For His Time

As most of you know I had back surgery in early February and since then have been under "house arrest" while recovering. My surgeon told me it will be six months to a year before I "feel like myself again," whatever that means. Right now the only feeling I have is that I'm ready to climb the walls! I've always been a very physically active person and inactivity is hard for me to accept.

One upside of my incarceration, however, is that I've had a lot of time to read.

In course of my reading I came across a reference to South African pastor Andrew Murray, one of my favorite writers, and discovered that he too had a bad back. The only treatment in his day was bed rest, equally troublesome for him since he too was a very active man.

On one occasion while he was recuperating in the home of some friends his hostess told him of a woman downstairs who was in great trouble and wanted to know if he had any counsel for her. Murray handed her a paper he had been writing and said, “Give her this advice I'm writing down for myself. It may be that she'll find it helpful.”

This is what Murray wrote:

In time of trouble, say, “He brought me here. It is by His will I am in this strait place; in that I will rest.”

Next, “He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child.”

Then say, “He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.”

And last, say, “In His good time He can bring me out again. How, and when, He knows.”

Therefore say, "I am here by God’s appointment, in His keeping, under His training, for His time."

As for me, I want the sudden solution, the quick fix, but some things cannot be disposed of so readily. A year of obsolescence? What frustration! No, I must remember that God in his wisdom brought me here, he will keep me here, and in his time he will bring me out again. This (my present condition) is God's good, acceptable and perfect will for me. In this, by his grace, I must rest.

DHR