Refusing to Go

Refusing to Go

Recently, a request for prayer was sent out for someone who was in very serious need of medical care. So critical was their situation that emergency services were sent for. Qualified personnel arrived, fully prepared, intending to perform the duties they were specifically trained to do, but were met by a less than willing individual. In spite of his huge need for medical attention, this person was able to offer sufficient resistance to the capable and willing care givers, who were there for one single purpose -TO HELP.

Before any possible thoughts of judgment could surface, the spiritual application was instantly visible and a thought followed by a question popped right out of my head. (Well, not really like that. But you know what I mean.) My thought was, "Lord you know I am just like that!" and my question was "Lord, will you please show me the areas of my life where I am stubbornly resisting Your sovereign care and attention?

There isn't one of us who, at one time or another has not been guilty of the same thing. Maybe our reason is fear, as it was for the person mentioned above. Perhaps it could be the sin of pride or a simple willfulness, which means "I'm going to do what I want, when I want and how I want."

The "Why" is irrelevant though, isn't it? What matters most is that by refusing to go or to do the "whatever it is," we are missing an opportunity to experience the grace and mercy of our loving Father. The One we forget will discipline and chasten us if He has to because He loves us. Sometimes going through the painful thing is required in order to experience the healing or the deliverance which lies beyond.

If I could speak to this one whose fear is so all-consuming, I would attempt to comfort his heart as I do my own with Jeremiah 29:11, which says, "'I know the plans I have for you' says the Lord, 'plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.'"

We must know and believe that Father God is for us, and not against us; that He can, and will, get us around, over and through our most difficult, painful and serious moments, to the better side, safely tucked under the shadow of His wing.

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.' Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence." ~~ Psalms 91:1-3a¹

Stephanie, child of the Most High God, is a wife and mother of two grown children. She currently serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Ministry at America's Keswick as Women's Ministry Assistant. Her passion is to be an instrument of change in the lives of wounded, hurting people.