Crash Course
Just some Saturday morning musings…
When I compare the years I have been saved with where I am spiritually, I realize I have much catching up to do. 😕
I don’t know about you but sometimes I think my desires are far above my “qualifications”. It’s as if God hears my prayers to be used of Him and His response is:
“OK, Rachel…you’re not ready for that yet so you are going to have to take a crash course in this and this and this and this…”
crash course = “a brief, intensive course of instruction, as to prepare one quickly for a test.”
And so the intense teaching and training begins.
Recently, a friend said to me:
“I’m thankful the Lord was on our ship or we would have surely perished.”
This dear sister was speaking on the other side of a HUGE trial – intense training, if I may. Although the battle scars were there, she was beginning to see God’s purpose in it all – praise the Lord!
I am reminded of the well-known prayer of Jabez:
“And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.”
1 Chronicles 4:10 KJV
When we pray, as Jabez did, for God to enlarge our coast, we should expect to be “stretched” into maturity, spiritually speaking. Being stretched is uncomfortable, to put it mildly.
First Peter reminds us that suffering is not just a part of the Christian life, it is necessary in becoming an established, settled believer!
“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”
1 Peter 5:10 KJV
And now more than ever, being a Christian who is stedfast AND unmovable is so very needed and necessary!
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 15:58 KJV
“I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.”
Psalm 16:8 KJV
“the root of the righteous shall not be moved.”
Proverbs 12:3 KJV