This week I’d like to share this verse that most of you might know well…
“You [God] have removed my acquaintances far from me; You have made me an object of loathing to them; I am shut up and cannot go out.” Psalm 88:8
You might be familiar with this verse when we introduced it in our Marriage Encouragement. For the most part, it’s the first two portions of this principle we’ve focused on, but just recently the last portion, “I am shut up and cannot go out” is what kept going round and round in my head. And this is the living lesson I’m excited to share with you this week!!
Last week, I shared how I complained about where I was living. Once over this hurdle or coming up out of this valley, He wonderfully brought me to another valley. For days and days, and then weeks—either the weather or something else prevented me from getting outside the tiny apartment I am residing in. This continued and it wasn’t until it happened again when I just began laughing about it. That’s when I had my “Aha” moment—I realized He didn’t want me to go out. He was doing something. Something I had no clue about.
So the next day, with this new understanding— I chose not to go out—even though the weather and opportunity to go out was in my favor. It happened when I chose not to go out, when I stopped fighting the opposition, is when IT happened. That’s when I had the most amazing BREAKTHROUGHS I’ve had in years!! There’s no other reason why it happened on that very day—the day I chose to remain “shut up” and chose “not to go out” that conquered the opposition that I felt had been coming against me.
Asking Him to explain, He reminded me about the author John Bunyan, who I heard was told he could leave and walk out of the jail as a free man at any time if he simply promised to stop preaching. They even left his jail cell unlocked hoping he would do so. Instead, he chose to remain locked up, unable to go out and while locked up wrote the allegory Pilgrim’s Progress!
The next person He reminded me of was Job who struggled to make sense and get away from all that he was going through. For 42 long chapters in the Book of Job, we witness all he struggled with, primarily opposition he was facing in his life. Yet it’s not until his “Aha” moment when he says, “no purpose of Yours can be thwarted,” that we read about his breakthrough, “the Lord restored the fortunes of Job.”
My HH wanted to show me that when I realized that He was doing something and then I simply chose to stay shut up and not go out—that spiritually I was able to overcome all the opposition that was preventing so many of these breakthroughs that had remained idle, in a spiritually pending state.
Did you know “Aha” moments are in Scripture?
“May those who try to catch me off guard, those who look at me and say, ‘Aha, we’ve trapped you,’ be caught in their own shame instead.” Psalm 40:15 Isn’t it wonderful as His bride we no longer need to live in our own shame? We can instead laugh about it with the same good humor as God enjoys a good laugh...
“He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.” Psalm 2:4 He never scoffs or mocks us, as His bride we enjoy laughing at ourselves because we are so confident and comfortable in His love for us!
So many of our brides, I believe, may have thought that being “shut up” with Him, not allowing them to “go out” would be when they would fall to their knees, heartbroken, entirely sure that they were being punished. Here are just a few of His promises to help debunk and expose the lie to this way of thinking...
"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23
“…being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.’ ” Hebrews 13:5
“…without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6
Are you being shut up, not able to go out, not able to move forward? It’s time to join Him in a good laugh (Psalm 2:4) and then choose to remain comfortably snuggled alone with Him.
While you wait for next week's Living Lesson, ask Him to reveal an Aha moment, a moment in your life when it was almost like the lights were turned on in a dark room.
Unleashing the TRUTH
If you or a loved one begins sneezing, or coughing, or running a fever. When you hear the enemy shouting in your head “You have it!” Remember, it’s a Lie, do NOT agree with the enemy, agree with GOD and He says,
“A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not approach you." Psalm 91:7
“They replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved [spared], and your entire household.’” Acts 16:31 TLB
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 What is His purpose?
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive” Genesis 50:20—spiritually alive, your family and others will witness your calmness, witness you caring for others, and they will want what you have!
“And who knows whether you have not attained royalty [as His bride] for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14
"For IF you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Your People from another place and you and your Father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14