NOVEMBER 13–SIGNS: TALKWITH, NOT TALK AT

 Even while I travel through the most difficult times of life I can’t be afraid, because you are right here next to me. Your power and provision allow me to relax. (Psalm 23:4)

                  Is it your way to tell your people what they must do, and how they must do it? Could they ever come to see you as someone who talks “at” them rather than with them? Everyone, whatever their circumstances or status, wants to be listened to; moreover, they want to be heard. From your position of relative strength or wisdom or resources, will you walk with them even when it means you must walk through their difficulty without solving or their problems or fixing them? Are you willing to let it cost you to be used as God’s sign for another?

                  King David had some very dark, difficult times. He trusted God to calm his fears and go with him through all those challenges. If you are to be God’s sign to your people, it is unlikely that He will change His nature to accommodate your desire to stay in your position of comfort and safety. And, by the way, your people do not want you to tell them what they should do from that lofty position. If you are going to talk with them, you must go to them – where they are.

                   It’s clear that God calls you to go down with your people to the valleys where their hardships beset them. There, in that valley, He will show you how to lead them to the safety of His love.