The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing

Jer 30:12-13

 12 "For thus says the Lord: 'Your affliction is incurable,

Your wound is severe. 13 There is no one to plead your cause,

     That you may be bound up; You have no healing medicines. NKJV

 

Isn’t it familiar, when you are hoping for a “bless me” verse, the reading you happen to be on is a section like this, “your affliction is incurable.” How funny, it’s nice when you are more mature in the Lord and understand the context and aren’t taking it as a battering from God. But, God does speak to us in our misery and woes and He has compassionate words for us. “A bruised reed He will not break and a smoking flax He will not quench.”

 

In all honesty, my wife and I have been through some astronomically big things in the last year and half. If there were to be a book written, minds would be blown away at the spiritual warfare, much more than people even know who have been in the know, and part of our smaller sphere of prayer warrior friends. Maybe if you've read a Christian fiction book like The Screw Tape Letters or some Frank Perretti novel, you'd kind of get it. It wasn’t just one event advertised publicly as a bad report, but there were other diabolical things beyond that evil that would lift eyebrows and cause people to shake their heads in disbelief as to these kinds of unusual warfare actually happening to servants of God. But, our story is anything but fiction, from hearing the “Jewish council” agreeing with His accuser and provoking others to crucify Him, so this kind of real scenario happens even today. The enemy is sometimes allowed to have his heyday with us. We’ve thought about the average size of our church, and the smaller impact we are having on the kingdom (as far as we could see) and wondered why we’d receive such large attacks, but as others have said, “He must have something bigger in store for you.” (whatever that might mean). We definitely learn obedience and compassion through the things which we suffer.  God has kept us in tact, and we have functioned well with our ministries, marriage and lives in the midst of wild and rough warfare. What is some of God’s plans for us? That we look to Him and see His plan unfold, that we remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding in our Lord’s important work. Not allowing the assaults to throw us off track, take us off task or lead us down some wrong path incited by deceptive distraction. Like the magicians split second slight of the hand, the enemy tries to use the things He’s been allowed to throw at us, to redirect us away from the goal and aim in God’s design for our lives and His kingdom.

Well there was another doozy that we sort of braced ourselves for but still hit us out of left field. As my wife is recuperating from her neck surgery and the removal of a carcinoma tumor, she gets the unwanted information of a long road ahead of her with all the treatment she’ll need. This kind of doctors report is somewhat devastating. How do you schedule this into your life? This wasn’t part of the hopes or plan for the future. What is the Lord holding in all of this? He always does deep things in our hearts through everything we go through, and as you’d know, these things are more than refining.

Are any of us ready to have our future put on hold? Are we able to handle the fact that even if we get past this, we’ll have to have check ups for the next 20 years with anticipation of hearing the same bad things again. This was another big one, the next big thing cast upon our lives. It’s a good thing the Bible has the book of Job in it, or some of us would wonder why such negative things happen to Jesus' committed followers. If any of us knew ahead of time what that next big thing was going to be, we most likely wouldn’t be able to handle it, it would probably scare us to death, but when it really does come, God gives us the strength at that time to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

My wife is a trooper, she was able to minister to myriads of ladies and even praying with one concerned about a possible upcoming cancer report, without even mentioning anything about herself, just being ready to minister to someone else. I remember one time, when my wife was extremely sick, and the pastor’s wife at the church she was speaking at could not get another guest speaker to replace Maureen, so she valiantly laid flat on her back ontop the stage and taught the ladies event from that position. At one point she went out of the room and performed the eye popping experience we’ve all had with a stomach virus and she went back in and kept on teaching. Some would say this is crazy or even wrong, but for the few who have had these kinds of responsibilities and judgment calls to make, they would understand the decision to keep on sharing for the Lord in the midst of personal trouble. Even Paul and Silas while bleeding and in shackles, sang at midnight in the prison and preached the gospel to the prison guard.

How will my dear wife undergo this? How will she stand in the midst of feeling shaky? Will she have much left to give others? The answer is, the Lord gives us another dawning of a new day, with new hopes, challenges and opportunities to trust in Him. He is there for us at all times. He is a very present help in time of need. We only need to cling to Him, for He is the anchor of our soul both sure and steadfast. With Jesus as our cornerstone and foundation we’ll never have the rug pulled out from under us. He upholds us with His righteous right hand and He is the lifter of our head. We can always find encouragement in Him and His arm is never too short that it cannot save.

My wife has good friends who bring food, help clean, sit by her and love on her. But in a trial like this you still tend to feel alone in some ways, like Elijah who said, they have killed all the prophets, I alone am left. But we find that we have a company of angels around us, and the glories of worshipping on Mount Zion at the feet of Jesus, and bringing us into the heavenly realms, as the things of this world begin to grow into a dreamlike blur. My wife wants to hear His voice above all the other noise around her, above the diagnosis, above the ‘what ifs,’ and more louder than her own jabbing thoughts. With His voice, His own sheep hearing His voice, she will have the peace of God that passes all understanding, and her heart and mind will be guarded in Christ Jesus. Oh, that peace like a river, oh the sweetness of basking in His tender care and strong arms. Yes indeed, leaning on the everlasting arms! “We lift up our eyes to the hills from whence does our help come from, it comes from the Lord,” He lifts our heads above the water, takes us through the fire and brings us to a broad place, beyond the tight squeeze we’ve been in, beyond our style being cramped and our plans undesirably changing. A new place where we might even dance with Him in intimacy, just Him and the one He loves, a special moment, a private time, one on one angelically choreographed to dance as David danced, not for joy of the ark of God having come to town, but for the realness of a covenanted relationship, with the Lord Himself dancing with His bride. As He walks up to her, bowed low, with her head down, with fears, approaching her, touching her and saying, fear not my courageous daughter, taking her hand and beginning the dance, far better than the most glorious ballroom scene you could ever envision.

In the midst of our darkest times we find out how beautiful He really is. Things like elections, earthquakes in far away places and other commotions don’t seem to matter as much, when you are seeing His face and He becomes magnified in the midst of a time where you are decreasing. “Oh, Lord, give my wife the flowers, from the meadows of Your love, hold her tightly and help her to feel secure in the inner strength of Your might. Put your right hand under her head and draw her close to You. I know Your keeping power on the one You love is better than a thousand friends or even a well meaning husband. “Lord, please rescue her, bless her, guide her faith, and sweep her away in your love, high above all enemies that would seek to strangulate her and silence her powerful witness for You.” Your intervention is the only thing that will truly bring the answers to all of our prayers, which nothing else will do. “    

Ps 16:11

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy;

At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. NKJV