Gabbylittleangel said:
Part of what the Lord is doing, in my prayers for these people, seems to be a sort of wilderness wandering.
I am not sure exactly how to describe this. They, and I, seem to be in a repeating cycle. Life seems to go around, then back, then start over again in some places. ( Have you ever seen the movie "Ground Hog Day"?)
Some of them keep making the same mistakes over and over. Others have been looking for a different way. I believe that in each cycle, God gains ground that was once given up by the church.
I had hoped that things were going to move forward for them, but we seem to be near the end of one cycle, and it may be that the God of a second chance is going to allow them one more chance to do it right. The word that has been given through me for many years is "Do it right, or do it over".
I had hoped...The word that came to me this morning in Second Timothy was endurance.
2Ti 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
It just hit me!
I have believed that God, being the God of a second chance, has given these folks chance after chance to undo the wrongs that they have done. Once they begin to make right decisions, they would stop 'spinning in circles', and begin to move forward.
So many of them just keep going around and around. I am watching them do the same stupid things that they were doing twenty years ago, forty years ago. Laughing at the same foolish things that made them laugh half a century ago. They keep going back because they are filled with the fear of moving forward. I keep looking for ways to encourage them to do the right thing, while enduring this silly game. One step forward, two steps back. Many of them seem to be working themselves back into the 1950's and 60's.
I have been trying to figure out what is going on, and get God's perspective.
I finally heard what golfjack has been saying. "God wants to do a new thing".
So many of them have indeed come to realize the laws of reaping and sowing. Through going around and around they have discovered that they will harvest the things that they have planted. Maybe the harvest that has come in now is something that was planted decades ago. Lord, how do I show them how to uproot the crop? How do I teach them to curse the trees that they have planted, so that they wither and die? How do I encourage them to step off of their merry-go-round and see what the new thing is that can only come when they stop doing the same old things?
Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
The eyes of many have been opened to truths such as this. They have discovered that when they curse God's people, that their curses come back on them. They have eaten of the bitter fruit of their harvests. Some of them have gotten so far as to realize the first part of the verse. God will bless them that bless thee. It doesn't say that they need to convert for that to happen. They have discovered the goodness of God will extend to the lost. Perhaps it is through this that God will bring them into His kingdom. Nevertheless, I am amazed with those who have seen that when they are good to God's people, that God shows them favor and yet continue to look for some loophole.
How much more simple can this be? It is as if they are stuck in a bad "I Love Lucy" rerun. Pray that God will show me how to encourage them to move forward. So often they make wrong decisions and end up reliving things over and over. God is wanting to do a new thing, but as Scripture says, He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to redemption. In His mercy He has allowed them time to repent. Time for their eyes to be opened. He has allowed many of them to understand the causes and effects of the circumstances in their lives. How often I have heard them claim, even sarcastically, that God just did them a favor.
I pray that God gives them the boldness, the courage, and the wisdom to teach these things to their peers. God has so much in store for those who move forward. For these non-believers, it seems that it takes boldness and courage to cross over into the promised land. They don't seem to understand how they have become stagnant as their lives have gone through this season of reruns. I have noticed that for so many of them that each time that they go around, that they loose ground. They move back further and further. If going back to glean what was missed needs to take place before they can move forward, then so be it. I pray for God's perfect timing.
However; May the new thing that God seeks to do come to pass. I pray in Jesus name, and I give God all of the glory, honor and praise. Amen.