Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Aug 2, 2007 11:26:32 GMT -5
December 7, 2007
I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart,
and watch to see what He will say to me,
and what I will answer when I am reproved.
Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision and make it plain…” (Hab. 2:1-2).
As a former pastor/counselor, I can’t tell you how many times I shared a word from the Lord, either with an individual or a group, that I didn’t turn around and find myself walking it out. Now that I spend the majority of my time writing, rather than speaking and counseling, I find that nothing has changed.
For instance, about this time last year, as I had been seeking God’s direction for 2006, He spoke to me and said, “Somebody has to set up the chairs.” Hmm… I didn’t like the sound of that, but I had “set myself on the rampart” to watch and see what He wanted to say to me. Now it was time to see how I would answer Him—if I would submit to His direction. Of course, after a brief wrestling match, I realized there was only one answer, the same answer the young virgin Mary gave when the angel gave her the stunning news that she would be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah: “Be it done to me according to your Word.”
Now, one year later, I can look back and see that it has indeed been a year of “setting up chairs,” a year of learning and walking in a deeper dimension of servanthood. And though it hasn’t always been easy, it has always been right—and that’s what counts.
This year, while “suffering on the beaches of Kauai” for two weeks, the Lord planted me in the Book of Habakkuk for the entire time, reading, studying, memorizing, meditating…and here is the word—or should I say, the two words—He gave me for the coming year: submission and position.
There was a time I would have chafed at that first word: submission. I saw it as frightening, demeaning, intimidating—anything but positive. And then, as a counselor, I came across this meaning of submission: “the act of voluntarily coming underneath in a safe place.” Doesn’t that put the word in an entirely different light? Suddenly it is a desirable thing to do!
Of course, I understand that 2007 will be a year of coming up against that word at every turn, of making the choice to submit when everything in me wants to do it “my way.” And yet I know that without “submission,” we can never be in the right “position”—as believers in general, as husbands or wives, mothers or fathers, friends…or writers.
And so I offer those two words to all of you for the coming year: submission and position. I believe God is reminding us (me, anyway!) that submission TO Him will put me in position to receive FROM Him. When that happens, I will truly be able to “write the vision…and make it plain”—and bless others in the process. And after all, isn’t that what God has called all of us to do?
(C) KATHI MACIAS
www.kathimacias.com
I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart,
and watch to see what He will say to me,
and what I will answer when I am reproved.
Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision and make it plain…” (Hab. 2:1-2).
As a former pastor/counselor, I can’t tell you how many times I shared a word from the Lord, either with an individual or a group, that I didn’t turn around and find myself walking it out. Now that I spend the majority of my time writing, rather than speaking and counseling, I find that nothing has changed.
For instance, about this time last year, as I had been seeking God’s direction for 2006, He spoke to me and said, “Somebody has to set up the chairs.” Hmm… I didn’t like the sound of that, but I had “set myself on the rampart” to watch and see what He wanted to say to me. Now it was time to see how I would answer Him—if I would submit to His direction. Of course, after a brief wrestling match, I realized there was only one answer, the same answer the young virgin Mary gave when the angel gave her the stunning news that she would be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah: “Be it done to me according to your Word.”
Now, one year later, I can look back and see that it has indeed been a year of “setting up chairs,” a year of learning and walking in a deeper dimension of servanthood. And though it hasn’t always been easy, it has always been right—and that’s what counts.
This year, while “suffering on the beaches of Kauai” for two weeks, the Lord planted me in the Book of Habakkuk for the entire time, reading, studying, memorizing, meditating…and here is the word—or should I say, the two words—He gave me for the coming year: submission and position.
There was a time I would have chafed at that first word: submission. I saw it as frightening, demeaning, intimidating—anything but positive. And then, as a counselor, I came across this meaning of submission: “the act of voluntarily coming underneath in a safe place.” Doesn’t that put the word in an entirely different light? Suddenly it is a desirable thing to do!
Of course, I understand that 2007 will be a year of coming up against that word at every turn, of making the choice to submit when everything in me wants to do it “my way.” And yet I know that without “submission,” we can never be in the right “position”—as believers in general, as husbands or wives, mothers or fathers, friends…or writers.
And so I offer those two words to all of you for the coming year: submission and position. I believe God is reminding us (me, anyway!) that submission TO Him will put me in position to receive FROM Him. When that happens, I will truly be able to “write the vision…and make it plain”—and bless others in the process. And after all, isn’t that what God has called all of us to do?
(C) KATHI MACIAS
www.kathimacias.com