He will not Forsake You

Lately, I have been surrounded by doubts – oh, not the BIG doubts as to whether God exists or if I’m saved, but the little doubts that creep in, like: am I putting my hands to what God would have me do or am I just wandering aimlessly? And if I am in God’s will, why does it seem like He has disappeared in the work – where is the evidence of His approval – the blessings, the success?

Yes, I’m looking for the blessings – there, I admit it. When it comes to business affairs, it seems that the accepted meter of whether or not God is in it or that you are right with God is success.

When you pour your heart (and money I might add) into something for two years, and it appears that you are sinking fast, do you continue – stay the course?

I suppose that if I knew without reserve that I was definitely following God’s lead I would continue no matter what happened. But along the way, I have found that I am not so sure anymore. Everyone cites the economy – bad time to grow a business – but I’ve always believed that God is above the unpredictability of the economy. I really do believe it.

So this morning in my angst over failing financial statements and bleak prospects, I stopped listening to the voices of fear and doom and gloom and went to God’s word. I was willing to have Him tell me – “Look, you’ve strayed, you missed it – you’re not only off base, you’re in another game altogether.”

But in His quiet, still small voice, He ministered to my fear of failure, my fear of abandonment – my fear of disappointing Him.

I pray you will let His words of life into your fear today.

“…acknowledge and learn about, recognize, experience, and confess the God of your father, and serve him, be tilled like the soil for him with wholehearted devotion, with complete and perfect peace and with a willing mind, emotion, appetite, and passion that delights in God, for the Lord searches and seeks with care every heart – the soul, the understanding, the mind, and the will and understands, discerns, perceives and regards every motive and purpose behind your thoughts, plans, inventions, and purposes.

If you seek, resort to, frequent, and consult him, he will be found by you; He will acquire and fall in with you; but if you forsake, leave, abandon, forsake, neglect, and depart from him, he will reject and spurn you forever because of the stench of your sin. Consider now, perceive, regard, give attention to, watch, learn, observe, and have vision for the Lord has chosen and selected you to build up and establish a family and rebuild a house as a sanctuary and sacred place. Be strong, prevail, be firm, be secure and do the work – accomplish it, act with effect, produce, prepare, attend to, and bring it about it.

All this, said David, the LORD made me understand, to have insight and comprehension in writing – every character and letter - by his hand, strength, and power upon me, even all the works, business and service of this image and pattern.

Be strong, firm, bold, be caught fast – and give strength and be courageous, solid, brave, determined and do, produce, make, and attend to the work.

Do not be afraid or feel dread nor be discouraged, broken, shattered, and afraid, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you, let you sink or withdraw from you; He will not forsake, desert, abandon or neglect you … “ I Chronicles 28: 9-10; 19-20

May I have This Dance?

I had a dream last night. Images from my past – high school days and friends – mostly just silly fleeting faces and situations. But toward the end of the dream, I was sitting on the ground at a gas station playing my guitar. Someone heard me and stopped their car by the side of the road and made suggestions about how I might change the tuning to make the sounds more substantial. I agreed and started to play a song that I made up on the spot.

During what I remember to be the chorus, I heard sweet harmonies blending with my voice. Although I don’t really remember all the words, I knew that the song was a sorrowful love song – I was singing the depths of my heart. I could hear myself sing the last words of the song – “Why don’t you dance with me” as clear, now awake, as when I was dreaming.

This morning as I thought about my dream, the words kept mulling around my heart. When I sat down to spend time with the Lord, the words kept coming back to me – Why don’t you dance with me?

My heart stared to break when I realized that it was the Lord’s voice asking me this. He wanted to “sweep me off my feet” and take me in His arms and rejoice not only with me but in me.

You speak to me: Come away with me, just for a while. Let me take your weary hand in mine. Let me hold you close.

Lord, I release my hold on myself. I repent of the way I’ve delighted in the dance of the world.

I close my eyes and see You take my hand in Yours. The music begins. You hold me close and whisper in my ear, “May I have this dance?”

Jeremiah 2:2: I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.