Dear Pastor’s Wife,
Psalm 80:18 “So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.”
This tiny verse is such a sweet commitment of love to God, our Father. No doubt we have all had times when we wanted to reverse our decision to follow God- we just didn’t expect it to be this hard. We didn’t expect it to feel like God was, at times, working against His own children, His own work.
And we have a choice to make- do we just give it up and close up into ourselves, or do we determine to follow hard after God?
When my husband and I were first married, I went through a life threatening illness. We spent many weeks in hospitals together, feeling trapped by our circumstances and overwhelmed by life. Hadn’t we just arrived in a new country to begin serving God? Didn’t we just give up everything for Him? Now it seemed that He was hindering His own work by incapacitating us in every way possible- physically, financially, emotionally.
In those dark hours, and in dark hours since, we’ve had that same choice to make: Do we crumple into a useless heap or do we get up and determine to not go back from Him? You have had many times of choice, too, haven’t you….
Once the decision is made to not go back, oh, what grace He gives. Friend, it is HE that does the quickening so that we are driven to call upon His name over and over. We are just that needy. Every second of every day. Need Him.
XOXO,
A Kindred Spirit
P.S. I got emails from some of you, wanting the series to finish. So here I am, determined to finish. 🙂
Sweet friend,
What a wonderful reminder to follow hard after the Lord! We all have those weak moments but God has proved Himself over and again (after 18 yrs of ministry) that He is in control and will bless our work for Him in His timing. The hardest but most important part to me in ministry is to stay in the Word and prayer. We mustn’t let anything come between our soul and the Savior! I hope to meet you some day!