"Oh that Your hand would be with me"

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

I’m gonna be lazy today and share someone else’s work for my blogspot today. Instead of going to my favorite hangout, having a latte’, and typing this out. I’m rushed to finish so that I can go to campus to finish some work before my class starts. I don’t want to go and ‘hangout’ tonight b/c I should spend some time with my mom. I leave for McKenzie, my hometown tomorrow and then on to Nashville to catch my flight to Colorado. I will be gone from home (Memphis) 5 days and mom has already expressed how much she is going to miss me but she knows how much I deserve this trip too. So I’ve decided to start changing my schedule around a little bit and make more time to hang out with her. Hence my laziness in blogging today. It comes from a book by Bruce Wilkinson’s wife, Darlene. The Prayer of Jabez for Women.

Chapter 4 titled “When God Steps In”:”The children were getting restless, but our Sunday morning service was about to end…or so I thought. At the conclusion of his message, our pastor shared a heartbreaking story. A teenager from another state had become pregnant. “She has been abandoned by her parents,” he explained, “and she needs a place to live for the next six months.” Immediately I sensed that God was about to expand my territory. It was as if the Lord gently whispered, “Darlene, this invitation is for you.”

But Lord, I reasoned, our children are so young. I know nothing about teenagers. And how will my husband feel about this?

During the drive home, I discovered that God had spoken to Bruce’s heart in a similar way. So we said, “Yes, Lord, we will take this girl into our home for You.” With the decision confirmed, we made the arrangements. Jody would arrive the following day.

That afternoon I became overwhelmed with feelings of fear and inadequacy. What had I been thinking? Retreating to the back porch with my Bible, I poured out my trembling heart to the Lord. Father, I pleaded, I can’t do this! What if she’s on drugs? How will I know what to say? I feel so weak and unprepared to handle this girl’s problems. Please, please help me!

Maybe you recognize this kind of situation in your own life. You eagerly say yes to an exciting border-expanding opportunity – only to realize that you’ve gotten yourself in way over your head. Convinced that you’re unequal to the task, you’re overcome by fear, inadequacy, and apprehension. You may even wonder, Am I in the right place?

As you are about to discover, the wonderful truth is that you’re right where God wants you!

There’s a reason why Jabez’s third request, “Oh, that Your hand would be with me,” follows his request for more territory. (Jabez’s Prayer is 1 Chronicles 4:10) Up to this point, Jabez probably felt that he could handle the challenges his territory required. After all, how hard is it to feed a few goats and keep up a small plot of land? But if God gave him more territory, it would mean more responsibility and greater challenges. Jabez understood that he would not be able to succeed without God’s divine help and intervention.

In the same way, you may have felt capable of handling what lay ahead before you started asking for more territory. And if a new opportunity – not skilled or talented enough – you found a way to avoid it. You pretended not to notice that woman alone in the restaurant crying, or you told yourself you were just too busy to minister to the women in your neighborhood or office.

Those are understandable reactions. But in order to expand your borders beyond where they are, God wants to move you beyond where you are – all the way out on a limb, you might say.

Why? Not so He can leave you hanging there or let you fall, but so you will learn to cry out for His hand, His help, His touch on your life. Only then can He do through you what you can’t do alone. And only then will He be glorified by your accomplishments – because it’s obvious that they couldn’t have happened any other way!

What an intimate image the words keep Your hand on me paint. The picture is of a loving God placing His hand on you so that His power and presence are there in your moment of need. As you step out of your comfort zone into unfamiliar territory for Him, this is an accurate description of exactly what God wants to do for you!”