“Be still and know that I AM God!” Psalms 46:10
I’m sure all or most of you, have heard the age-old saying, “What goes around, comes around.”
It all started when a loved-one called me up early one morning and began to chastise me for two of my earlier Calvary chapel testimonies; the more the person talked, the more irritated I got. When I finally saw red, I hung up on them; an act I’ve only done once before in my entire life.
I was miserable, and what was worse, was that I was due to go to Saturday morning prayer meeting at the church in a short while. How could I go, feeling the way I did? As it turned out, when I arrived there, others were dealing with very similar circumstances concerning the things of God!
After I got home, I tried calling the person but they weren’t home. Knowing that The Lord expected me to humble myself, I wrote an e-mail to the loved-one, admitting my sin of anger and asking the person to forgive me? I’d already asked forgiveness of the Father.
The week passed without reconciliation and I was none too happy. I prayed about those testimonies in question and also about those critical comments; I kept turning them over and over in my mind. I even asked the biblical question, “Lord if there be any iniquity in my heart, please show me.”
Now, one of my bigger faults as a Christian, is that I often pray to The Father and then, rather than wait, I act! Strangely, this time, I chose to wait.
Finally a message came through over the web; would I lease pray and fast about having another phone conversation? Of course I would!
I prayed for two days asking The Lord to guide the conversation and that I would have the grace to shut-up and listen and not get mad! And God did give me just that!
I made the all too difficult phone call and let the person speak her mind; she had something to say to me from the Lord, and what had spurred them to talk to me was where I had said where I had related to you all that The Holy Spirit had directed me to go to a pastor and give him a “word-of-knowledge.”
During that incident I had been faced with doing a very distasteful duty or risk disobeying God. I chose to obey, even though the short-term results were not what I’d have chosen them to be.
Now here was a loved-one charged with speaking to me from the Lord, but this time I was the target! Wow! God was using my experience to purify me. How ironic this seemed.
In the end, reconciliation was reached and I kept quiet, and God restored our relationship and I learned a valuable lesson.
It’s much easier to be on the “giving” end of God’s remonstrations rather than the receiving end! But what I learned is to put myself in that person’s shoes and see how they might be feeling when given “the word”. I needed that.
To put this all in perspective, let me tell you a story; many years ago, the little church I was a part of, decided that we needed to be obedient in our partaking of the Lord’s Supper and include foot washing, since Christ admonished His followers to do as He did.
Along with my two fellow elders, we three washed the feet of each of our fellowship that wanted to participate. Now, feet are not the most appealing appendage on a human’s body, but in spite of dirt, ugliness, etc. etc. we got the job done and were really blessed by it.
I had no problem doing it because I was doing it unto The Lord. But then it came my turn to have my own feet washed and that was truly a hard act to allow someone to do to me. I was very uncomfortable being on the receiving end of such a gift, but I learned what it was like for the other person.
The biblical admonition that “it is better to give than to receive” takes on a whole new meaning!
What this all means and what I’m trying to tell all of you, is that in the end, I was stretched and grown because of that loved-one’s phone call and what she had to say to me. And that, my friends, is the blessing in it all.
And so my inevitable challenge to you is this: are you seeking, or at least allowing, The Father to stretch and grow you, no matter how painful it may appear to be? If not, why not?
“My Testimonies”
Larry Lightner
For: Calvary Chapel Silver City
August 2010 Installment
