I have been amazed and bereft of speech when it comes to how God can bless obedience and submission to His plans!
For over two years now, I have been purposefully and willfully choosing to submit and to be obedient to God’s plans and timing with respect to a certain issue. It has, without a doubt, been the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do my entire life. So many times, it would have been much easier to walk away from my authority and simply do that which seemed right in my own eyes.
Throughout this long journey, two paths were clearly discernable. The easy path was broad and inviting, lined with alluring promises and tempting offers. The other path was excruciatingly narrow and limiting, lined with boulders and strewn with obstacles.
Robert Frost talks about two paths diverging in a wood; one clearly defined and well-trodden, the other not as clear. Like the narrator of his poem, I chose – emphasis on choice - the more difficult, less-traveled, limited path. Many times along that rocky walk I questioned the sanity of what I was doing. Why would I subject myself to this difficult life path?
Because I had a promise. God had promised me at the very beginning that I would attain a life prize at the end… but I had to do it His way, not mine. Filled with fluffy and excited thoughts, I set foot on that path toward that promise. I had no earthly idea how difficult the road would be. I never guessed just how many rocks, boulders, obstacles, and pitfalls would be along the way. It never occurred to me how painful or how breaking my journey would be. I never thought it would take such a long time to traverse that path and never imagined what mountains I would have to climb or what lonely valleys I would have to tread.
I was never alone… and that with the vision of the promise given to me, urged and encouraged me onward in the harsh, restricting path. Though early on, I had many impulses to turn back and take the other route, at some recent point, the reward was so close that there was absolutely no point in even thinking of turning back or sneaking onto the other route.
The last mountain was actually a mountain range and I had to climb without human aid or consort to its peak. It was on that mountain range that I broke and became emptied of self, seeking only to let God’s will be done… it hurt too much to try and push my own agenda. Yet the struggle was not in vain and, footsore and weary I at last stood on that last mountain, looking into that Promised Land.
I have but taken a few steps down the mountain into that luscious valley and every step has issued jewels and priceless wonders. Blessings and miracles rain down on me at every turn so that I have no words to thank God for them. I cannot believe how much beauty and blessing are in this valley of promise – and I have not even descended the mountain!
Every sacrifice and every tear, every prayer and every cry, every choice to remain on that narrow restricting path has not gone in vain. The testimony of this walk has not gone unnoticed, the lessons learned have not affected only me – this story is much larger than I ever realized.
It is worth it all. I would never have appreciated the blessings which are starting to fall had I not been through the valley of affliction. I am amazed, stunned, blessed, agog with wonder, delighted, overjoyed, fascinated, touched, speechless at how God has blessed my faithfulness to Him. He has opened doors I never would have imagined and worked miracles my mind could not conceive of.
Now truly may I and those witnesses to my story say, “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”
