Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Walk (07/20/06)
-
TITLE: Reluctant | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kathy Armstrong
07/22/06 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
“But Lord I’ve already been to France, why do you want me to go back there?” I didn’t understand His command.
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding and in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths”
Months passed and it took several circumstances to beset me that eventually I knew that I had to return to France. I knew that if I didn’t do what God wanted me to do that nothing I planned would turn out right because I was in rebellion. I knew it wasn’t any coincidence. I couldn’t run away any longer. I liken my situation to Jonah in the Bible.
Jonah was given a command by the Lord to go to Nineveh. He went everywhere else but Nineveh. He ended up in the belly of the whale. He stayed there until he repented. When Jonah was release from the whale, he went to Nineveh.
I knew that I was in the “belly” of my own circumstances. I knew that I was suffering because I was “walking” in disobedience.
I couldn’t stand it any longer. I dropped to my knees, in the middle of my living room, crying uncontrollably. There on the floor I repented.
“God I’m so sorry, please forgive me, I’ll go to France. Lord, just show me that this is really you speaking to me. That you really want me to go back to France!” Within the hour of saying that prayer the phone rang.
“Bonjour Kathy” it was John, he was calling from France.
“When are you coming to France? He said. “The Lord told me to call you and ask you that” I shook my head in wonder. God was confirming His call to me.
“November, I’ll be there in November,” I said. I then spoke to the missionary Carolyn. She told me that when I get to Lyon I could stay in her home as I had previously. I gladly accepted her offer.
I finished my assignment and it’s the first of November. I call Carolyn to inform her that I will arrive in Paris in two days.
“Kathy! John isn’t here. He is traveling with another minister throughout France. I haven’t heard from him and I have no idea where he is and how to get in contact with him.”
“Kathy this isn’t a good time with John not being here, maybe you can come later,” she said.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. What happened in the two months since speaking with her that would cause her to do this? I was hurt and bewildered and hurried off the phone.
“Okay God, what is this?” Didn’t you say you wanted me to go to France?” “I don’t understand” I kept asking questions “Do I stay home or do I go?”
Everything that I thought was in place and to make it feasible for me to go is now gone! All doors seem to be closed. I have a nonrefundable $500 ticket and very little spending money. I certainly don’t have enough for two-week stay in France.
My thoughts quickly turned to “did I miss God? Was I too late to do what he asked me to do months’ prior?”
God had only told me to go, He hadn’t given me any specifics. All I knew was that I when I go there I was to pray and walk the land He would show me. I knew I was to return to Lyon and the hillside where we three had prayed before claiming the land we saw for God’s church to be built there.
Sitting on the edge of my bed, in profound regret, I asked the Lord for guidance. I then drifted off to sleep.
Later that evening I woke up and knew what I had to do. I had peace. Even though I didn’t have any specific plans, or even a place to stay -I knew what I had to do.
Yes Lord I’ll go!
I started packing. Later that evening the phone rang. It’s John. He’s telling me that he had just called Carolyn and she tells him that I am coming to France.
“I’ll be leaving for Paris tomorrow” I told John.
He responded, “I know it’s God’s will and timing because
I’m already in Paris!”
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
