| Kaitlin In Context |
We Shall Not Be ShakenWhen I read missionary biographies, I often get discouraged because of the faith they had to follow God anywhere - Amy Carmichael to India , Hudson Taylor to China, Jim Elliot to Ecuador and many others. To them, following and trusting God seemed to be like breathing. You just do it. No questions asked. If you didn’t do it, you’d die. For many Christians today though, following God is what you do when you “feel called”. We send out missionaries who claim they’re God’s “called”. We support them because they’re “called”. But we forget some things, namely, that all Christians are called to spread the Gospel, not just some, (Mark 16:14-20), and we lose sight of the One who called us.
Why was it so easy for the aforementioned missionaries to follow God so seemingly effortlessly? How did the men and women featured in Hebrews 11 – The Chapter of Faith - get there? By seeking and obeying the Lord, that’s how. If you read the stories of Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua and others, you will find why they had such great lives of faith. It was because they sought the Lord in everything. When they didn’t seek him, they fell and fell hard. The Old Testament is full of stories of victories attained only by the Hand of God. Without Him, there was only failure.
In Psalm 16:8-10, David says, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”
In contrast, read what Jeremiah 17:5, 6 says, “Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”
When we trust and seek the Lord, we will not be shaken and our whole being shall rejoice and be glad. When we trust man and this world, we’re compared to a shrub in the desert – dry and lifeless. Now I ask you, which sounds more appealing? Trusting the Lord or man? Trusting the Lord, of course! If we all were to trust God as much as we unconsciously trust man (i.e. sit in man-made chairs, etc) think just how much we could accomplish for His glory! When we put all our faith in God there leaves no room for self-glorification too!
Trials are sent along our way so that our faith may increase. We have hardships so as to learn to depend on the Lord in all things. However, it is not by trials alone that our faith increases. When we seek the Lord in small, daily things our faith begins to grow slowly and surely. It can be difficult to set the Lord before us always. It’s hard to wait on Him, because we want things to be done in our time and in our way. But the Lord’s way is best. Let us live a life that shows this to be true. We can because, like the Psalmist said in Psalm 16:8, the Lord is at our right hands and we shall not be shaken! 17:41 - Aug. 3, 2007 - post comment
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About Me
Hi! I'm Kaitlin. Welcome to my HSB blog. It doesn't get updated very often but that's because I'm blogging over at Mission Amare. Home User Profile Archives Recent Entries - Because I'm tired of not understanding people who work at fast-food joints. - We Shall Not Be Shaken - Tagged - Not Afraid of Change - Sew what? Friends <%Friends%> |