This year we have all learned a lot about waiting. But the real question is this: what have we learned while waiting?
The journey is as important as the goal. Our whole culture is built around the idea of achieving the most desirable goals in the shortest possible period of time and with the least possible effort.
Our culture, in other words, is built around a lie. Hopefully we all know enough about the Bible and the ways of God to figure that out.
How has God used this difficult and often depressing year to shape you in your journey? How have you redeemed the time? What have you learned that you can honestly say you would never have learned had this been an ordinary year? If you can’t answer that, you’re in danger of wasting a precious opportunity.
For me, the biggest blessing has been the renewal of my prayer life. I’ve led a busy life, like most of you, and busyness has a way of crowding God out. God gets lost in the transition.
But the loss of time spent with God inevitably costs us far more in time, energy and money than it was ever worth. It’s when you spend time with the Lord you begin to hear and understand so much more clearly the voice of the Spirit interpreting the instructions of his Word to you. You become far more sensitive to the difference between right and wrong decisions. You start evaluating the usefulness of what you’re doing in light of what matters eternally.
Friends of ours once bought a house from a man who had just retired and built his dream home. Weeks after he moved into his earthly mansion, he had a heart attack and died. A story in the Bible came to my mind when I heard the news and has stuck with me ever since. Jesus called the rich man in the parable a fool for storing up earthly wealth and possessing nothing of eternal value.
But here’s the remarkable thing. When you put God’s ways first in your life, he has an amazing way of providing all you need in a way that is so deeply satisfying because you know it comes from his hand. “Better a day in your presence that a million bucks in the bank” is my paraphrase of the psalmist’s words.
God mercifully brings those learning journeys to an end, and we reap the harvest we have sown along the way. When after months of battling the government, our soon-to-be son in law stepped off the plane the other day, he was the first person allowed into the country under the new rules Sarah and others had fought so hard and long for. Even the border guard knew who he was. And we arrived home to press photographers and television cameras.
We learned a lot in a journey we often hated. And that’s just how it frequently is.
Every valley has an end. The Lord will take you through it, and you’ll emerge a wiser and deeper person than when you started.
Let God bring gold for you out of this desperate year. It will last long after 2020 has ended.
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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