[Personal: This is a reprint from Nov 2000. As many of you know, my health
is not good and my disease is moving into my hands and causing great
challenges to typing. I may never get “better” and that is a bitter pill to
swallow! I am not able to “do” everything on my list each day. While I
write, preach, and try to keep upbeat Grif.Net fodder going out each day, I
get frustrated.
My illness was just beginning in 2000 when a dear friend sent me this. And
I need to read it every day. Hence the “reprint” is for ME. And for my
sweet little sister, who became a Grandma this week. She is 51 and lost her
husband this past year and now holds the first grandchild, a little boy
named after a grandfather he will never know.
And my “circling” in the holding pattern of health seems to pale to
insignificance.]
HOLDING PATTERNS
Many times God will allow a painful situation or a painful circumstance in
our life to “swallow us up.” This season in our spiritual growth is a
holding pattern. We can’t move to the left or the right. All we can do is
sit, like Jonah sat in the belly of that great fish, so God can have our
undivided attention and speak to us.
God put Jonah in a holding pattern because He needed to speak to his heart.
Jonah was all alone. There were no friends to call, no colleagues to drop
by, no books to read, no food to eat, no interference’s, and no
interruptions. He had plenty of time to sit, think, meditate, and pray.
When we’re deep down in the midst of a difficult situation, God can talk to
us. When He has our undivided attention, He can show us things about
ourselves that we might not otherwise have seen.
A Few Of God’s Holding Patterns:
1. When you are sick in your physical body and you have prayed, but God has
not healed you yet, you are in a holding pattern
2. When you are having problems with your children and you have put them on
the altar, but God has not delivered them yet, you are in a holding pattern.
3. When you have been praying for the salvation of a loved one and they have
not trusted Jesus alone for eternal life, you are in a holding pattern.
4. When you are in a broken relationship and you have given it over to God,
but it has not been restored yet, you are in a holding pattern.
5. When the doors slam shut before you can knock on them, you are in a
holding pattern.
When we are deep in the belly of a difficult situation, there are no
interruptions. God has our undivided attention. All we can do is sit, think,
meditate, and pray. We cannot run from God because there are no mountains
that are high enough, valleys that are low enough, rivers that are wide
enough, rooms that are dark enough, or places that are hidden enough from
Him. We must remember to praise Him while we’re waiting and remember three
things:
1. The pattern has a purpose.
2. The pattern has a plan.
3. The pattern has a process.
So stop struggling and start listening, praying and trusting. He’ll keep you
right where you are until you can clearly hear Him say, “I love you.” The
shortest distance between a problem and a solution is the distance between
your knees and the floor. The one who kneels to the Lord can stand up to
anything.
Then my friend added a personal note – “Bob, remember that if God had a
refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo
would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every
morning. Whenever you want to talk, He’ll listen. He can live anywhere in
the universe, and He chooses your heart. What about the Christmas gift He
sent you in Bethlehem; not to mention that Friday at Calvary. Face it, He’s
crazy about you. He only does what’s best for you.”
And I remember anew, and my heart is silent. “Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him.”
~~
Dr Bob Griffin, www.grif.net
1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given