Jericho or Bust Part 3
If you have not read parts one or two of Jericho or bust, I would highly encourage you to so now.
Well in this part I was going to talk about something else, but something happened this past week that I want to share with you. It really shook me pretty hard, but in the end God knows what He is doing and it just took me seeing that once again.
Last week, I sent an email to the people I am living with to verify that it was okay to leave all my personal stuff in storage in one of the closets in their house. I was going to leave the my furniture in place thinking that it would a) let me have a place to store it and b) other guest who stayed there would have some furniture to use. As for my car I thought I could just leave it on the side of the house or in the garage. That way if I or they ever flew in there would be a car available.
Well as with all plans things change. Katherine emailed me back and they may now sell the house. They are not sure yet, but what this means to me is that I need to either sell and/or give away all of my belongings.
Sadly, I did not handle this news very well, I basically curled up in my recliner and just pouted for a day and watch movies. I was not a very happy camper. The thought of have to get rid of everything was a pretty major thing for me.
For most of my life I have trusted in things. What I had was very important to me. The thought of having nothing was something that was and is very hard for me to accept. I was not sure if I could actually go through with going to Jericho if it meant that I would have to lose all my possessions.
Fortunately the next day was Sunday and as most of you know I help minister at the CEC. Well the sermon that day just happened to be from Mathew 6
Mathew 6:31-34 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
This really helped me a lot. I was still not quite there, but I knew that God was re-assuring me that it was going to be okay and though this was a big thing for me, that He was in control and that it was all going to work out.
I have recently joined a prayer group and one of the members graciously gave me a book on prayer called 100 Days in the Secret Place. The book contains a collection of writings from different people throughout history.
I was reading one passage a couple of days ago and came across this letter written by a Roman Catholic Archbishop from the late 1600s.
Fenelon-God uses the disappointments…and failures of your life to take your trust away from yourself and help you put your trust in Him… Thus God prepares events to detach your from yourself and from others. God is your Father, do you think He would ever hurt you? He just cuts you off from those things you love in the wrong way. Your cry like a baby when God removes something or someone from your life, but you would cry a lot more if you saw the eternal harm your wrong attachments cause you[1].
This really impacted me and I realized that I had put so much faith in what I had. It was a huge security blanket for me. This is why I struggled so much in selling it all off. It is much better to part with anything that hinders my walk with the Lord now that to hang onto stuff that will cause me stumble.
The last piece of this little journey came to me the just a day or so ago. I remembered a scene from the move Molokai. Father Damien was walking up on the shore of the island for the first time and the guy who met him asked him where all of his stuff was. Damien replied that the suitcase he was carrying was all that he had. I really thought that this was important. He brought just a few provisions and was trusting in the Lord for everything else. I remembered saying to myself that that is how I would like to go if I ever did go somewhere.
In other words he did not worry about things, he trusted Jesus for what he would need. I now see that this is how I need to walk on this adventure that the Lord has me on, by faith. Which is really funny, but it is also the subject of my sermon at the CEC tonight. The Lord put Ephesians 1:15-17 on my heart to teach this week and I concentrated on what does faith look like.
It reminds me of the verse that I was stuck on so long when I first left my career and to come to IHOP.
Philippians 3:7, 8 – but whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ
I always wondered if I would truly consider all things a loss for the following after God’s heart. It looks like I get my chance.
My God is truly a Great God!
[1] 100 Days in the Secret Place; Introduced and compiled by Gene Edwards; Destiny Image Publishers, inc; 2001; page 27
[...] I was reading one passage a couple of days ago and came across this letter written by a Roman Catholic Archbishop from the late 1600s. Fenelon-God uses the disappointments…and failures of your life to take your trust away from yourself and help you put your trust in Him… Thus God prepares events to detach your from yourself and from others. God is your Father, do you think He would ever hurt you? He just cuts you off from those things you love in the wrong way. Your cry like a baby when God removes something or someone from your life, but you would cry a lot more if you saw the eternal harm your wrong attachments cause you[1]. [...]
Guest Blogger Mike Wakeman « Read, Think, Pray, Live said this on May 30, 2008 at 3:09 pm |