Don’t Move

This morning, as with most mornings, I set aside time to spend with my Lord. I got my notebook and pen. I laid my Bible in front of me, but then I saw some dirty dishes. I couldn’t relax with those right in front of my face, so I took them to the kitchen. Then, I saw a filthy countertop I just had to wipe down at that moment. I threw the dirty rag in the laundry basket and had to walk around some of my son’s toys, which I put in his bedroom to get out of the way. Then, I stopped.

“I am having a hard time settling down this morning, Lord. I am struggling with being able to relax and focus on you.”

As I took a deep breath, I got my coffee and sat down in front of my Bible. I took another deep breath and noticed the silence, the lack of noise being unfamiliar to me. I enjoyed it! With my eyes closed and my mind calming, a song popped into my head. I began to worship my God as I sang,

“I worship you, Almighty God. There is none like you. I worship you, Prince of Peace. That is what I want to do. I give you praise, for you are my hiding place. I worship you, Almighty God. There is none like you!”

With my eyes still closed, I began to feel my Lord’s soothing presence. Then, he showed me this:

Sitting at my dining room table, I was sipping coffee, with my eyes closed. Right next to me, I could hear my husband hollering at me to get up and leave the house because it was burning. I calmly opened my eyes and saw the house had started to burn. I closed my eyes and asked, “Lord, is that what you want me to do? Do you want me to leave the house?”

God said, “No. Sit still and see what I will do.” Without opening my eyes, I told my husband to get out of the house, but that God told me to stay and see what he’ll do. My husband left, and I knew my children were out as well. I could hear people hollering at me from a distance. I could hear the flames roaring and the wood collapsing, but I did not feel hot, which is significant since I am going through menopause! I did not smell smoke, and I did not open my eyes.

When all became quiet again, I opened my eyes. My dining room table and I were in one piece, completely unaffected by the black, smoky ash that surrounded me on every side. Several people stood on the street in front of my house with eyes wide open and jaws dropped. They just stood there silently staring at what God had just done.

Sharing this meditation with you is not an attempt to glorify myself or claim I am holier than thou. I believe the Lord gave me this to encourage each of his children. Many times in Scripture our heavenly Father encouraged people who sought him before battle, or he warned them. I provided examples of those in my posts “Victory Verses“. We know from reading the Bible how important our faith in God is to him. I honestly never thought it would be in my life, but now is the time to put our faith into practice. That’s what I believe my Lord was telling me through this meditation. We, as his children, have been reading, studying, believing and praying. Now it’s time to be walking, walking out the faith we have been praying for.

In Genesis 3:15 NKJV, God says to the serpent,

“And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;”

He is specifically referring to the conflict between satan and Jesus here. However, I believe he’s also talking about those who follow satan and those who follow Jesus. It doesn’t take special glasses or a college degree to see what’s going on in the world currently. Our cultures have grown decidedly more self serving and less God serving, and the tension between the two groups is growing. In addition, we know followers of Jesus are not going to be the “popular kids” because even God himself said in John 15:18-19, that the world would hate his followers because it hated him.

So, in essence, as we continue to walk with our Lord, it may look like the house is burning down around us. We may have friends and family hollering at us to move. We will likely have pastors or neighbors who can’t understand our position or even think we’ve gone crazy. Still, God’s challenge to us remains:

“Don’t move. Sit still and see what I will do through you if you trust me. Do you trust me?”

These things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 15:17-19 NKJV