The Pastor's Pen: The Test of Time
Message by Dr. Lovely Haynes - Ephesians 2:2-8
I am wondering today what my life would have been like had I chosen a different path. It appears that the path that I've chosen is one that's filled with daily challenges, desires and requests that cuts at the very core of faith and reason. I want to cry out, "Lord it's enough! I've held on long enough to what I believe is the right path for me, but I am at a cul-de-sac, I need you to help me to stay focused."Being focused is very important to me because it bridges the gap between despair and loneliness. The writer of Proverbs wrote, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12)
Death is that point where we realize that finality has taken place. There's the sleeping dead, and there's the walking dead. The sleeping dead are those whose bodies are without the breath of life. There's the walking dead as the apostle puts it "Dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1). Although, as a believer in Christ Jesus, sometimes, I find myself at the cutting edge of indecisiveness, struggling to hold on to something, but really needing to let go. Let go of the fear of failure and the abandonment by friends. It's easy to quote, "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity" as long as you are not faced with having to defer a dream (Proverbs 17:17).
A dream deferred is like a pitcher without water on a scorching hot summer day. It's like the pathos of Job's cry in the midst of his disaster, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came." (Job 3:25-26)
Trouble may come as a result of a decision where you have had to agonize in prayer like our Lord Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane, and you end up saying "Nevertheless, not my will but thy will be done." (Mark 14:36) I know that it's always best that the will of God be done in my life than my will, because His will produces fruits of righteousness.
Today, if it seems like you are at the crossroad of life, just trust Jesus. If you are in any doubt about His help, just call his name, JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!
