Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6, NASB)
I had been asked to play with a friend from out of town who wanted to experience some of the classic golf courses in this area, like Brook Hollow Country Club and Colonial Country Club. What a great opportunity to be with good friends and have some wonderful fellowship at historic golf courses! There was only one small problem—the weather forecast. The forecast called for blustery north winds, possibility of rain, and a high in the upper 40s.
I complained to my wife, Carol. I told her how difficult it would be to play in those conditions. She did not have the spiritual gift of compassion at that moment as I droned on. She simply looked at me and remarked, “You just need to wear your long underwear, your skull cap and scarf, and just pray and be big.”
“Just pray and be big.” As they would often say at the Christian guest ranch where we served in Colorado for eight years, “Just pray and cowboy up.”
This has always been convicting to me. It is easy to serve and trust Jesus when the temperature is 74 degrees under partly cloudy skies and the gentle wind is out of the southeast. It is easy to trust God on top of the mountain as He provides in abundance. It is quite another thing to be dependent on God and pray and be big when we are in the midst of the storm in the cold and dark valley.
In every adversity, there is opportunity. Consider what God said to Joshua after the death of Moses seemed to imperil the Jewish nation: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). Jesus applied this promise to you and me: “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
I know God is with us, and that He provides in accordance with His will, and my desire is to do the will of God, no matter what. With inspired commitment from the Holy Spirit, I will rely on God as I pray to Him and be big. All I want is what He would provide, not what is necessarily comfortable or a blessing in my eyes or the eyes of the world. It is not always 74 degrees, and God’s provision is more evident when the wind is out of the north and our mettle is tested. My understanding of the elements outside is insignificant, as it is God who provides the straight path.
Where you go, God goes. What you face, God faces. Our challenges may just be opportunities to trust God and be big. And our attitude during these difficult times can be a great witness to those around us. Oswald Chambers always sums it up well: “The remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.”
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Randy Wolff
January 5, 2016
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.