Reluctant Retiree

This morning I woke up at 1 AM. I laid in bed an hour more before finally getting up. I am used to getting up early, but not this early. Today will be an interesting day. I am not sure how well I will function on such little sleep.

Psalm 121:2-3 says, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.” God is not like us. He doesn’t need eight hours of sleep per day. In fact, He never sleeps at all. He is our 24 hour protection, keeping our feet from slipping away from Him, if we will trust Him to do so. He is always at the ready to provide the help we need. Just make the call to His protective service, that is pray, and He will be on the spot with just the right help.

After the bombings at the Boston Marathon, the phrase “Boston Strong” was printed on t-shirts, banners, and buildings. After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston hard, the phrase “Houston Strong” was seen everywhere. I believe that the word strong was meant to mean resilient, determined, and willing to sacrifice. But as with all popular expressions it has morphed over time to imply self-determination, pride, arrogance, and invincible. That change is unfortunate, because these new meanings are simply not true. We are not invincible and as much as we want to deny it, we are not the sole determiner of our fates.

Psalm 95:6-7 says, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” The time has come for us to worship God as Creator and Sustainer of all things. The time has come for us to acknowledge that we are not strong, but instead we depend upon God’s power. The time has come for us to kneel before God and not to stand in false hope.

The home that we live in provides us some protection. This house keeps us warm and dry when storms surround us. We are cool in summer and warm in winter as long as we stay within the walls of our home’s protection. If we venture outside, we can expect to be battered by the winds or drenched by rain or snow during the storms.

God’s protection over His people works in a similar way. As long as we abide in Him, trusting in His presence and power, we can be assured of His protection. If we wander away from Him, seeking our own course, then He may choose to remove His protection from us.

Psalm 91:1-2 says, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'” Come into the fortress of God’s love. Stay with Him and He will be your refuge.

Psalm 23:6 says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

When I am honest with myself, I admit that I make many mistakes every day. Some of those mistakes are actually sins against God, by rejecting Him and seeking to please myself. God hates sin and punishes the sinner in His justice. But I have been saved by His grace. So every day I need His mercy so that I can receive forgiveness rather than wrath.

Every day I receive many more good things from the hand of God than I deserve. God is good all the time and He is constantly working in my life for His good purpose.

So every day I see God’s goodness and mercy in my life. All I have to offer Him is thanksgiving and praise.

At times I consider myself to be a visionary. I can see things that can and should be done. Sometimes I even believe that God is telling me to do something. My problem comes in the next step, trusting God to do what I believe He has shown me. The so called vision is worthless without the faith to believe that God can and will do it. It shames me to think of the things God wanted to do through me but my faith was too weak to believe.

Hebrews 11:32-34 speaks of men of faith who believed God and God used them to do extraordinary things. “And what shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” All of these people were ordinary in every way when God called them to do something extraordinary. They accomplished these great things through faith in the One who called them. They knew that God was able to do what He said He would do. They also knew that God was good and would accomplish good through them.

What does God want you to do? Believe Him! Let faith help you know that God is able and that He is good to you! Be ready to do extraordinary things.