Choosing His Path

Dearest Saints,

     Today, many Christians in particular continue to go through various trials continually.  Sometimes, like myself, we go through areas in our lives that seem like God is opening a door only to find out later that this same door He opened sooner or later closes on us.  I had that experience happen to me many more times than I care to admit.  What I thought was a wasted set of events in my life, God continues to reveal to me that these events helped me grow and shape me to be better prepared to be used by Him. I would never have been able to enter this particular place of my life and be used by Him without having to go through many paths that lead me there.  Many times, we would rather just take one short step to go through that Door that God lead us to our destination immediately.  By not going through different paths and persevering, we would not be prepared to resist falling in to pride.  

     God warns us in 1 Tim 3:6 that a novice cannot be used to govern and care for the Church because he/she may be more tempted to be lifted up with pride.  This reminds me how God lovingly keeps us from entering certain paths in order to possibly spare our very lives and possibly spare us from eternal destruction.  What we may think is the best path for us is often not the path God knows we need to take.  It reminds me of the verse in Prov 14:12 where a way seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death (Amplified Version).  We may have to go down more paths than we care, but when we truly put our Trust in the Lord, I believe we will be much stronger to have a more profound and positive effect on many others whom we come in contact.  The turning point in this is to make up your mind that by His Grace, WE ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE UP and believe God uses each circumstance to draw us closer to Him and prepares us to be stronger in Him!  

     As an example of one of my many experiences, I intended on going to university to study horticulture right after high school.  Well, God had other plans for me.  University did not work out for me and other set of events also took place shortly after that did not work out for me either.  Finally, this lead me to joining the military in Fall of 1980, after being out of school for just over a year.  I became more determined than ever to go through harsh recruit training and get through NO MATTER WHAT.  I don't believe I would have had that determination had I not gone through an unfortunate series of events that lead me to joining the military.  Then, later in my career, several postings took place and I ended up remaining on one of our ships an additional year, which was basically against my will.  Because of that, I was then offered a position in a Northern community in Alberta near the town of Cold Lake.  It was here in this remote region that I met several people, including one in particular who eventually lead me to the Lord.  Had I not spent that extra year on the ship against my will, who knows if I would have ever come to the right place and ever know the Lord at all?  So when I take the time to reflect many of my past events in life, I realize more and more that God lead me through many stepping stones to become a child of God and also to develop me to what He wants me to become.  It took me going through several negative circumstances to see how God was preparing me to do what I am doing now.  Had I stubbornly went "My Way" as Frank Sinatra sings that famous song, I know for a fact that I could very well be continuing to wander in spiritual darkness to this date.  And who knows...I may not even be alive today to tell of my experience.  He may have saved me from events that may have taken my life had I rebelliously chosen to go "my way" instead.  It's like a fellow whom I heard about that was frustrated because he was running late to get to work at the Twin Towers in New York which he had errands he had to commit to first thing in the morning.  He was frustrated about these set of circumstances which he initially wished would have not taken place.  This man now realizes that because of this "inconvenience", it spared his life from that tragedy we call 9-11, and he remains alive today because of it.

     This reminds me that when we are quick to question God "Why", we need to reflect and realize He knows all events and He has better plans for us than we could ever think.  The reason why many people don't receive the "Better Plan" of God may be because they continue to question God critically, murmur and complain, fail to give Him thanks and end up stubbornly choosing to go "their own way" instead.  What we need to do is come to a place, go to prayer and confess to Him that "I may not understand what is happening Lord, but I am putting my trust in You no matter what".  I can only thank God that I didn't choose to quit and give up when I felt like throwing in the towel many times in the past.  I now understand as I see the results, He made something that seemed so bad at that time, become something far more valuable than one could ever imagine if we would only trust God during those times of preparation.  

     I believe most of you have a far greater value to be used for Gods glorious purposes than you realize.  With Gods help, don't allow the enemy to deceive you by only looking at the present, but ask Him to help you see the whole picture and believe He is preparing you to be that valuable vessel of honor to be a richer blessing to many.  Think of the eternal destiny we may fail to achieve all because we chose to doubt and complain about our present circumstances rather than seeing the positive side of how God can fulfill every good purpose from our past.

Will you consider buying my books in support of HelpingCopeThroughHope mission work in Zambia?  You may go to my link below to observe.

In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayerhttp://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife  
http://www.answers2prayer.org/ 

Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name. (Ps 91:14 Amplified Version)