Sometimes
waiting is the hardest part. Man, up until the advent of the social safety net,
was wired to try and do his utmost to solve the problems in his path, and
overcome the obstacles he was faced with. The math was simple. If you didn’t
work you didn’t eat, if you didn’t eat you starved, if you starved you died.
For
many it’s not the case so much anymore. Since they know that even if they don’t
try there will be a fallback, some entity they can go to for aid, some
governmental agency that will step in and help allowing them to bypass hard
work, there are many souls who are content with floating through life taking
what they can get.
Not
wanting to start an entirely new conversation on this topic, I will make the
following clarifications forthwith:
I
am not referring to those who cannot fend for themselves due to illness or
other issues. I am not referring to those who have fallen on hard times and
need a little help for a little while until they get back on their feet. I am
not referring to those who simply can’t find a job in this economy. I am
referring to those who are able bodied, sound of mind, could get work if they
wanted, but just choose to take the freebies instead.
This
article is not about social ills, or economic unsustainability, however, it is
about the mindset of many believers today, who insist, and vehemently so that
there’s got to be something they can do in the physical, some way they can
prepare, some ethereal three step manner by which they can hedge their bets and
be just a bit better off than their neighbor when the hammer drops and the
music stops.
I
get countless e-mails asking if I think it’s a good idea for people to buy
gold, silver, build shelters, store food, stock up on guns and ammunition, and
a dozen other things that are reasonable and logical on the surface, but become
dangerous crutches when we tend to lean on them rather than the mighty hand of
God to carry us through.
Crutches
don’t always hold. Sometimes they break, sometimes they slip, and if we were
resting the entire weight of our being on that crutch, when it snaps, we will
likely tumble as well.
I
realize some of you want concrete answers. Some are even very insistent upon
it, but telling you what I believe will work for me in the physical and
encouraging you to do likewise would be presumptuous and foolhardy of me.
If
in your heart you feel led to store up some food, than do so. If in your heart
you feel led to purchase precious metals, than do so. Whatever it is that you
choose to do however, always keep in mind that these are just precautions that
in the end might not aid you in the least.
You
may have to flee and leave the food behind; a loaf of bread might be worth more
than all the gold you’ve been able to accumulate. There are countless scenarios
that can and will play out that we cannot possibly conceive of at this moment
in time.
I
realize how powerful a need it is for some of us to do something, anything
knowing what is coming. I have six month baby girl and a wife to care for. I’ve
got skin in the game. I know what you’re going through, but in the end I know
that try as I might, in and of myself I can do very little to keep them safe.
Hence
the reason I continue to stress the only thing that will truly matter in the
days to come, and that is a true, profound, deeply rooted, sincere, and
intimate relationship with God.
Once
that is established, then and only then will we know that waiting on the Lord
is not wasting time, it is not cowardice, it is not refusal to see the world
before us as it is, but it is doing what we were commanded to do in His Word.
If
you know that you are His, if you know yourself to be redeemed, sanctified,
born again, and walking in righteousness, then hard as it might be in the
beginning, wait on the Lord, and He will renew your strength. Wait on Him, for
He is never late, and He can do in an instant, in a breath, in the blink of an
eye, what we could not manage in an entire lifetime, or ten lifetimes for that
matter.
I have seen the goodness
of the Lord up-close. I have seen His ability to provide, to shelter, to
protect, and to comfort far too many times to ever doubt Him, or attempt to
minimize what He can do. He is able. He will keep His word. In the year to
come, take heart in the knowledge that He is on the throne now and forevermore.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.
12 comments:
Amen Mike!!
Those of you into prepping, consider how impossible it is to prepare for the unknown. If a nuclear or EMP attack occurs while you are away from home, you may never get back. You'll have to face whatever happens with nothing more than what is on your back and in your car, if you can get to it. Good luck trying to walk home or to your bug-out location thru complete chaos, if you're not already fried, and all of us back to the stone age in terms of communication. For what it's worth, David Wilkerson in his vision in 1973 foresaw economic distress in which even gold would not hold its value, as he worded it, and that many would be devastated by this. He is one of the few legit men of God worth paying attention to. I am as apprehensive as the next person on what we will see in our lifetimes, and mostly I just pray for God to get me through it somehow, according to whatever His will is on the role I should play. I pray often that I will just be able to make it home when it hits, along with the rest of my immediate family, and better yet, that we should be counted worthy to escape all these things which shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Excellent article - that is a big "if"
"If" you know that you are His, "if" you know yourself to be......
Well said.
Everyone should watch the movie "The Hiding Place" about Corrie Ten Boon and family's great suffering for Christ. The righteous suffer for the cross. "There no pit so deep that God is not deeper still" Bessie Ten Boon. God's logistics in a Christian's life are perfect.
In Him
Thank you.
Yeah I agree that storing up goods is going to lead to your heart being there and not on God. If you are right with God, nothing can come against you. The world could fall at your feet and you will still stand. A case of ramen noodles won't save your soul. Your soul is what matters most. Prepare in the Lord, whether it be physical or mental.
Thank you
Concerning anxiety a timely reading of Matthew 2 put it to rest for me. There was no way Joseph could have known of King Herod's plans of regional infanticide. Unexpected provisions arrive via the wise men's visit that were totally unplanned. Then the supernatural direction....and we read the Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus left for Egypt the same night.and were to stay there until further direction. One would assume they traveled lightly.
The point here is God's provision and direction were provided when needed and not before.
A young child gives no thought to the food and provisions provided by his or her earthly father. This physical picture has been given to us so that we might easily recognize the relationship that our Heavenly Father wants with us which is complete confidence in his care, provision, and direction.
So true. We can spend many fear-filled hours trying to cover every possible scenario that may happen and yet overlook the one that may actually befall us. In the end, God will tell us what we need to do, but ultimately He is the one who will lead us home and that is what we need to lean upon. He is the one who will provide the strength and the grace to accept whatever He allows to come our way.
It is intrinsically human to be concentrated on what we need. What is best for us, what we can be spared from. How we can be protected. But we forget to wonder what God needs. From us. We forget He has a plan and purpose for us that we are not big enough to see. A plan that is about Him, not us.
What we are seeing unfold in this era has been long in the making. Many of God’s anointed have spoken to this over the eons. But what they spoke of was timeless truth, that can be applied to any era...”if He tarries...”
T.Austin Sparks, so many years ago, as though it was written yesterday, addressed this issue by saying this:
“We are passing through deep experiences, the enemy is doing it and the Lord is not preventing him, but we are coming to a fuller knowledge of the power of our God and a deeper rooting beyond all previous shakeableness. And the Lord is seeking to have a people who cannot be shaken, against whom hell with all its demonstration of arrogance and pride, is impotent. And the remnant... shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. (Isaiah 37:31)
That is what the Lord needs.”
Ezekiel 7:19 King James Version (KJV)
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel+7%3A19&version=KJV
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