This week, I went to the hospital thinking that I would get an appointment for fibroid surgery after seeing a doctor. But I didn’t get an appointment for surgery, instead, I got an appointment to see a doctor some months from now. It is not easy being poor and not having insurance. But, that is not my topic today.
On the way from the gynecological clinic to the appointment office, a lady sitting with a sleeping baby along one of the corridors stopped me and asked what I was looking for because she must have seen the lost look I had on my face, having gone through many mazes that morning to get to places that would never be my final destination. However, I knew there was something more to her stopping me and being so kind. She inquired if I was a Christian and started telling me she felt like giving up. I sat beside her and listened to her story. She was surprised I was listening attentively as she bemoaned the treatment of many Christians who were aggressive to her and told her she had taken up more than she could handle.
She explained to me that she was rebellious when young while going to a well-known Jamaican high school and she told me about her son in 9th grade and how a lady placed her at another woman’s house to stay, but the lady did not want coal to be burned to cook because of her asthma and now she was out of gas to cook and also baby diapers. It was a sad story like many others I have heard before. She had not eaten and had nothing to give her baby and she was in distress. She wanted to give up. She had been going to church before, but she left as she had felt like she had prayed, but God was not listening. How many of us have felt like this young lady, whose name is similar to my name, which means victory of the people? She was not feeling very victorious. And she exclaimed that she could not do it anymore. I told her she couldn’t, and she should let God do it, and that she should cast her burdens onto Him and repent and return to Him.
Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22
When we have wavering faith and give up on God because He doesn’t give us what we want then we are not being righteous as we are not living by faith. God counts faith in Him as righteousness. We expect so much of God and give so little to Him. We say He is not listening because we do not get what we want from Him, but He will give us what we need. And I have found when looking back at my life is that what I really needed was a good pruning and that was what the Master Gardener was doing with the trials in my life.
Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. John 15:2-6
Pruning is not easy, but this is done with those who are already bearing fruit and abiding in Christ. Those not abiding with Christ will be cut off and eventually thrown into the fire. We make the choice to abide or not. Just because we do not get what we want, we should never give up on God and think He is not listening. He knows us more than we know ourselves. However, we make decisions just as this lady did in rebellion to Christ, and just as Saul did which resulted in Him being rejected by God like a branch not bearing fruit.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king. 1 Samuel 15:23
Our rebellious and stubborn ways lead us away from Christ and the cross. We do not want to carry our own cross, and we do not want to take up Christ’s easy yoke and light burden. We often want to do things our way and therefore God will allow us to face the consequences like this young lady. Then when we are in bad conditions of our own making, we then declare that God is not listening, when we have not listened to Him. Those of us who have ears to hear let us hear and not only be hearers of the Word, but doers of it.
This Easter, let us listen to God, take up our cross and follow Christ, putting our rebellious ways aside and adhering completely to God’s instructions.
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