“Three Choices!”

Today I have been met by a load of opposition – client confrontation, vendor confrontation, and nagging issues at the office. And I know the enemy is using this opposition, these circumstances, to cause me to doubt, wring my hands and question my value or ability to accomplish God’s purposes. How many times have you felt like that? Are you in circumstances right now that cause you “to doubt, wring your hands and question your value or ability?” I had been in Micah 7 this morning (literally a random “open the Bible and read”) and now I see these verses were total preparation for the chaos that confronted me at work.

“But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” Micah 7:7 (New American Standard)

I had three choices:
1. Dig in and work harder.
2. Give up and check out.
3. Push back and press in.

As I stared at my desk, a huge workload stared back at me. The first choice seemed best. I just needed to pull myself up by my bootstraps, dig in and jam down on other things to make life better for me today. It is a passive-aggressive mindset that says “this didn’t go right, so I have got to work like hell to accomplish as much as possible.” Skip nutrition and working out; skip listening to Father God. Make it happen, work until you are rewarded to compensate for the crap. But I know that this frame of mind causes more problems. It would have been my way, not Father God’s way, into more work.

The second choice was also a decision for my way, not his way. I could bow out, sulk, and mentally check out. I would have started blaming people for this pain. My vendor is blaming me for an incident, so I might as well get in on the act. I could blame my partners for not doing what they need to do. I could blame those that work with me and pick apart their every move. Blame, blame, blame – sulk, sulk, sulk. Sitting in the anger and frustration causes more problems as well.

The third option was the place Father revealed his will in advance through his word. He reminded me and inspired me to continue in the disciplines, talk to him and push back the enemy’s lies. With Micah 7:7 as my battle cry, I told the enemy out loud in the parking lot – “Don’t crow over me, I am not going to fall for your blame, your accusations against me, the worry that things will only get worse. My eyes are on the Lord.” I need to release this anxiety and take time to meditate on his truth. And even in this, I am still fighting back the lies that race around in my head. This is a process and a commitment.

I have an active role to play in this – to engage in the spiritual disciplines of Bible study (I had done that this morning, and he was so perfect to give me the very verse that would sustain me later on in the day) and Solitude and Reflection (I followed through with the decision to work out – this is an excellent time for solitude and reflection). I also can’t take on wrong thinking, so I read the phrases again from the verse and asked the questions, What are you saying in this situation? How can I be free of the frustration? The word he gave me was Peace. He whispered it seemed, “I want you to know my peace.” So I looked up the word “peace” in the concordance and found Numbers 6:26 and Leviticus 26:1-13:

“…the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace.”

“Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God. Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD. If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last year’s harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.”

His peace will come as I embrace his way.

As a result, I sit now in that commitment of pursuing God’s way.
1. I will not dig in and just work harder.
2. I will not sulk and play the blame game.
3. I will wait on him, because he hears me. I will stand up against the enemy’s attempts to keep me bound up. I will press in to the freedom of his word and walk in it.

Here in this place is peace, strength and rescue.

Ron