“Do not [earnestly] remember the former things, neither consider the things of old, Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isa 43:19 (Amplified)
The bible enjoins us to seek the Lord while He may be found and to call upon Him while He is near. This implies that there are certain times when He is more accessible than is the normal practice. These become windows of opportunities that we can take advantage of to realise our faith objective. The generation of Israelites that perished in the wilderness belatedly realised their folly in not moving in to possess the Promised Land when commanded by God, by which time the window had already closed, never to open again until after forty years had elapsed. All the people whose stories we’ve discussed so far were motivated by the urgency of the moment. They realised that that was their moment and did their best to take advantage of it. One fact that all were agreed on was that maintaining the status quo was lethal for their prospects, and they consequently could not settle for anything other than their faith objectives.
When Jesus passed through Jericho and opened Bartimaeus’ blind eyes, it was His last journey through that city. There is no record that He ever attended another wedding apart from that of Cana in Galilee. We don’t know if He ever returned to the house where he healed the paralysed man whose friends had to break through the roof in order to reach Him. We know that He travelled at other times to the Gentile country, but we have no record that He ever went back on holiday to the city of Tyre and Sidon and of course the woman with the issue of blood and Zaccheus grabbed the bull by the horns on account of Jesus’ propitious presence in their vicinity and made good while other people who were rubbing shoulders with Jesus let slip of the glory that was in their midst. They had nothing to show for their encounter with the King of kings.
Changing the status quo requires us to move out of our comfort zone. As long as we are content to live with our situation, God’s power cannot be brought to bear to effect the necessary changes that will give us life. As long as we are not dissatisfied with what presently obtains, we will never be desperate, determined or dependent enough to do what is necessary to obtain the beneficial change that we desire. If we refuse to hunger and thirst after righteousness as enjoined by God, we should not be surprised that we remain unfilled and unfulfilled. All the people whose encounters with Jesus resulted in great blessings for their lives got there because they refused to be deterred and would not be denied however difficult the challenges they had to overcome in their quest to achieve their hearts’ desires.
So, are you thirsty and hungry enough for God’s redeeming touch, desperate enough for His healing hands, determined enough to grab hold of the helm of His garment and dependent enough on His grace to throw yourself at His mercy? This is where you need to be before the status quo that presently constitutes your life can change for the better. This is the place of victory; Grab it with both hands and you will never be the same again.
Prayer:
Father, take all that I am so that you can make me into all I can become. Make my life a sight for sore eyes and let them see what trusting in you can achieve. Amen.