01/04/2024
My devotional reading for today had to do with those times between callings and it blessed me by helping me to wait patiently for God's voice. What do we do during these quiet times of our faith, the times between callings and other spiritual experiences? Sailors of tall ships and other sailing vessels call these hours and days when the wind isn't blowing as being "becalmed." When they find themselves sitting motionless, they make busy about the ship preparing for the next leg of their voyage while they wait for a breeze and hopefully a steady wind to fill their sails once more. We should do the same in our spiritual voyages. This is a time to mend the sails in preparation for the coming breeze… not to take up oars ourselves.
Oswald Chambers described being becalmed on our spiritual seas in this way:
"When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait. The blank space may come in order to teach you what sanctification means, or it may come after sanctification to teach you what service means. Never run before God's guidance." - Oswald Chambers
When we find ourselves waiting for the next calling or assignment from God it is tempting to take matters into our own hands, but if we are to remain in God's will and be of the greatest benefit to the kingdom, then we must be patient and wait for His guidance. In this time of calm, we should spend our hours in prayer, asking Him for a new direction or to reinvigorate us where He currently has us. We should also study God's Word and prepare ourselves for the next great adventure. But, in this uncomfortable time when we are feeling useless and just bobbing around on a calm sea... going nowhere and possibly feeling abandoned... we should look for the lessons that the Lord can teach us in the stillness and through patience.
Chambers used Peter as an example of someone who attempted to fill in the white space by approaching Jesus and saying:
“Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.”
John 13:37 KJV
But Jesus knew Peter in a way that was beyond Peter's ability to see himself, and he responded with these words:
“Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.”
John 13:38 KJV
Jesus knew Peter's heart and soul, and He knew what was to come. There was a job for Peter to do, but it wasn't to die for Christ... it was to become the rock on which Jesus would build His church... there would be plenty of time for him to die later.
When we have quiet times of faith and God doesn't appear to be moving us, it is tempting to fill that time with something we concoct ourselves... but in fact that is just our own desire and will, not God's will, that is being served. The lessons that our own actions will teach us are usually hard or bitter ones because we are usurping God's authority.
So in these times when we are waiting for God to speak, we should pray, study scripture, and obey its instruction. Listen to what God tells us to do in Psalm 46, and James 5…
"be still and know that I am God."
Psalms 46:10 ESV
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
James 5:7-8 KJV
So, what do you fill your time with when you are between callings? Maybe you just keep working at what God has already completed in you, or perhaps you are doing something that you have always wanted to do but that might not fit within the Lord’s plan for you and others. Let’s learn to rest, to be calm, to wait, and to pray for His direction. There is an old saying that I have heard over and over again in my life that goes like this… “Don’t go off halfcocked.” Be patient, deliberate, and listen for the Lord’s voice.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for using me to do your will, and to serve you in so many ways. But Father, help me to be still in my quiet times of faith, and make my hearing keen as I listen for the wind in my sails… for your rising voice. Give me the patience to wait on you and the wisdom and good sense to understand that you will call me at your good pleasure and not in accordance to mine. Lord help me to see that even though I feel that making my own decision at a crossroad is the right thing to do, and that I am making it out of a desire to serve you, it is still my decision and not yours that is guiding me. Instead, Lord, help me to sit patiently beside the road and wait on you to lead me on, or for your voice to call me to you. Holy Father, order my steps, for it is your way I seek to travel. Never let me walk in my own will unchallenged Abba and direct me to always listen for your voice when I am becalmed… the sound of your trumpet which calls to me. Lead me by your Holy Spirit in my prayers that I will obey you, and so that all men will follow saying…
Amen! Amen! Amen!
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.”
Psalm 37:23 KJV
“Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’”
Jeremiah 6:16-17 ESV
Rich Forbes