I am emerging into a new use of spiritual gifts in worship leading. I believe God trained my heart in this season to rely on him through worship and experience him through this in a level that brought peace and healing to distressed emotions and caused me to see the goodness of God in the midst of pain. Then he gave me another new desire- to lead others to experience God through worship. The amazing thing is I am an introvert, so my natural desire in no way connects with being on a stage, having people looking at me for leadership in worship…but in the spiritual, I am connecting with this role more than anything I have ever connected to- a feeling of – I want to do this forever…
I now see, in retrospect, my 'if onlys' - I had a warning dream and other prompts that the
other way would be a path of freedom and rest and peace and many good
purposes toward my friends and family, projects I had hoped to get around to
being able to be done. It's hard to not be down on myself for perhaps not 'getting it'. I feel God pointed out to me, however, that he still used that hard path for a good purpose. One thing that strengthened me was being reminded that if even 'Christ learned obedience from the things he suffered' why did I think I would learn another way! Of course it's natural to hope we could just learn from sermons and blogs and knowing the scriptures! Ouch!
There are other decisions and paths in other areas too. I focus on this particular decision for this
writing today.
If the ultimate point of running the race is to reach the end, obtaining Christ (Philippians 2.12-16), that is more important than the difficulty of the path. We can make an idol of our experience and achievements and wise decisions. At some point we have to learn that persevering is more important than having got it right, even to God. He wants us to keep going and do our best on the path we are on- sometimes we can switch tracks- sometimes early on there is a gracious second chance- ‘do you really want to go this way’- but sometimes there is a gulf or creek between the paths and it is just not possible or wise to swap paths.
Our way may be rocky and steep and the other way pleasant
and smooth. Our way may be long and
winding, and get to the same destination as the other more direct path.
If we love God and keep seeking him, we will get to our
destination. His mercy and grace follow
us. He will send us extra supplies to
help us. He will give us better running
shoes. He will send someone alongside us
to encourage us. Faith will look for
these helps and receive them gladly as from his hand, knowing he doesn’t
condemn us, he loves us.
Maybe you will be able to warn others. Maybe you will become an encourager who comes
alongside others who chose the harder path.
You can remind them that the greatness of what’s at the end of the race
is worth the difficulty. Maybe God is
using the hard road to shape you into something you couldn’t have imagined at
the other end.
You must keep going.
Maybe the enemy thinks that if you take the hard path you will give
up. Maybe you have been allowed to be
sifted like Peter (Luke 22.31-34). Your faith has not failed, you have not failed, Jesus has prayed for you. Peter had a harder path than those who did not
directly deny Jesus. He also had a
larger assignment in the end.
Do you have a testimony of how God has turned a 'harder path' to good in your life?
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