We've seen that God asks us to
blindly trust Him that everything will work out for the best, and that when we
completely surrender a problem to Him, His peace is ours and the solution is
sure.
But oh, that is soooo hard to do! Just how CAN we
completely surrender our problems to Him?
God, in His mercy, has not left us without help on
this one, and the next practical tip comes to us from an incident that I
experienced while running down a dark country road ...
It's that crazy time of year - that time when the days
are rapidly shortening, yet the fall time change hasn't yet occurred - that time
when you get up, have breakfast, and go to work -- all in the dark!
This is one of the hardest times of year for me. As a
morning person, I love to see the sun first thing when I get up. I am also a
summer person, and fall means transitioning from a full season of sunshine with
early mornings and late evenings, packed full of my favorite outdoor activities,
to a darker season that will be primarily spent indoors. I have to come to terms
with the fact that most of my favorite activities are things of the past until
the next summer rolls around.
One of the things the dark mornings interferes with
most is my running schedule. Not that running in the dark generally bothers me,
as long as my route is well-lit. Two falls ago I was routinely running 3 km per
day. My 3K route took me down an unpaved--and unlit--country road, and this
particular section of the road made me feel uncomfortable.
It wasn't a problem last fall. I was routinely running
4-5 km per day, and my longer routes are all well-lit. In fact, I can remember
numerous times looking down my 3 km route and thinking: "I'm glad I'm not doing
3K anymore! THAT road is dark!"
In all honesty, that year shouldn't have found me
running my 3K route! I should have been on my 5 and 6K routes! But age, along
with numerous muscular injuries earlier in the spring and summer of this year,
had forced me to slow down and cut back, and I was only feeling comfortable
taxing my ankles and legs over shorter distances. This meant that my 3K route
was in regular use in this dark time of the year!
For some reason however, the concept doesn't bother me
as much as had in the past. In fact I found myself wondering why I wasn't afraid
anymore. And then I realized the answer. It lie in a single street lamp on each
end of the 1.25K dark section. I discovered that as I ran this section of the
route, I was keeping my eye so firmly set on that street lamp that I wasn't
paying attention to the darkness surrounding me.
I decided to try an experiment one morning. I pulled
my eyes away from the street light and forced myself to looking into the
blackness of what I knew to be harvested soybean fields. But I couldn't see
anything. I couldn't see the edge of the field or the grass I knew to be between
me and the field, or the ditch. All I could see was the dark road under my feet.
My heart abruptly began to beat faster and feeling
suddenly disoriented, I pulled my eyes away from the road and back to the
streetlamp. As I did, my former sense of peace again washed over me.
Hebrews, chapter 12, suggests that we keep our eye
fixed upon Jesus: ". . . Keeping your eyes fixed upon Jesus, the Author and the
Finisher of our faith . . ." (Heb 12:1 NKJV). It occurred to me, as I was
running that morning, that my run down this unlit country road was much like our
walk through life. We often find ourselves passing through dark sections, times
when circumstances seem to be swallowing us up, times when it seems so dark that
we can't even reach out to those around us who might serve as our supports,
because all we can see is the blackness.
What gets us into trouble during these times is that
we try to do the impossible. We keep squinting into the blackness of our
trouble, trying to see our way clear. But it isn't clear. It's black! There
simply isn't any light in the situations!
It's easy for someone who isn't in the situation to
say, "Give it completely to God! Trust Him blindly!" But that is so hard to do!
This is why we are encouraged to keep our eyes fixed -- not on our
circumstances, but upon Jesus! If we keep our eyes fixed upon Him, He will
provide us with all the light and hope that we need to pass through these dark
times in our lives. In fact, if we focus enough on Him, we won't even really
notice the trouble we're passing through. Instead, we'll have our minds fixed on
the solution!
What will you choose to keep your eyes fixed upon,
friends? The darkness of the harvested soybean fields that you can't even see?
Or the light at the end of the trouble: Jesus Christ?
Lyn Chaffart , Mother of two teens, Author and
Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural
Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems,
Scriptural Nuggets , with
Answers2Prayer Ministries.
For more devotionals in the Victory in Trouble Series, please go to http://scripturalnuggets.org/
The Illustrator: This daily newsletter is dedicated to encouraging
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The Nugget: Published three times a week, this newsletter features inspirational devotionals and mini-sermons dedicated to drawing mankind closer to each other and to Christ.