Testing and Trials

It’s when we follow God’s leading to do the unpopular thing that we not only find out who we are, but we find out who our true friends are.

Last year in October, I was praying…asking the Lord where I could volunteer.  Much to my surprise he led me to get a job at Sam’s Club.  I can tell you I was very surprised.  I wasn’t looking for a paying job, but at the same time I knew that I needed to be obedient.  The next day while doing some shopping there, I said to the Lord, “If this is truly where You want me to be, I pray that I will see my friend and that not only will she say hello, but that she’ll greet me with a hug.”  Now this friend of mine does work there, but very rarely did I ever see her.  Literally within 5 minutes of me saying that prayer, she walked by me, said hello and greeted me with a hug!  I had no excuse to keep me from getting a job there.  I can tell you this, working as a cashier at Sam’s Club was not something that was on my bucket list…not because I think I’m above that job, because I’m not.  It just wasn’t something that I thought was in my future.  God is full of surprises!  J

Everything laid aside, I plunged into work there with the idea that working through the holiday season would be it for me…although I did keep my mind open to all possibilities of the Lord’s will. 

Working there, to me, was a great opportunity for allowing the love of God to be seen in me.  My hope is that’s what they saw!  But not only that, it was a time for me to learn to be content with where the Lord had me at that moment.  Let me tell you, although I passed many of the tests, I don’t believe that I passed every test in that area…just sayin’!!  It allowed me to see things in myself that I needed to change and that’s a good thing. But, interestingly…it allowed me to see who my true friends were as well.  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to realize that some folks didn’t really want to associate with me while I was in my “cashier” role.  Hmmm…interesting…I’ll leave it at that.

When you find yourself in a place where the Lord is testing and growing you, know that He is doing it for your own good.  He can and will refine us and teach us through the process…that is, if we allow Him to.  He is faithful and wants only the best for us.  Trust Him…He is so very faithful!                    

Do As I Say and Not As I Do?

So…I’m definitely not a fan of the “Do as I say and not as I do doctrine.” If someone in authority asks me to do something, I will do it as long as it doesn’t cause me to sin or compromise my integrity.  I don’t find it necessary to be rebellious simply because someone is asking me to do something, there’s no reason for that.  I do, however, have a problem with folks who like to make their own rules, but then don’t find it necessary to follow the rules that they’ve made.  I actually find that maddening!  I will do what they say, but it actually makes it very difficult for me to have respect for the person(s) who are making these rules and take this form of leadership on a regular basis…and I do mean on a regular basis or a lifestyle of this type of leadership.  I’m not speaking of the occasional random mistakes that we all make! 

This behavior reminds me of the Pharisees in the Bible.  They were constantly trying to catch or even trap Jesus in “wrong doing” according to their rules.  But, what I love about Jesus is that He was always honest and onto their trickery.  Even with the rules that they made, Jesus would serve people by helping or healing them and not in rebellion…He did it with great poise and self control.  Jesus never had an attitude about what He was doing.  He was confident in who He was...the Son of God, the Son of Man…the Savior of the World.

What a great example Jesus is for us.  He is the ultimate example for us.  I don’t want to be someone who makes rules and then doesn’t follow them.  Whenever I experience something like this in my life, I like to take what I see in others that bothers me and examine myself to see if I’m acting in the same manner anywhere in my life.  And, it could be anything that I see, not just this subject in particular.  When…not if…I do see things that need to be corrected, I take it to God and repent.  I ask Him to take whatever it is out of me and ask Him to fill me with more of His Spirit…essentially, more of Him and less of me.

Oh how wonderful it is that we have a loving God that will help us to see our flaws, correct us, heal us and restore us…and all we need to do is ask!  Even when we see these things in ourselves that we don’t like, it doesn’t change His love for us.  He loves us the same yesterday, today and forever because He is love.