I believe that there comes a point in our lives when God
will call us and ask us to do more or be better than we are today. God will ask us to step it up a notch, in
order to take us to the next level of increase in any given area of our
lives. For me I am finding that whenever
God ask this of me, it’s usually because I have first asked something of
Him. This actually is the case and
happens to be the case currently in my life.
At the beginning of this year I asked God to do some pretty
tremendous things for me. These things
would ultimately promote me in every area of my life. When God moves for me in these areas,
everything in my life will be better. I
would be more productive and effective on my job, which would allow me to make
more money, and also allow me to afford more choices for myself, and my
family. I would be enabled to help those
people that I come into contact with that might be in need of financial
assistance. I would also be able to work
on my personal career path and goals, as well as the organizational projects
that God has put on my heart to develop.
When God actualizes my requests, I will be in better health and have
more energy to act and to function in my purpose, overall I would be a much
happier, stronger, more effective individual, enabled to live a greater quality
of life.
When I asked God for these things I had no doubt in my mind
that He could give them to me. Really,
in my mind as far as I was concerned, it was already a done deal. After all that is what it says in (MARK 11:23) that whatever we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth
without doubting, God will grant to us. But then I started to feel some prompting
from the Holy Spirit that God was starting to ask some things of me as
well. It started to become very clear
to me; God had put it on my heart that He needed me to make some changes to my
life in return. Suddenly I realized that
there might be more required of me in order to start achieving some of my more
long range and therefore more challenging goals that I had set for myself and
that I asked God to help me to achieve.
Amazingly enough, I had not even considered the possibility that I might need to make some sacrifices on
my end as well, and frankly it was more than I had initially bargained for. But you know what they say, be very careful
what ask for because you just might get it, and it usually it costs you much
more than you ever planned to spend.
It’s also has been said that to whom much is given, much is
expected. And it had become apparent
that God wanted me to make some immediate sacrifices in some areas of my life
that would impact me in a seriously heavy way.
And it turns out that the areas of my life He was asking me to make
sacrifices in were the exact same areas that I had asked Him to bless. What a coincidence, right???? And I say that
with much sarcasm in my voice, because even if I believed in coincidence, which
I do not, I wouldn’t have believed that this was a coincidence. As
usual, God had a plan. He was using
these dreams of mine as incentive for me to work in order to help me develop
spiritually, mentally, physically and intellectually. I have to say, what I really find to be funny
is God’s sense of humor though. Because
when I realized what He was doing, I remember saying to Him as I sat on my
couch in my morning time of mediation with Him, “God I guess it just couldn’t
be that easy could it?” And I could hear Him responding to me and saying, “Now
Cherie you know me better than that by now don’t you? You know that in order
for me to bless you by taking you to next level in all these areas of your life,
you had to do the work, put the time in in order to grow stronger. You must acquire the strength and maturity
needed to maintain the level of blessings you are asking for. It would be far too painful for you to reach
such heights and not be able to handle it and to hold on to it. And Without the discipline and maturity you
get from learning and working through challenges, you may never achieve that.”
An example of this would be giving a large amount of money
to a person with absolutely no experience handling money. Let’s say that just for a moment, imagine
that your 10 year old son won a million dollars in the lottery. And as his parent you gave him the freedom to
spend it as he saw fit. He would
probably bring home thousands of dollars of candy and toys. He would spend money hanging out with his
friends at amusement parks and other recreational places. He might even try to buy the amusement park
itself, who knows. But you get where I’m
going with this, a 10 year old doesn’t have the maturity needed to think about
such things as planning and budgeting his money for the future. A 10 year old doesn’t think about investing,
he doesn’t have the life experience or the financial experience to even know
that he needs to do these things. If you
gave a 10 year old a million dollars, no doubt, it would probably be gone in
one month or less. So in order to
protect him from himself, as a parent we would hold it for him in a trust
perhaps, or someplace secure, until he was mentally, and emotionally capable of
taking care of it for himself. As an act
of love from a parent to a child we sometimes need to withhold certain things,
even blessings, from our children, until they are able to handle them, and to
protect them from themselves. And as the
ultimate loving, caring, omnipotent parent He is, God does the same for us.
Up until the point that the Holy Spirit laid these changes
that God wanted me to make on my heart, I thought I understood what actions I
needed to take in order to move forward with my dreams. I thought I thoroughly knew what would be
required of me, but what I was thinking was just the tip of the iceberg. It seemed that everyday God revealed more and
more of His will for me to me. Layer by
layer, He showed me the changes that I would need to initiate in order to reach
the next level of goals in my life. And the more I learned the more I
understood the meaning of the passage in the bible that states, “But the gateway to life is very narrow and
the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (MATTHEW 7:14). For me
what stood out in that passage was that the road that leads to God, His choices
and His purpose for our lives was indeed a narrow and sometimes a lonely
one. I also now understand why it is
called” The Road Less Traveled”. This
road is traveled less because it is a much harder road to navigate, filled with
decisions that are not always easy, fun or popular to make. There is no doubt
in my mind now that it is the harder road, because it is inevitable that you
will come to a place on this road where you will have to leave old habits and
behaviors behind. You will have to leave
the baggage of unforgiveness, hatred, bitterness, enviousness and
resentment. And sometimes you will encounter pain,
loneliness and heartache on this road, because not everyone is meant to travel
on this road with you. Unfortunately you
will have to leave some loved ones, old friends and acquaintances behind. This is not a road that is meant for the
masses.
So when God asked me to give up a few things, and to change
some things about my life and my lifestyle; people, places and things that I
knew I should have probably given up a long time ago anyway. I made up my mind and I decided to say “Yes,
yes Lord yes. Because in this life we
will all have pain, some of that pain is brought on by the fear of change and
fear of the unknown. Change is a part of
life, a part of life that will surely come, that is a promise you can bank on,
no matter who you are. The only constant
in life is change. But growth is a
choice, and as far as I’m concerned if I’ve got to experience the pain, I might
as well benefit from it. And as for me I
would rather accept the pain of the circumstances set before me by God, knowing
that I am under the awning of His tender loving care and protection, than the
consequences I suffer from making my own foolish choices and mistakes. I also know that this is a temporary pain
and I will only feel it while I’m actually in the midst of going through those changes,
challenges or setbacks. But living with
the pain of the regret, the pain of not accepting the challenges that God
presents to me, in order to help me to grow into the person He has designed me
to be, this type of pain last for a lifetime, and for me that is simply not
acceptable. I have learned that the benefits
of doing things God’s way far outweighs the type of pain that comes from a
lifetime of regret.
But if all of this sounds like way too much work for you to
deal with, or if you are beginning to become apprehensive about merging onto this
road or if you’re starting to think that this road may not be for you, don’t
worry, there is good news. The good news
is that you do have a choice, and there is an easier road. But as always,
nothing is perfect and there are still a few draw backs about this road as
well. For instance, while you will have
more people there to travel it with you and to keep you company, it can get
pretty crowded, and the traffic jams can be horrific. The people that travel this road with you
can often be described as, mean, cranky, harsh, discontented, jealous, moody,
temperamental, gossipy and just plain ole nasty. What else can they be when they are living in
fear and stagnated in their existence?
And if that still doesn’t deter you, and you want to find this so called
“Easy Street”, you won’t need directions because it’s not very hard to
find. You can find it by simply
following the crowd, I’m quite sure that the majority of the people around you
can lead you in the right direction.
But if you’re still having trouble finding it, just stick it in your GPS
under its proper name; it’s called “The Road to Mediocrity”.
