If you learn to really see things and to really listen, half your troubles are over.”
–Louis L’Amour (Brionne)
“Yet He sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the Lord; and they testified against them, but they would not listen.”
–2 Chronicles 24:19 (NKJV)
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I can remember a number of times when I wanted to shake a kid silly. No, that’s not quite right, I wanted to shake the silliness out of them. I wished I could grab some of them and shake them enough to wake them up to what they were, or were not doing. I learned that you cannot shake the stupid out of people; maybe wake them up so they choose the right course, but it is always up to them.
Have you ever wondered why the Lord does things for us? Sure, He loves us and that is one reason, but there may be more. Why did He keep you during the storm? Why did He keep you in the accident? Why did He keep you during the time of pestilence or the worries of the day? Love–yes, but more. He kept you for His sake. Maybe He was shaking you during a trial or tribulation. Did He get your attention or have you gone on the same way? In the storm, He sought to teach you that without Him you can do nothing.
“Consecration is not a religiously selfish thing. If it sinks into that, it ceases to be consecration. We want our lives kept, not that we may feel happy, and be saved the distress consequent on wandering, and get the power with God and man, and all the other privileges linked with it. We shall have all this, because the lower is included in the higher; but our true aim, if the love of Christ constrains us, will be far beyond this. Not for ‘me’ at all, but ‘for Jesus’; not for my comfort, but His joy; not that I may find rest but that He may see the travail of His soul and be satisfied!
Yes, for Him I want to be kept. Kept for His sake; kept for His use; kept to be His witness; kept for His joy! Kept for Him, that in me He may show forth some tiny sparkle of His light and beauty. By being kept in Him I shall be able to do His will and His work in His own way.”
–Frances R. Havergal
Why were you kept? Figure it out, He has a plan for you. Too often, all too often, when the storm passes we give a sigh of relief and celebrate when we out to fall to our knees and ask, “Lord, why did you see me through the storm?” We need to realize that we are His, our total being belongs to Him. Selfishness hinders His work in us and our work for Him.
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I’ve been praising the Lord since Sunday (actually longer than that). Sunday was an anniversary of sorts. It was five years ago last Sunday that I had my heart attack. Five extra years the Lord has given me. My desire is that in the days, and possibly years ahead, that I can have my life “kept in Him.” There were so many ways He intervened in my life that day.