The other night I was thinking about a particular season I had gone through. As I thought about it and pondered it in my mind, the Lord spoke to me and quietly said, “You didn’t embrace that season.”
It was a gentle rebuke but a rebuke, nevertheless. It was many years ago; I was helping a minister who had been a friend for several years. She was speaking each week at a location in my town. I was setting up the meeting for her, opening the meeting and taking care of all the little details. It went great for a while; people were being blessed. Then something changed. The minister started not showing up due to personal issues. What was worse, she would call me to tell me an hour before service was to begin. I found out one hour before a service started that I had to speak that night, and I wasn’t prepared. This happened over and over.
I was frustrated with the situation and was disappointed for the people. I felt they were coming to see her, not me and that they were disappointed each night that she didn’t show. They were always kind to me, but I could still see the disappointment.
Recently, God showed me that He was taking that time to try to get me to see it as an opportunity, instead of a disappointment. All I could saw was that she wasn’t showing up, I wasn’t seeing that people were so hungry for God that they continued to come out each week. I should have seen that and prepared to feed them from the table of God each week. I did not embrace that season, instead I complained about it. What was even worse, I didn’t even realize God was in it the whole time – trying to teach me something.
The Bible says, “I will do a new thing…will you recognize it?”
So many times, all we can see is what is NOT working out. We only see what is going wrong or how other people are disappointing us. We don’t often take the time to stop and pray and ask God where He in the situation? We must ask Him, “Is this an opportunity? If so, don’t let me miss it.” Many times, we only see the enemy at work. That day God was showing me that He was trying to take something meant for harm and turn it for good, but I didn’t recognize this truth.
Remember the children of Israel? They had been delivered from Pharoah and his army; they were on their way to the promises of God. When they came to the Red Sea, they had no intention of crossing it. I am certain it never entered their mind that they could possibly cross that Sea, with or without water in it. Then the enemy came crashing upon them. Now, they had no choice. If they were to make it to the other side, it would only happen one way – they must cross over. It was that or go back into bondage. Yes, God parted the sea however that was not the first thing they saw. They saw a sea that was impassible. They saw no way out – they only saw defeat.
Friends, we must learn to perceive the hand of God in EVERY situation. We must stop complaining. We must stop only seeing what the enemy is attempting to do. We must learn to recognize the hand of God in it. It wasn’t God attacking them. It was, however, God that gave them an opportunity of escape. It wasn’t God that the minister wasn’t showing up for the people. It was however, God giving me an opportunity to minister to His people in that season. How many opportunities have we missed by not recognizing it as an opportunity? How many opportunities have we missed by only seeing the bad in the situation?
Perhaps, just maybe, God is doing a new thing – will we recognize it?
