Survival mode

A young lady’s daughter has just completed primary school and I remarked on how quickly the time had gone by. She agreed. I started thinking about how much time was behind me and how much I still had to come. Obviously I don’t know how much time I have left on earth. I can just speculate. Thinking about how many things I would still like to accomplish makes me hope I still have many productive years ahead of me. But looking back on my life I realized that so much time was spent simply surviving. I wonder, if we could isolate the hours, days or weeks utilized surviving, how many they would be? By survival I mean those times we worried about a sick child, finances, work-related issues, family crises, etc etc. Those things that we should ideally be putting into God’s hands and allowing Him to handle. But so often we don’t do that, even when we are born again, Spirit filled believers. We forget everything when a situation surprises us and we go into survival mode. Calm flies out of the window and panic grips us in its icy jaws. The earth stops for a while and we start walking in circles and making all kinds of plans that aren’t going to work anyway. Before we know it we’ve lost a day or a week or even a month of time that we could have spent on much more productive and positive things.
Psalm 90:12, So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
That is the answer. We need to have a heart of wisdom. We need to remember that the wise thing to do would be to reach out to God immediately.
Psalm 46:1-43, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Can we do that? Because that is what we are supposed to do. Even in the worst crisis we should not experience fear. We should immediately call out to our Saviour and cast all our cares on Him. I think we don’t always remember because we spend too much time on the solutions that the world is giving us. We are bombarded by things like medical science, psychology, New Age beliefs and self-help, which are everywhere. I recall someone saying to me once, “Don’t look for the devil behind every bush,” well, all these scientific things are virtually behind every bush and they are so easy to access. I am not saying that you should disregard doctors and psychologists altogether, but they aren’t always the answer, or the first place to go. Anyway, if you have a medical issue and need an operation, the logical thing to do would be to go to a hospital, but if you have given your cares to God, you aren’t going to be seeing it as a crisis and you will have peace in your heart. If you have a loved-one on life support and you have placed them in God’s hands, you will have peace in your heart. If you’ve lost your job and you don’t know how you’re going to care for your family, put your trust in God and He will give you peace in your heart. The Word of God is a treasure trove of wisdom. Find scriptures that are appropriate for the situation you are in and quote them out loud.
Proverbs 18:10, The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and he is safe.
Nehemiah 8:10, Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Isaiah 41:10, fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
I find a lot of peace in these verses. Instead of going into survival mode, live life to the full though the problems. Hold onto the Word of God and onto His everlasting love and He will carry you through the storms and you won’t have to figure out how to survive.

Weather the storm

Psalm 1:3 says, “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither:

And whatever he does shall prosper.”
That sounds great, I mean really, really awesome. Imagine always being positive and prosperous. Sounds like a dream. It must be possible because it says so in the Bible. I believe that. But what about the times that aren’t so great? What about the storms and the drought and the famine? There are times in everyone’s life where we just aren’t on top of the world and when everything around us seems to be falling apart. What about those times?

We went to the beach this morning and despite the fact that the weather here in town is unbearably hot, it was quite windy and cool at the beach. Not so bad I couldn’t take a dip in the cool water, but certainly not an ideal beach day. After I came out of the waves I noticed that on top of one of the high rocks there were plants growing. It’s actually quite a famous rock called Carriage Rock and it has a hole going all the way through.

As I looked at the plants struggling to survive on the top of that rock I wondered whether I would be able to survive in such harsh circumstances. There is absolutely no shelter whatsoever from the wind, rain and sun. The soil that there is can only be extremely shallow. So with almost no room for roots to grip, and not shelter from the elements how do these plants survive? I think it is by shear willpower. For the seeds to germinate in the first place is a miracle and now they are growing despite everything being against them. There are people like that. People who survive against the odds, who just press on and keep on going despite everything that life throws at them. They don’t look to others to sustain them, they don’t ask for handouts. They are the survivors, the salt of the earth, the overcomers.

Carriage Rock

Just like those plants on to of the rock they have built the houses of their lives on the rock and the winds and the rain cannot wash them away because they have found the Rock who is their firm foundation. In spite of their circumstances not being ideal when you see them you would think that they are the trees planted beside the waters because they are bearing fruit. They are positive and they are thriving. 

Let us all be like these plants on the rock and not allow our circumstances to determine our attitude.