Years ago I was talking with someone and they said something that has stuck with me all this time. He said, “Dude–life can be SO hard sometimes, but God is SO good!” He was right. Life can be down-right difficult and quite painful at times. We receive negative doctors reports, we lose a loved one we just KNEW God would heal, we lose our job or home (or both) with no prospect of how to provide for ourselves or our family. Life can be a little bit like a baseball game at times. Sometimes the pitches come right down the middle at just the right speed and our bats smack that piece of rubber-coated cork and we hit a homerun. Other times the ball looks like it’s coming straight for us and then it curves off at the last second resulting in an out-right strike. You can never know the intentions of the pitcher or catcher but be assured they are conspiring to prevent you from succeeding. The crowd around you may get loud, your senses may seem like they are on overload but we MUST keep our focus. Our hearts, minds and souls must stay fixed on what our Coach is telling us. We may not understand or agree with His methods but He wants us to succeed just as much as we want to succeed. Don’t lose focus today. If life has thrown you a curve ball, shake your frustration off and get ready to swing again. You can bet the greater the anointing you carry the greater the struggle you’ll endure. The devil isn’t going to just give you a free pass. He doesn’t want to see you reach your destiny and he’s going to pull every trick in the book to prevent such from happening. But we must choose to, “Look[ing] unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb. 12:2. Get your head back in the game today. The next pitch is coming and it’s time for you to knock it out of the park!!!!
All posts by Brian Rhodes
“STOP MAKING ASSUMPTIONS!!!!”
“Did I say that?!?!?! NO!!!! STOP MAKING ASSUMPTIONS!!!!!”
Now that I have your attention, let’s chat. You know you kept reading because you thought I was blessing somebody out on my friend list, didn’t you?! We’ll save the discussion about that for another day….HA!!! I know you’re chomping at the bits to find out..…..who said it?!?! The answer…… God. Who was He talking to?!? Me {insert shameful nod}. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now {still nodding}. I guess I’m as stubborn as the rest of you, he he. I have learned a SAD lesson about mankind lately. Or maybe it was just a reminder. We have been lied to, cheated, mistreated and talked about so long by others that we don’t trust God when He speaks to us. Even as I’m sitting here typing this, my son just walked into the room (he just turned 2). “I wahn some!” he says. “Baby, it’s gone and there’s nothing left,” as I reference the container that held last night’s leftovers from the restaurant. “Weh me see!” I open the container and he responds, “Ih gone!” as he throws his hands up in the air as if to ask a question. “Baby, I just told you that.” He thinks for a minute then looks up at me says, “Okay, I be back,” as he runs off to rescue a damsel in distress (his sister, the princess, as she’s attempting to save the world but apparently needs her sidekick in the dining room to help her out).
My answer wasn’t good enough for him. He had to see it for himself. Even after I told him and showed it to him he still acts shocked when I open the box and nothing is there. It’s like he was expecting the outcome to be different. Maybe he was HOPING the outcome would be different, who really knows. I remember being taught by my grandfather the importance of being a man of my word. My word meant something. When I told someone I was going to do something it was only right that I follow through and do it. I was taught to be a man of integrity and a part of me has always expected the same from others. Doesn’t mean it actually happens but you still HOPE it will happen.
So back to my story. I know you want to know……. “what was God talking about?!?” To that I reply in one word, “NONEOFYOURBUSINESS!” 🙂 I won’t give you the details but I will say I had given up. I felt I had received a specific promise for the Lord and because it had not come to pass I had given up. I just assumed it wasn’t going to happen. I opened up my prayer time this morning with a ‘holier than thou’ mindset and began by saying, “Lord. I love you and I trust you (the ‘trust’ part was said in an ‘I’m trying convince myself’ tone). While I’m a little disappointed it’s not going to happen I still thank you for…..” He stopped me dead in my tracks and said, “Did I say that?!?!?!? STOP MAKING ASSUMPTIONS!!!” Funny, those few words hurt much worse than any spanking I received as a child growing up. “Whoah!! My bad!! I……..” He said, “Hush boy!” And I immediately heard Paul’s words CHURNING in my spirit, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” [Phili 1:6] Then I heard David speaking to me saying, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” David must have known I was going to read it because he didn’t say it once but twice……. “WAIT!” Okay, David…..and God. Gotcha!!
Why do we feel the need to give up when it doesn’t happen on our time table? Why do we feel the need to give up when ‘it’ doesn’t happen like we thought, hoped, or assumed it would? Our Christian walk is built on faith. That is, trusting and believing in a God we cannot see with our eyes or touch with our hands. Rather than wait on our promise we decide to abort our promise/blessing, many times, when we’re on the brink of receiving it. So, I sit here…… waiting {insert the mood music for the Jeopardy final question segment}. For how long? I’m unclear on that myself and apparently God doesn’t see the need to give me anything to go on. His prerogative, I guess. But I WILL wait. I CHOOSE to wait. Will I find you sitting in the waiting room with me?!? Of this one thing I AM sure, my promise is worth it……and yours is too.