CANNOT STAND

CANNOT STAND:

Satan doesn’t fight fair. On Thursday this past week I got 3 different immunizations for an upcoming mission trip. Since then I’ve been running a low-grade fever just below 100f (37.6C). So, of course, that’s when our enemy decides to lob a few bombs in my direction. Don’t worry. This isn’t a pity-party...

The specifics don’t really matter. Suffice it to say that today the sum of all that stuff was enough to make me feel like I was at my breaking point.

So I called up my best friend, Oswald Chambers, (not literally - I just opened up my copy of My Utmost for His Highest) and he had a great word for me.

“A saints life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says - ‘I cannot stand anymore.’ God does not heed. He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God’s hands. For what have you need of patience just now? Maintain your relationship to Jesus Christ by the patience of faith. ‘Though He slay me, yet will I wait for Him.’”

Today I felt as though I could not stand any longer. Oswald reminded me that God never intended me to stand. “God is aiming at something the saint cannot see… He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, the He lets fly.”

My friend Oswald shared that it is precisely when we cannot stand that we become the perfect arrow in the hands of our Almighty Archer. The more we fight, struggle, resist, and flail - The Archer will wait for the calm. He always hits His target perfectly. He never intended for us to stand on our own, but rather to be used by Him for bullseye after perfect bullseye.

Oswald shared with me, “Faith is the heroic effort of your life; you fling yourself in reckless confidence on God…. The real meaning of life is a life that can face anything it has to face without waivering. If we take this view, life becomes one great romance, a glorious opportunity for seeing marvelous things all the time. God is disciplining us to get into this central place of power.”

Unless the life of the saint falls into uncharted waters of faith, one will never see God Almighty do the impossible. Unless the saint allows himself to be ruined, one will never see God’s providence or deliverance. Our God is not a God of commonplace parlor tricks or a dealer in subsidizing our comfort. He is a Holy God who demands all of us - unashamedly, unreservedly, flagrantly, and zealously.

Our enemy believes that his attacks are timed perfectly - and, in fact, they are. They are timed perfectly for the purposes of God. For when we cannot stand we have the opportunity to become perfectly yielded instruments in the skillful hands of our Almighty Archer.

Fling yourself in reckless abandon and confidence on God.

but those who hope in the Lord

   will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

   they will run and not grow weary,

   they will walk and not be faint.

                   -Isaiah 40:31

BULLSEYE!

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com