Retreat Day 2


Proverbs 29:25
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in The Lord is kept safe.

 Psalm 27:1, 13-14
1 The Lord is my lights and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?
13 I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of The Lord in the land of the living. 
14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for The Lord.

 These retreats are always rather an organic experience when shared with a group of church working professionals who love God and seek to serve Him with their lives. I'm always humbled and honored to be in their presence. The way we design these retreats is that 4 volunteers offer up a Bible study over the course of our 40 or so hours together. We worship with song and prayer then dive into the study. Generally, each study lasts for about 2 hours. What emerges during those studies is generally fascinating and almost always ties together thematically even though we do absolutely no pre-planning together. None of us knows what the others are planning to bring to the discussion. This morning's offering is a case in point.

 As you know, if you read yesterday's blog, last night we talked about Psalm 13 and waiting on The Lord even when that is so very difficult. Ultimately, for me, the psalm led to a deeper commitment to trusting in The Lord. Then, along comes the study for this morning, based on what we fear and what to do with that fear. In the midst of that study, two verses came alive and connected together for me. Those are printed out for you at the top of the today's post.

 It's easy to say the words "I trust in The Lord." But to actually live them out - that's a different matter entirely. Psalm 27 points us to the path for living in that trust - that is to wait upon The Lord to move. I will openly confess, I'm not good at that. I would rather solve a problem by myself then let God take His perfect timing to work out my details. But hindsight teaches me that when I do allow The Lord to take care of things - well - it's just way better. The problem comes in the waiting. So, today, I am going to commit to asking God help me wait on Him. While I've talked about this topic a great deal in the various classes I lead it's time to put into practice what the Word teaches. My marching orders today lead me to actually asking for help with the waiting. It's always taking a step back that brings the fruit.

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