The “D” Words
While attending a retreat recently, a series of words penetrated my thought process. Have you ever known someone who was so desperate for something natural or for a relationship to develop that you could feel their despair when it wasn’t happening? How can you identify these people? You sometimes see it in their actions, their behaviour, their dress, their leisure activities and their conversation. Other times it is just something more subtle that you sense in the Spirit. You notice that they don’t have peace or contentment in their life.
I am thinking of a young lady who is so desperate to get married that it colours everything she does. You see it in the way she conducts herself; you see it in her dress; you see it in her attitudes. Consequently, what I fear will happen is that in her desperation she will begin to look outside of the church to get a man. I fear she will begin despising her situation so much that eventually she will dessert the Truth of God’s Word that she knows. In situations like this, people so easily rationalise their actions in an attempt to justify what they are doing. (This often happens to people in desperate financial situations.) This is a very dangerous place to put yourself in and a very slippery slope on which people usually lose their spiritual balance and fall off to the wrong side. One of our mentors taught us this: “There is no right way to do the wrong thing.”
When we are in a desperate situation that could lead us to despising and deserting what we know is right, could we not turn the table on the enemy of our souls? How about if we change these three “D” words to despair, dedicate and desire? This allows a situation to make us better, not bitter.
When the enemy would like to slowly and subtly destroy you, why not allow that despair to bring you to a deeper dedication to the Lord knowing that He is your only answer? We all know that when we try to do it OUR way on OUR timetable, situations get worse and often out of hand. It happens without us even realising that the devil is destroying our walk with the Lord.
In totally dedicating ourselves to the Lord, we get a deep desire to be like Him and we realise that He will bring to pass the desires of our heart that He delights to give us. If He doesn’t give it to us, then we can trust knowing that the Lord knows it is not best for us in the big picture of our life. Deeper and deeper desire for the Lord brings a contentment and fulfilment that the world cannot understand. When we reach to the supernatural power of the Holy Ghost in our desperation, the world finds this bewildering and it becomes a real testimony of God’s greatness in our life.
Let’s add a final “D” word—duplicate. We long to be like Jesus and have His power duplicated in our lives and ministry. Let’s not stumble in our despair that leads to depising and deserting our walk with God. Let the despair cause us to dedicate more deeply and patiently wait for God to give us
the desires of our heart. When we do this, we are becoming someone that the world will notice and want to duplicate. Dedicate yourself this year to a deeper prayer life.
Remember the “D” words.
By Jerolyn Kelley