Following God: When you get it Wrong
Sometimes following God is hard. Sometimes following God doesnʼt make sense. Sometimes following God makes you feel stupid and look stupid to others. Sometimes following God doesnʼt look right on paper. Sometimes following God doesnʼt follow along with the American dream. But when you hear that still small voice speak to you and you know itʼs the Lord you must obey.
There was a time when my husband and I did not obey that still small voice. The Lord was whispering to us to stay in Kentucky but we moved out of state to Georgia against what we felt the Lord was telling us. And that following year was hard and miserable. We were disciplined by the Lord. I ended up having postpartum depression during that time. We did not have a lot of money during that time and I would have yard sales just to make ends meet. One day my husband was out deer hunting and he was sitting in a deer stand in a tree and he heard a loud crack. He looked above him and saw a tree falling. It had fallen up above him but thankfully he was not hurt. It was just scary! On another occasion not long after that one, my husband had taken our two young sons out into the woods to deer hunt and a tree fell on top of our jeep and almost hit one of our sons in the car seat. It probably wouldʼve killed our son if he was a foot closer to the right side of the jeep. Another time my husband was out in the woods he got in a tragic accident. He was deer hunting by himself. John had killed two deer and he was trying to back his jeep down the hill so he didnʼt have to drag the deer up the hill. He thought he had put the jeep in park but it was actually still in reverse when he reached his left arm out to get out of the jeep. As he reached his left arm to the top of the door to get out he took his foot off of the break and then the jeep rolled backwards and pinned his arm around a tree trunk and pinned his face up against the front windshield of the jeep. He was stuck and at first he did not know what had happened because his hand was up beside his face. He didn’t know if his neck snapped or if his arm was cut off. He breathed through it and his dad had always taught him not to panic when something bad happened so he did not panic. He was going to try to call his brother but his phone went dead and so all he could do was pray to the Lord. No one knew where he was in the woods alone except the Lord.
You see, God had laid it on our heart to stay in Kentucky but instead we moved to Georgia. God had been disciplining us to get our attention so that we would get back in His will and move back to Kentucky. So when God had my husband in a headlock he really re- surrendered to the Lordʼs will and told God he would move back to Kentucky. At this time we had a newborn baby that was our third child and I had postpartum depression and we were barely surviving. I was sitting in our big brown recliner nursing the baby watching my husband try to cook with one arm in a sling and the house was a mess and I was reading my Bible and praying. I was asking the Lord why all this was happening to us. Just after I asked, I looked down at the very verses that talked about the Lords discipline and it said,
“My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all our partakers, then ye are bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but Grevious: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Hebrews 12:5-11
There was a time when my husband and I did not obey that still small voice. The Lord was whispering to us to stay in Kentucky but we moved out of state to Georgia against what we felt the Lord was telling us. And that following year was hard and miserable. We were disciplined by the Lord. I ended up having postpartum depression during that time. We did not have a lot of money during that time and I would have yard sales just to make ends meet. One day my husband was out deer hunting and he was sitting in a deer stand in a tree and he heard a loud crack. He looked above him and saw a tree falling. It had fallen up above him but thankfully he was not hurt. It was just scary! On another occasion not long after that one, my husband had taken our two young sons out into the woods to deer hunt and a tree fell on top of our jeep and almost hit one of our sons in the car seat. It probably wouldʼve killed our son if he was a foot closer to the right side of the jeep. Another time my husband was out in the woods he got in a tragic accident. He was deer hunting by himself. John had killed two deer and he was trying to back his jeep down the hill so he didnʼt have to drag the deer up the hill. He thought he had put the jeep in park but it was actually still in reverse when he reached his left arm out to get out of the jeep. As he reached his left arm to the top of the door to get out he took his foot off of the break and then the jeep rolled backwards and pinned his arm around a tree trunk and pinned his face up against the front windshield of the jeep. He was stuck and at first he did not know what had happened because his hand was up beside his face. He didn’t know if his neck snapped or if his arm was cut off. He breathed through it and his dad had always taught him not to panic when something bad happened so he did not panic. He was going to try to call his brother but his phone went dead and so all he could do was pray to the Lord. No one knew where he was in the woods alone except the Lord.
You see, God had laid it on our heart to stay in Kentucky but instead we moved to Georgia. God had been disciplining us to get our attention so that we would get back in His will and move back to Kentucky. So when God had my husband in a headlock he really re- surrendered to the Lordʼs will and told God he would move back to Kentucky. At this time we had a newborn baby that was our third child and I had postpartum depression and we were barely surviving. I was sitting in our big brown recliner nursing the baby watching my husband try to cook with one arm in a sling and the house was a mess and I was reading my Bible and praying. I was asking the Lord why all this was happening to us. Just after I asked, I looked down at the very verses that talked about the Lords discipline and it said,
“My son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all our partakers, then ye are bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but Grevious: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Hebrews 12:5-11
The Lord disciplines those he loves. So now my husband and I are more quick to hear and obey that still small voice of the Lord when he speaks.
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