For Such a Time as This

Haven't we all grumbled that we didn't like our jobs? Neighbors? Neighborhoods? Cars? Irritating people?And haven't we all wanted to be in a different "place" than where we find ourselves at the present moment? Haven't you found yourself asking the Lord God "why?" If you're honest, then your answer would be a resounding YES! Sometimes, as Christians, we find ourselves in precarious situations that we can't seem to understand the nature of why we are in that particular place, residing beside those particular neighbors, driving a car older than we'd like, or working in a particular place with particular co-workers. We may feel stuck. We may feel frustrated. We may just want to jump ahead of the Lord and risk His blessings by doing, saying or reacting before He tells us to!

Psalm 37:22-24, "v22) For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. v23) The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delights in his way. v24) Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholds him with his hand."

In this verse, it is showing us that ALL of our steps are ordered by the Lord. As a child of God, we need to accept the fact that He is directing every step of our lives, even though we have free will and choice. By this, I mean, even God knows the choices that we'll make before we make them. He knows why we rationalize those choices by running ahead of Him. But in any event, He knows it ALL! From our choices, both righteous and sinful, He has plans for us and by allowing our life story to unfold, individually, for His purpose, is part of His ultimate plan! But did you ever stop and think about the fact that God put you right where you are for such a time as this? It is providence. His providence. He has something for you to do. He has something for you to say. As a Christian, I don't believe in luck, only providence. I don't believe in coincidence either because nothing is coincidental when you allow God's hand to direct your every step as part of His will and plan for you! For us to be able to follow through with what He wants us to do or say, well, we have to surrender to the fact that in order to achieve His will, we have to go where He wants us to go, say what He wants us to say and do what He wants us to do! Simple? Not always.

A good example of this is the story of Esther. She is a beautiful orphan girl who becomes a queen. There's also an evil man who plots her destruction along with the destruction of her people. But because of her bravery, she saved her nation. The girl’s name was Hadassah, but is better known as Esther who became the queen. Her story is told in the Old Testament book that bears her name. In a series of events that were being directed by the hand of the Almighty God, we see Esther entering it. God plucked her right from obscurity, and she became part of the monarchy’s inner circle as the new queen. It didn't end there though because God had more for Esther to do. Enter in the villain, Haman. He was a manipulative, power-hungry prime minister who devised a plan to rid the Hebrew people and found a way to get the king on board with his plan. However, little did the he know that he also was sealing the queen’s fate. Esther was about to find out why she was queen. It wasn't a coincidence but rather, God's providence. She was living in that proverbial bubble, unaware of what was going on in the kingdom. So her Uncle Mordecai sent word to Esther to tell her about the situation and to ask her to go before King Xerxes and plead for her people.

She sent a reply saying that if she went to the king without being summoned, she could be put to death. Essentially, she was saying, “I haven’t seen him for a long time. I am not going to go into the presence of the king.” So Mordecai put it into plain language for Esther: “v13) And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. v14) For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13–14). See Esther was at the right place at the right time. She would have to risk her own life to make a stand for the Jewish people. She would put her beauty and feminine influence to great use. She was not a fragile queen; she was a Hebrew warrior! God was thinking about Esther, and he had a plan and a purpose that was unique just for her.

Let God Direct Your Steps

To become a warrior for God, to learn to be content with what He's given us, where He's put us and how He's gotten us there, is to give up control and have full on FAITH! There's a joy in having that kind of Faith as I've had to drive down this path myself. I've found along the way that there's nothing more satisfying, more fulfilling and more exuberant than being where God wants me, doing the "job" He sent me out to do! And as frustrating as it may get here in the earthly realm, I know that all of this is temporal. It'll pass away but all of my rewards, all of my treasures will be awaiting me when either the Rapture comes or I'm called to be home with my Father! I'd rather have those treasures and blessings, than to have material things here on earth to restrict me, to make me fall and stumble. If we open our eyes wide enough and clean off our muddied glasses, we'd see that everything we've been fed regarding "controlling" our lives in our own power, strength and might, is nothing but a lie from Satan! Here are just a few Scriptures about the strength of the Lord and how much greater it is than what our human side could ever imagine!

1) 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 
2) Isaiah 40:29, "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."
3) Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."
4) Psalm 28:7-8, "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.  The LORD is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one."
5) Isaiah 40:29-31, "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;  but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Basing our lives on our own ability to control them can have no other outcome except grief. The expectations run too high because we set such high unattainable standards that it's impossible to not grieve as we fail. We are not in control of our lives. We deceive ourselves when we insist that we are. God is in total control of every step we take, every outcome of our choices we make without Him, and is orchestrating every second as it gets to our lungs! We all have known too many cases where hard work failed to win the day. We have known too many people who did everything right in their eyes and the eyes of those secretly watching, but they still got ran over by the Mack truck that they couldn't see coming right around the corner. And we've all seen, and have known, people who made decisions that were highly praised as wise, BY the wisest of the wise, yet still saw that wise choice end in bitter fruit. For the Christian, the answer to the delusion of control is here: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, "v19) Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? v20) For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s."

2 Corinthians 4:17-18, "v17) For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, v18) while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

I believe in God’s sovereignty, superiority, authority, absolute reign! C.S. Lewis wrote about his conversion from atheism, "I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England." When we don’t like our circumstances and when we’re afraid that we've made the wrong decision, that's when we can be assured of God's ordained and orchestrated direction of our steps. Because of God’s sovereignty and His unfailing, agape love, we can be confident that the events surrounding our lives are not random but have a redemptive purpose. God is active in the midst of every situation!

In Genesis 32, Jacob always did whatever it took to make sure things went his way, to make sure he controlled the "outcome" and was permanently crippled after wrestling with God for the blessing he had stolen from Esau. Gideon was a “man of valor”, yet he struggled to trust that he had heard from God: “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is You who speak with me.” (Judges 6) Paul was always writing about decisions to visit this place or that place, “if the Lord permits” or “if it seems advisable’; but often he said the Holy Spirit prevented or compelled him to do what he had planned . . . and sometimes his decisions led to “imprisonments and afflictions,” or resistance from those he loved most (Acts 23). So remember, God doesn't leave us alone to make decisions, and promises to guide us (Proverbs 3:5-7). For such a time as this......

God loves us dearly and has a wonderful plan for our lives. He has been busy building faith-growing incidences into our lives to stretch our faith so that we will be able to embrace our destiny through Him. Father God orchestrates opportunities that will increase our trust in Him and equip us for His purposes and plans. In Genesis 45:5-8, "v5) But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. v6) For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. v7) And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. v8) So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." 

Here, we have one of the most clear, real-life illustrations of the sovereignty of God. Through the life of Joseph we are given a glimpse into the sometimes unseen and incomprehensible ways of God when it comes to the lives of men. For Joseph, it become clear that God was behind all that had happened in his life. Every single step, every path he was led down, every corner he was made to turn. However, to his brothers, it was all a great mystery. They didn't knew anything about Joseph’s life since the day they sold him into slavery, and they were definitely oblivious to God’s bigger, better plan for them and their father’s household. But despite their ignorance of God’s ways, He was still at work. Joseph gave God the credit over and over again. He clearly saw the hand of God controlling and directing His entire life, from start to finish. He saw his position as second-in-command over all of Egypt as God’s doing, not as a result of his own talent or hard work. God controlled it ALL. What an incredible outlook to have on life. Joseph knew that God had been at work behind the scenes every step of the way in his life. And God would assure Jacob that all that happened had been for a greater purpose.

There are those who have learned, over the course of their own lives, that God is, and has, orchestrated their lives and nothing was of their own will. They've seen His hand guiding their steps because they chose to have the kind of undying, unstoppable Faith that allows Him to guide us. Over time, they have developed the capacity to look for God’s involvement in even the worst of situations. In the worst of our situations and circumstances, He is ALWAYS there! There is nothing that escapes His sight, and He never sleeps! They hold to His promise in Psalm 121:3-4, "v3) He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. v4) Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep." Those individuals don’t just know about the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, but they believe in it and live their lives according to it. There's a joy, a peace and a certain "light" that comes from them that is unmistakable!

Then, there are those who live as if God is not there, only when they get what they want or when things go right. They view the collective circumstances of their lives as if they're somehow out of God’s control and He is out of touch with what is going on in and around their lives. Both good and bad. However, when bad things happen, their view of God seems to take on the notion that He simply doesn't care, that they've done something wrong to deserve Him "turning a deaf ear" or just that He's mad at them and they somehow blame Him for what's happened in their lives. The prophet Isaiah reminds us in Isaiah 59:1, "Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear." Difficulties, hardships and storms in our lives does not prove the weakness of God, but it simply exposes our lack of faith. Every time something becomes difficult in their lives, they try to take control of the entire situation. In some ways, forgetting the sovereignty of God. When someone does that, and can't surrender, then they are playing "god" themselves. They are TRYING to control it all......

A surrendered heart catches the eye of God. A desire for purity is an invitation for His fire. A true hunger for His heart promises His intimacy. A life of abandonment declares an enlistment into His army. We now can live for so much more. Your path IS His plan! God can't move you to a new place until you surrender yourself to let go of the old, comfortable past! The past serves only as a reminder of something that once WAS and it's never meant to be lived over and over and over. Especially if you're a new creation in Christ Jesus! We tend to see the brightest light in the darkest places and that's sometimes where the greatest change takes place. As it says very clearly and beautifully, in Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, "To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: v2) A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; v3) A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; v4) A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; v5) A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; v6) A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away; v7) A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak; v8) A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace." These are directions. Directions lead to paths and destinations. Destinations start with.....a STEP!

God knows all of the problems and challenges we are currently facing because He is paying attention to us! God is orchestrating the events of our lives even as you are reading this article. You are supposed to read it for whatever reason or you wouldn't have been led by His hand in finding this! He has been preparing and equipping us for this very moment. Preparing my heart to write it, and preparing yours to find it and read it! He created us, He gifted us, and now He wants to use us. It's time for us to come out of our bubbles and pay attention to the people around us. Pay attention to their struggles, their pains, their challenges. Likely we've been through some of those very same ones and God is placing us specifically in that place and time to reach that one person. To touch a hand. To hug someone. To speak the truth. To spread the gospel. To share a smile. To teach a lesson. To walk beside the lonely. To be part of His plan for someone else's plan. So, instead of cursing the darkness, try turning on the light. Change the light bulb from a 40 watt to a 100 watt. Be the brightest light they've ever seen. There is a time to be quiet and there's a time to just live it out loud. And there is also a time to speak up with love, compassion and when He tells you to speak up!

Proverbs 20:24

Has God placed you where you are for such a time as this? There is only one you. One, unique individual. There's only one person walking this earth with your exact background, heritage and experiences. All directed by God. The exact events and sufferings of your life have brought you to this very hour. Just as no two fingerprints are alike, you are unique from everyone else in this world. If you have suffered in life, if you have been neglected, rejected, mistreated and/or abused, I am deeply sorry. But the good news is that God CAN and WILL take the hurt, pain. disappointments and sufferings that the world has dealt you and use it to make you a godly man or a godly woman.......for such a time as this.

If you haven't accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and you're struggling with where you are in life right now, it's not too late! Surrender your life to Him and He will make you new! Remember that everything you experience in this life, on this earth and in this fallen world, is only temporary. We have two choices right this very minute of where we want to spend our eternity.....believe and accept Jesus into your heart and live eternally in Heaven or reject His sacrificial offering of His only Begotten Son and live eternally in Hell. Please listen for His voice because He's calling your name right now.....


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