“Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.” Psalm 37:5………….
There is a time to go, and a time not to go, and the time to go is when the Lord says so, and the time NOT to go is when the Lord says no. Not to go. Years ago, my beloved then pastor went to Haiti for his usual almost monthly ministry work there about 2 or 3 days before the major earthquake. He was all over the news in Savannah, GA, because he was in the exact location where the quake hit and went missing. He was in one of the buildings that was damaged but walked out of the building completely unscathed. When he was found, he was given an incredible opportunity from military aircraft from what I recall to fly him right out of Haiti back to the US so he could continue his usual preaching in Savannah. His refusal was immediate and bore in it an incredible lesson.
He refused to return to the US at the time because he said the Lord had sent him there for “such a time as this”, referring to the story of Esther in the Bible, and he rolled up his sleeves and got to work not only preaching but laboring to help the people devastated by the quake, helping to set up tent cities and to get their urgent needs met. He knew NOT to go. His circumstances made it appear abundantly clear he should get out of Haiti ASAP, and certainly that would have been the safest, most comfortable, easiest, secure, least risky, and most appealing to the flesh thing to do. But he refused. Why?
The Lord Jesus Christ. My pastor lived and breathed to love and glorify and serve God through Christ. He, in his humility and Christ’s love, would have been the first to tell people there was nothing special about him. He simply did what Christ calls His followers to do. To go where God sends us, to do what God sends us to do, and to stay when God tells us to stay, and to go when God tells us to go. He knew his life belonged no longer to himself, but to Christ. So he lived that way. He knew all those years ago it was NOT time to go – simply because his obedience was not to his flesh nor to all those around him with all of their various opinions. His obedience was to Christ.
The way it should be with all of us. Going when God sends us, to where He sends us, to whom He sends us, for what He sends us, not going until He tells us to go, and going when He does. Yielded, submitted, surrendered – to Christ!
Seek the Lord, friend. He will tell you when it’s time to go, and when it’s time NOT to go. Live in love for and obedience to Him. This is the way to live. For Him!