The other side of the pulpit.  People.

Long before I was called to be a Pastor I can remember someone saying to me that being a Pastor would be the best job in the world but for one thing, people.  I suppose then that being a shepherd would be a great job also if there were no sheep to care for.  There would be no lost and wandering sheep track down and return safely to the sheep fold.  There would be no trekking through wind, rain and snow to rescue the lost and bewildered sheep from danger and death.  There would be no sheep or little lambs to untangle from barbed wire and fences.   In other words it would perhaps be seen as a cushy little number but it would be totally pointless and meaningless to be a shepherd.

Pastors need people and people need Pastors.  Shepherds need sheep and sheep need shepherds.  I know that sounds obvious but there are times when perhaps the Pastor and the shepherd who have been under constant pressure wished the people and the sheep would go away and leave them alone for a time of rest.  Jesus described himself as the good shepherd.  “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  (John 10:11) 

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  (John 10:14-15)

I have just finished writing an article for our church bulletin and I am looking at some be’s in the bible, not the honey bees.  The scripture that I was looking at was in Joshua ch1.  Moses the servant of the Lord was dead and The Lord was preparing Joshua to take his place.  Joshua if you like had been Moses right hand man, he had served him faithfully when others doubted and rebelled against him.  It was Joshua and Caleb who were the only two spies among the twelve who were sent by Moses to spy out the Promised Land before them who brought back a good and positive report.

There is no doubt that Moses did not have an easy task leading the children of Israel towards the Promised Land.  Time and time again the people rebelled against both him and God, they mumbled, grumbled and complained continually.  At one point they even wanted to stone him and return to Egypt where they had been so cruelly treated and abused as slaves.  They were quick to forget the miracles that the Lord had performed to rescue them and protect them from their enemies; they were thankless, ungrateful, uncaring and opposed Moses leadership and the Lord’s commands with blatant disregard.

These were the people that Joshua was now going to lead and shepherd into the Promised Land.  I don’t know exactly what was going through Joshua’s mind at the prospect of leading these people but I can imagine how I might have felt.  Since coming into the ministry full time I have had many opportunities to meet with colleagues from within my own denomination but also from others outside.  I have listened to my colleagues who have been in full time ministry much longer than I have and have sought to learn from their experiences and Godly advice.

One of the things that has shocked me and saddened me the most is the number of leaders who have suffered either partial or complete burn out or emotional breakdowns during their ministry.  I truly admire those Christian leaders who are brave and honest enough to share their stories of heartache, disappointment, discouragement, disillusionment, doubt and sometimes distress.  Having experienced both sides of the pulpit I now have a clearer but certainly not complete understanding of the dynamics of both positions.  Having been a lay person for thirty five years and a Pastor for almost four most of my church experience is from outside the pulpit.

When I was being Interviewed by the Board of Ministry before taking up the position as Pastor of the Lurgan church I suddenly realized that two of the men on the panel were previous Pastors of mine in the Lurgan church.  I could have felt very awkward and perhaps worried if I had recalled anything that I had done to make the lives of these two servants of God difficult during their time at Lurgan but the reality was that I did not feel awkward or worried one little bit.  I have always respected and tried to work with and assist wherever I could the Pastors whose ministry I sat under.  That does not mean to say that there were never any differences of opinion between some of us but to the best of my knowledge I never intentionally made life difficult for any of my previous Pastors.

In fact at the end of my first interview with the board of ministry I was asked if I would like to ask any questions.  I asked only one question, I had not prepared any questions and on reflection the question that I asked could have left me feeling not too good if my memory had let me down and I was mistaken concerning how I had treated these two previous Pastors of mine.  The question I asked was addressed to my former Pastors, I asked them if during their time at Lurgan I had ever made life difficult for them or treated the wrongly.  At that time I did not know why I had asked that specific question but later on I think I figured it out.  To my delight and relief they both affirmed that they could not remember me saying or doing anything that might have hindered their ministry at Lurgan. 

When I later reflected on the question that I had asked and why had I asked it my heart and mind were at ease because it would have truly troubled me had their answer been different and I had somehow hindered their ministry or made life difficult for them.  There are various accounts of times when Moses faced unwarranted criticism and opposition from people and there are still many Christian leaders today who face opposition and criticism that is not warranted.  Throughout the book of Exodus we read different accounts of the times when the Israelites would not listen to Moses and the messages that he was relaying to them from God.  Moses is not with us today but God still uses his servants to relay his messages through his word to people and many people will still not listen.  There are those who hear God’s message but choose not to heed it.    

We all have breaking points and Moses the servant of God was no different.  We read that the Israelite community were once again mumbling and grumbling and opposing both Moses and his brother Aaron because they were running out of water.  Moses had reached that place where Christian leaders try hard not to go, breaking point.  The Lord told Moses to speak to the rock and water would be poured out but Moses had reached that point where he could take no more of the people’s criticism, opposition and constant rebellion and instead of speaking to the rock he strikes it twice with his staff.  The water gushed out but Moses was not granted permission to lead the people into the Promised Land because of his action. (Numbers ch 20)

With all of this back ground knowledge of the people is it any wonder that the Lord wanted to give the new leader of the people encouragement, instructions and promises to help him through what would lie ahead.  See how many be’s you can find in these verses that the Lord gave to Joshua.  Perhaps they are for you as well.

Joshua 1

1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ aide: 2“Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites. 3 I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. 4 Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates—all the Hittite country—to the Great Sea on the west. 5 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

The other side of the pulpit.

I have been a born again Christian for just over thirty nine years now.  I asked Jesus into my life at the ripe old age of sixteen and have never once during those thirty nine years regretted making that decision.  It was the decision that completely changed the course of my life.  I shudder to think what my life might have turned out like but for Jesus rescuing me from Satan, sin and self.  I mentioned in my last blog that I felt this was the way the Lord would have me to continue the blog and to be really honest I do not know exactly what shape it will take.  My prayer and heart’s desire is that it takes the form and shape of whatever God wants it to take.

Thirty five of my thirty nine years as a Christian, a follower of Jesus, have been spent as a lay person in the church and the other four as the Pastor of the Lurgan church or the Nazarene.  I am experiencing life from both sides of the pulpit.  During my thirty five years as a lay person I have endeavoured to live my life and serve my Saviour in the way that pleases him most and honours his name.  There have been times when I did not please and honour my Saviour; there have been times when like the Apostle Peter I followed at a distance, and like Peter there have been times when I wept bitterly.  Sometimes my life could have been described as being like those people Jesus referred to in the Church of Laodicea, hot, cold or lukewarm.

There are many wonderful attributes that God possesses that I don’t.  I would like to have them as a true part of my personality but to suggest that I fully possess them would be some statement to make.  The two that I have particularly in mind are God’s Unconditional Love and God’s Unfailing Love.  Most of us would probably agree that it is relatively easy to love people who love us and cause us no pain, hurt or harm but it is certainly not as easy to love those people who may cause us pain, hurt and harm.  Jesus never stopped loving those who caused him to suffer at their hands; he cried out to his father that he would forgive them for doing so.

After Peter had denied that he knew Jesus three times he was not discarded and dumped as a failure by Jesus.  Jesus had warned him of what would take place but Peter could not conceive that he could deny his Lord.  In John ch 21 we read the beautiful story of Jesus re-affirming his love for Peter, three times Jesus asked Peter did he love him and three times Peter declared that he did.  Jesus then commissioned him to feed his sheep and feed his lambs.  Jesus forgives and forgets our failings.  He knows far better than we do just how weak a vessel we really are.  He also knows the intent and motives of our heart.  He knows when we genuinely seek to serve him as best we can through his amazing grace and by the power of his Holy Spirit.    

He also knows when we are play acting like the hypocritical Pharisees that he often rebuked and exposed.  I shared a story with someone the other day about a little boy who got himself into a lot of trouble at home.  His mother smelt something burning in the house and finally traced the smell and the thickening smoke to the kitchen.  It seemed as if the oven was on fire but she could not work out how it could be as she had not placed anything in it.  When she turned the oven off and opened the door there before her was a pair of her husband’s slippers burnt to a crisp.

It was not difficult to track down the culprit as there were only two people in the house at that time, herself and her young son.  The young boy was upstairs playing when his mother found him; she scolded him and disciplined him.  She told him that there would be worse to come when his father returned home and saw what he had done to his favourite slippers.  I am sure the young boy was dreading the front door opening and what would soon follow.  As expected his father rushed up the stairs and demanded that his young son try and explain his actions.

Through a stream of tiny tears the fathers’ young son told him that he did not mean to burn and destroy his favourite slippers.  He went on to explain to him that because it was so cold outside he had put his slippers into the oven to warm them up for him coming home but he forgot about them.  The father lifted his son in his arms and told him to stop crying and that everything was ok, he thanked his son for his thoughtfulness.  Sometimes when we sincerely try to do good things they sometimes turn out wrong.  Our heavenly father knows our heart and our motives.  He will not punish us for innocent mistakes.  Love conquers all.

Sadly we see today many instances where love has failed.  During my counselling years I encountered married couples who on their wedding day pledged to love one another till death parted them but it was not death that was parting them.  One woman once told me that for her divorce was worse than death because her husband was still alive but another woman was sharing his love and not her.  Jesus tells us about a church in Ephesus where some people had forsaken their first love, meaning their love for him.  Many people have promised and pledged their love to each other for life and many have broken their promise and pledge.  God will not, cannot break his promise of unfailing love to us.  God is love.

Some years ago during another counselling session with a married couple who lived some distance away from Lurgan I encountered for the first time someone who was desperate not to let their marriage and love for their spouse fail.  The thing that touched my heart was that their spouse did not seem to mind if the marriage failed or not.  They did not appear to share the desire or commitment to work their differences out.  One would talk of their love for the other but the other did not appear to reciprocate that love towards them.  I can’t say what was causing their love to fail; I can’t say whether or not the one who was reluctant to try and work things out was in love with someone else.  I do know that when they left me one of them was a lot sadder than the other.

This reminds me of the time when a rich young man came up to Jesus and asked him one of life’s most important if not the most important questions that anyone could ever ask.   

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honour your father and mother”. “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Jesus looked at this sincere young man and loved him; he wanted to have a living relationship with him.  He gave him the answer to his question but the young man still went away sad because he could not love Jesus more than his great wealth.  Dear friends how often has the love of money ruined people’s lives, how often has their money left them high and dry?  Jesus offers us his unconditional unfailing love but if we do not accept it there is nothing he can do except watch us go away from him sad.   

Experiencing life from the other side of the pulpit is many things.  The thing that strikes me is that I do not see myself as being any different irrespective of what side of the pulpit I am standing.  My desire to seek and serve God has not really changed except for the responsibilities of preparing two sermons and a bible study each week.  Yes I have more people that I have to visit, I have people that come to me to be married, I have the responsibility of conducting funerals and there are a list of other things that I am responsible and accountable for but I am the same person who just wants to be who God wants me to be and do what he wants me to do.

I am who I am.  I do not put myself under pressure by aspiring to become someone who I am not meant to be.  I am learning that not everyone will be happy with me or even accept me for who I am.  I have had the tendency at times to be a people pleaser and have discovered that to be very stressful and not conducive to my well being.  It is very liberating when one discovers that no matter how hard you try to please people that there will inevitably be those who will never be satisfied or pleased with what you do or who you are.  The Lord Jesus lived a spotless life and yet there were people who conspired to kill him, people told lies about him; they even accused him of being the Devil.  They eventually killed him but he arose again.  He did not waver in fulfilling the mission that his heavenly father had given him to complete, neither should anyone else who has been called and sent by God.    

Being a Pastor is for me a privilege beyond what I can describe, I did not choose to be a Pastor, God called me to be a Pastor.  With privilege comes responsibility and accountability.  My first Pastor in the Nazarene church once said that if God calls you to be a Pastor do not stoop to be a king.  I am not a king but I am an adopted son of the king of kings.  Praise his holy name. 

What next.

So far I have shared my story from childhood to being called into full time ministry, so what next?  A few people have asked me if I have any plans to make the blog into a hard copy.  I had not really thought about that until people started asking me.  I don’t know anything about how to do that personally but I have some friends who may be able to point me in the right direction.

Having never attempted anything like this before it is important that I seek good advice from others who know me and also have some experience of the does and don’ts.  I do not know if what I have written already has enough content in it to produce a hard copy, hopefully I will find out soon and proceed accordingly.  Perhaps those of you who have kindly followed the blog to date would like to share your thoughts through the church web site by going to the home page and click on contact us. 

Sometimes the Lord will speak to me through showing me pictures of things in my mind and often I see the title of a sermon before I start to work on it.  Some time ago I was having a conversation with someone and at one point during the conversation I said innocently that I could write a book on what we were discussing.  The person took me completely by surprise when they replied, “Why don’t you”?  The thought of it frightened me.  There is a title that I believe God has shown me and I feel that he would want me to continue this blog under the title, “The other side of the Pulpit”.

 During this past week someone who I know well contacted me and asked me how I overcame the fear of failure in my life. I had to be honest with them and tell them that I am not sure if I have fully overcome it.  A couple of weeks ago I conducted my second wedding, the first wedding was in the church the second was outside the church at a beautiful hotel.  There were quite a few guests in the room where the wedding was to take place, some of the people I knew but the vast majority were complete strangers to me.  I had prayed about the wedding and had asked my friends in and outside my church to pray for me.  I was petrified that somehow I would mess up and ruin the wedding for this lovely couple and their families.

I truly felt God’s presence with me and all the comments after the wedding service were kind and positive.  Fear of failure has paralysed my life in the past and has prevented me at times from entering into God’s Promised Land for my life.  The difference between now and then is that even though the feeling of fear is real and powerful, the belief that God will help me through is even more powerful.  Fear paralyses faith enables.  When the twelve spies were sent out to spy out the land and they came across the giants in the land ten of the twelve spies were afraid and gave a negative report to Moses and the people.

They were if you like part of the CAN’T family.  Fear of the giants had paralysed their thinking, they themselves could not overcome the giants but they had somehow forgotten that God had promised to give the land to them.  All they had to do was walk into it and trust him to sort the giants out.  When young David faced the Giant Goliath that was exactly his attitude.  People were scoffing at him, including family members, they were telling him what he couldn’t do but he knew what God could do through him.  He knew that the battle was the Lords, he did not need King Saul’s armour.

It is interesting to note in that story that the Kings armour was not suitable for David.  It did not fit him.  Whatever battle the Lord sets before us we can be certain that he will fit us for the battle.  What suits others will not suit you but you will be given tailor made resources for your situation.  When the battle is the Lords the battle is won.  David and the two spies who brought back a positive report concerning the Promised Land were a part of what I like to call the CAN FAMILY.  The CAN’T family did not enter into the Promised Land, the CAN family did.  David knew he could defeat the giant because God was with him, Joshua and Caleb knew that they could defeat their giants because God was with them also.  

I was asked during an interview with a panel of Ministers how I handled failure.  It was a question that I had never encountered before in my life.  I felt a bit under pressure because I was trying to think of a specific failure that I could apply an answer to.  I struggled to come up with a specific situation where I had failed and what I had done in that situation.  The problem was not that I had never failed but how I had reacted to the failure.  For some reason my mind went off in an entirely different direction and before I knew it I was asking a question to the panel.

The question that I asked the panel was to “Define failure”?  As I asked the question the Lord once again decided to speak to me with a very vivid scene.  In the scene I was lined up with Usain Bolt, the quickest sprinter in the world.  The starting pistol fired and we both went flat out down the track.  As we crossed the finish line there was quite some distance between us and surprise surprise I finished behind Usain.  When I crossed the finish line I had no sense whatsoever of feeling that I had somehow failed by coming second to the fastest sprinter in the world.

I am not sure if the people in the room understood why I asked that question because I was not sure at that moment in time why I asked it.  Eventually it started to make sense to me.  The simple application to what God had shown me was this. The most important thing was not winning the race but running the race.  The writer to the Hebrews talks about running with perseverance the race marked out for us.  (Heb 12:1-3)  He goes on to encourage us to fix our eyes on Jesus so that we will not grow weary and loose heart.

 I think what God was trying to teach me was to keep running the race that he has marked out for me no matter what my or others perception of failure might be.  When Jesus asked Peter to step out of the boat and he began to walk on the water towards Jesus as long as he fixed his eyes on Jesus he did not sink beneath the waves.  It was only when he took his eyes of Jesus and focused on the storm all around him that he began to sink.  A laps does not make us a failure.  Peter had a few lapses during his service for Jesus. 

Jesus did not say to Peter, “You of no faith”, he said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt”?  A little faith will get you out of the boat, no faith will keep you in it.  When you exercise muscles they will grow and when we exercise faith our trust in God will grow.  Personally I really pray to God that he will make me and keep me a member of the CAN FAMILY.  I have spent too many years in the past as a member of the CAN’T FAMILY.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.   

The interview.

After receiving the call from the Lurgan church I was asked to attend an interview with the district superintendent and the regional director.  I am usually quite nervous before interviews but on this occasion I was not too bad.  On this occasion my confidence was not dependent on my ability but it was based on what I believed to be God’s call and his purpose and plan for my life.  What a difference it makes when you really believe that you are living in the centre of God’s will for your life.

The interview took place in a relaxed atmosphere in the sun room and home of one of the board members of the church.  I cannot remember all the questions that I was asked but I answered them all with openness and honesty.  I was asked about what I had been doing in my life up to this point and I shared the amazing journey that God had taken me on to get me to this junction in my life.  I shared how as a young Christian in the church I had a desire to serve God and work for him in whatever way he chose.  Over the years I had went out to the altar many times to present my life to God for whatever he might want to do with it.

I explained how God had called me out of secular work to work with people and how afraid I was to take that step of faith but God worked it out in a wonderful way.  I shared how step by step God’s preparation plan for my life unfolded through counselling, working for a mission, and six years of voluntary work, the last three spent working in a drop in centre meeting people every day.  The District superintendent asked me how many times I would normally preach in a year and the simple answer was as often as I would be asked.  I had received my local minister’s licence before we left the church for four and a half years and would probably average around ten or so preaching engagements a year.

He asked me how I thought I would manage to prepare two sermons and a bible study each week.  I had been preparing for the bible study in the centre for approximately three years but two sermons a week plus all the duties and responsibilities of being a full time Pastor would be quite a challenge.  I told him that I believed without doubt that God would equip and enable me through the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out everything necessary to Pastor the church.  If I had not believed that with all my heart I would not have accepted the call from the church.  I told the two men about different circumstances in my life that I believed had brought me to this place and I think I left the two dreams that had been fulfilled to the last.

During the interview I told the two men that I never expected to be back in the Lurgan church again never mind being considered to come back as their Pastor.  I had settled in Lurgan Elim church and had the privilege of serving there as missions secretary as well as working in other church activities.  When I told my Pastor that I had been called back to the church I attended when I was sixteen he was delighted for my wife and I.  We had a lovely sending forth from our dear friends in Lurgan Elim on the last Sunday morning that we were there.  It was very precious to us both.

On the first of November 2010 I officially became the Pastor of the Lurgan church of the Nazarene.  It was quite an emotional experience for the both of us.  It almost seemed like a dream or a fairy tale come true.  I struggled to take it all in, the journey from meeting Pastor Spence at my front door at the age of sixteen and now thirty six years later I have become his Pastor.  No one could have written that story but God.  When we moved into the Manse we invited Mr and Mrs Spence around for tea one evening and we reflected together the many times my wife and I along with a large group of other young people sat there in the Pastors bible studies.

One of the most memorable nights of our lives was the night of our induction service into the church as Pastor and Pastors wife.  A good friend of mine hired a man to video record the service and projected it into the big hall in the church.  The main sanctuary was filled to capacity with extra seats and the overflow was into the big hall.  When my friend suggested videoing the service and projecting it onto a screen in the other hall I thought he was crazy but he knew more than I did.  Both our family members turned up in numbers, I was pleasantly surprised by some of my side of the family who turned up.  A few of them I had no recollection of ever going to church.  To see the large number of family and friends gathered there that night was unbelievable.  Some of my friends from the church who had gone to Bible College attended the service and took part in it one way or another.

I was now the Pastor of the church that we were married in 1979.  It was no fairy tale or dream it was a wonderful reality that God sometimes chooses the weak things of the world to confound the wise.  I felt so unworthy of this awesome privilege to be called to be the Pastor of my home church.  I do not have the words to adequately describe my feelings and emotions on that night and even now at times.  It seemed impossible that this could ever take place but our God is the God of the impossible.

Dear friend, who knows where God wants to take you.  God has a divine plan for our lives.  Who knows the heights to which God can take us if we can believe in him, trust him and be obedient to him.  All glory to God.

The call and the circumstances.

When it comes to the things of God I do not believe in luck or good fortune.  I believe that the sovereign Lord is in control or absolutely everything concerning my life.  It is often through reflecting over our past experiences that we begin to see and understand the divine workings and purposes of God that are at work in our lives.  Present circumstances and situations may not make sense to us, we sometimes hear people talk about not knowing what lies ahead or not knowing what is just around the corner.

One of my favourite characters in scripture is Joseph the son of Jacob.  I see him as an innocent young man who is perhaps a little naive and a little arrogant.  He knows that he is his father’s blue eyed boy and his father’s open demonstration of his favouritism when he gave him the coat of many colours probably fed his young ego.  It is never a good thing to favour one of our children over another.  I know that in reality some children seem to be closer to one parent than the other, some parents seem to have a closer relationship with one child over the other or others.

There are various reasons for this but the end result is often with someone feeling hurt, bitter, jealous or not loved.  Family dynamics can be complicated if one child is perceived to receive preferential treatment over the others.  I can remember someone telling me that they felt unloved by their parents because their sibling had better grades and they got the treats and encouragement for achieving academically when they themselves struggled at school.  Sporting fathers can sometimes favour the child that is sport orientated over the one who has no interest in sport whatsoever.  Usually they are not aware that they prefer one child over another.

Showing favouritism and preferential treatment to one child over another is a recipe for disaster.  Joseph’s brothers resented and hated him to the point where some of them were prepared to kill him.  Feelings of rejection and neglect can stir powerful emotions in people which sometimes lead to what some call crimes of passion.  Thankfully only a very few carry out murder but they will react negatively in some way towards their parents and siblings.  I wonder how many children who have been labelled with having behavioural problems are simply feeling unloved or loved less because they are perceived as not being as bright as their brother or sister.  As a result they look for ways to get their parents attention, often with negative behaviour.  Perhaps it would be a good idea if there were classes to teach parents what it means to love unconditionally.  Many children and young people as well as parents would perhaps be much happier.   

For me the life story of Joseph displays perfectly how present circumstances cannot reflect what will happen in our future.  When Joseph’s brothers dumped him into a pit I am sure Joseph was not looking forward to a bright future.  When they sold him into slavery his prospects had not improved.  When his employer’s wife falsely accused him of a sexual assault and he was sentenced to two years in jail he was not thinking this will look good on my CV.  His circumstances were far from good but there was a good God controlling everything.

Joseph could not see what was just around the corner.  He had asked one of the men who was with him in prison to remember him when he was released.  It was not until two years later that the man remembered him and mentioned to the king that Joseph had rightly interpreted his dream.  There were times in my life when I thought God had forgotten about me but he was working to his plan and his time schedule.  There are times when people forget about us but God will remember us every single day of our lives.

I think I have said this before but it is worth saying again because it is so important to understand it.  There will be many times when we cannot trace the hand of God working in our lives but during those times we can and must trust his heart.  I would loved to have been able to interview Joseph towards the end of his life and ask him about his journey through life that brought him to the pit, then to be a slave in Potiphar’s  house, then to prison for two years and finally to the Kings palace where he was second to the King.  From there he rescued his entire family from starvation and was re-united with his family, including his brothers who had treated him so badly.  That is some life story and God is still writing our life story.  Who knows what is just around the corner.  What may seem to be a disaster to you and me may be the Lord just taking us a step further down the road and in the direction that he has planned for our lives. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”.  Isaiah 55:8-9.

Joseph could proclaim to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives”.  God’s intentions for our lives are only good always; the problem for us is that we often cannot comprehend God’s intensions for us when we are facing difficult circumstances and trying situations.  This is where the verse in Romans 8:28 becomes so important to us.  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”.   

If God has called you and your circumstances are not what you would like them to be it does not mean that God does not care or that he has forgotten you.  The likelihood is that you are still in God’s preparation room.  If we look at the life of Jesus we will see that he began his earthly ministry around the age of thirty and he then ministered for three years before completing his mission on earth and returning to his heavenly father.  We would not want a partly prepared surgeon to perform major surgery on us; neither does God send out partly prepared people to carry out his divine purposes.  God does not keep his people in the waiting room because he is cruel; he keeps us there until we are ready.