A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with
light and the Saviour appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do,
and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the
man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after
day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely
against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his
might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that
his whole day had been spent in vain. Seeing that the man was showing signs of
discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the
man's mind: "You have been pushing against that rock For a long time, and it
hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it."
Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was
a failure, these thoughts discouraged and disheartened him. "Why kill myself
over this?" He thought. "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum
effort and that will be good enough."
And that he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer
and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord", he said, "I have labored
long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have
asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a
millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and
you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all
your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I
expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with
your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?
"Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown,
your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become
massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now
surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your
calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in
My wisdom. This you have done. "I, my friend, will now move the rock." At times
when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what
He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in
Him. . . By all means, exercise the faith that move mountains, but it is still
God who moves the mountains. This story reminds me of what Oswald Chambers said:
"God does not call us to be successful, but to be faithful."
Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please
authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances
dictate.
Thanks to WITANDWISDOM™ - May 3, 1999
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