I’m sure that I’ve told you all about the creek that runs through our yard. When Robin and I first moved to Tyndal in 1979, we really thought having a creek on our property was cool. One of my first projects was to build a bridge. It’s a man thing! Over the years this little creek has proven to be more of a headache than anything else. It has constantly eaten away at its banks and at times, became a devastating flood. One time it even uprooted a twenty-five foot apple tree and sent it down to the Muskingum River before our very eyes. It has also continually brought the trash from up stream and deposited it in my own yard. But what bothers me the most about this little waterway of trouble is that it doesn’t flow all the time. Sometimes it has water and sometimes it doesn’t.

It reminds me of the river Job described, as he likened his friends to it; “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, but that cease to flow in the dry season and in the heat vanish from their channels.” Job 6:14-17

The Lord used this Scripture and one I found in the book of Jeremiah to correct my thinking about a certain situation I was going through. You see, I had felt used and abused. I was going through a spiritual desert and I was really complaining to God about the lack of ministry that I thought He called me to. I had just left my first pastorate after two years and I wasn’t getting any calls for revivals. I might also add, it was the church’s decision that I leave, as they unanimously voted us out.

So, as you can see, I wasn’t feeling real good about myself, or about my spiritual walk with God. While I was praying about the situation one day God led me to Jeremiah 15. I felt encouraged as I was turning the pages, thinking, “Yea God, My life has been just as this prophet’s. Here I am proclaiming Thy Word boldly and no one listens, no one understands, no one cares about me.” Man I was pouring on the crocodile tears. I was just sure that God was going to bless me with some comfort and assurance that He saw my plight and He fully understood. All I wanted was a little stroking of the back, a little pat on the head, just a little, “Yes Jim, you are right and they are wrong, and I’m going to get them for giving you a hard time. I’ll have them acknowledge that My favor rests on you.”

So here it is basically; I was complaining to God because things weren’t happening and asking Him if He was going to be this deceptive brook, this spring that fails? Jer.15:18 This is when God led me to Job and pretty much told me that it was not He that was the intermittent stream but me and if I wanted to be used by Him that I needed to prove faithful with the gospel that He entrusted to me. 1Cor.4:2 & 1Pe.4:10,11 And then He reminded me that He had definitely taken me into His confidence –Proverbs 3:32

Then He took me back to Jeremiah 15 and laid it all on the line: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be my spokesman.” Jer.15:19 This all took place back in 1992 and since then, I have tried my best to let God speak through me rather than me trying to speak for God – there’s a difference you know. When we Christians try to speak for God we can easily fall into the devil’s snares. But if we let God speak through us, we become a river, whose streams make glad the city of our God.

Have a God blessed week!
Pastor Jim