the stall

Sometimes we are confronted with the most unusual things. When Dave and I were building our house in Kona we had to tear down an existing burnt house first. We had bought the property because, frankly, it looked like a jungle growing over the poor charred house, and we said “I’ll bet we can afford it!” It took a while to prepare the land to build our new home there. After helping demolish the remainder of the old house, one of my jobs was to remove the pipes that had provided plumbing. What confronted me was a scorpion who thought those pipes were his home! My first impulse was “Ugh!” as I stood up to run the other direction. Yet I could see that the scorpion was running away from me, and a still small voice asked me “Are you sure you want it to get away?” I could see the point the Lord was making; “do you want to encounter the scorpion later, perhaps when you don’t have the advantage?” Without hesitation I went to the rock I saw it duck beneath, picked up the rock and crushed the scorpion with it. “Ick!” I couldn’t help think this clearly was a job that a man should do. Yet, again, that little voice was asking me “Why?” After all, I was well equipped to do the job, and the scorpion had presented himself to me, not my husband Dave.

Life’s lessons are for both the physical and the spiritual. Just as I was equipped to kill the scorpion, God equips us to overcome our enemy, satan. But first we have to take our eyes off the fear and repulsion we feel rising up within ourselves and fix our eyes on the bigger picture. When God zooms out to let us see that there is more involved than ourselves we begin to find the purpose for the event, and His enabling power to conquer.

Our spiritual enemy is subtle and makes plans for our fall (Eph 6:11). But thank goodness the Lord equips us to stand. If anger, grief, pain or sorrow well up in us, God is willing to “zoom out” to show us the bigger picture (it’s not all about “me”), and bring assurance that He is with us in the unpleasant circumstances. God not only wants us to have victory to overcome our enemy, but He works within us so that we will come through our trial like gold (Mal 3:3).

In regards to unjust situations, sometimes there is a long trial of unresolved hurt and forbearance before actual forgiveness takes place. When I questioned the Lord about the waiting period, He led me to Mal 4:2. “But for you who revere My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall.” The waiting period may seem confining when things are not corrected yet, like things are “stalled”. But whenever injustice is involved, it is never about just one person. The stall is about preparing our heart to be righteous, and giving the wrongdoer time to repent or fill up the cup of God’s patience with his sin.

When being wronged, we can have two responses that are not reflective of God’s heart. The first is to brush it off lightly and say “Oh, it doesn’t matter.” The second is to grow bitter and resentful. The response God is looking for is for us to say “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” Forgiving, when being wronged, sends up the sweet fragrance of Jesus to the Father. At the point we can forgive, we then can stand in the gap for the wrong-doer, interceding for their reconciliation with righteousness, God and ourselves. We receive God’s yearning for their soul to become right and lay aside our personal pain. Why is it necessary to receive God’s heart about a person who does wrong against us? Remember, I said that our waiting time is to prepare our hearts. Our hearts need to rejoice when the wrong-doer returns to righteousness. But if he does not repent, and the Lord disciplines the wrong-doer, our heart needs to be prepared to grieve as God does. If He did not prepare our hearts during the stall, we might sin by gloating or take advantage of the situation to seize what is being forfeited by the brother under discipline.

God’s purposes during the stall can also be seen in His desire for the wrong-doer to repent. It takes time for the Lord to work with him, to bringing out the contents of his heart. God always hopes that the wicked will repent and takes no pleasure in having to discipline or judge. His hope is that we will stand in the gap with Him for those who sin against us so that they will turn around. God has great patience and would gladly restore men to Him and His ways. Yet there comes a time for those who are being wronged to be freed from their stall.

God gives us all we need to be righteous (2 Pet 1:3). As repulsive as our trials may grow to be, and as much dirt as they bring up in our hearts, He has equipped us to be more than conquerors. If we let our own emotions bring our focus onto ourselves, then we will grow bitter and resentful, and the wrong-doers of this world will not have our intercession for them. When God eventually corrects them we will not have His heart in us and may also need correction. But if we forgive, God will zoom out, showing us that the trial itself holds the circumstances that enable us to walk in power over scorpions, eliminating future harm and making our part of the world a safer place to live (and build). God may let unusual things, and unpleasant people confront us. He may let the unjust take unfair advantage of us, or slanderers destroy our reputation. But the fact that we are confronted should indicate that we are in a privileged position. We are the one that can move God’s hand through our prayers. We are the apple of His eye, sending up the sweet fragrance of His Son through our forgiveness. And when He releases us from our stall, we will leap with the joy of overcoming and walk with the power of knowing our hearts have become a little more like Jesus’. Amen.