Stay Down!

Deut.8:³ (NKJV) “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

Yesterday, I shared my experience of being forced down with you and the gains I am still enjoying till this day. However, right in the middle of service year, testimonies of the kind of projects my friends in Lagos were working on and how much progress they were making got to me. So, I got really, really bothered. When everybody is moving and making progress, and God is putting you down. After a while, you will question if it is really God or if it is actually the devil. Are You trying to deliver me or are You trying to destroy me? I never ever forget what God said to me, He said, “You are worried that you will be a reproach”, I said, “Exactly!” He said, “You are worried that you would be a reproach because you are doing what I have told you to do.” He said, “If you become a reproach, let the reproach be on Me!” Totally unforgettable. That settled it for me.

In retrospect, the person I was reporting to when I started working, was reporting to me in just four years. Did I become a reproach? In fact, I became the envy and I give God all the glory, praise and adoration. Every time you stay where He has put you and you eat your green grass, when you come up, you are coming up with glory. To lie down is to get low and when you are low, you are in a great position because when you look up, all you see is Him. Unfortunately, it takes some of us too long before we get it. Even when God sends a donkey to you, you still will not get what God is saying. You just prolong the process unnecessarily. Sadly, some of us we are quick to forget. God takes you through a dealing, He made you lie down in a tight corner and fed you grass. Then you are up, you forget the dealings and begin to behave like a rascal. What you are saying to heaven is, You have to put me down again.

For some of us, when God put you down, you surrendered quickly, even heaven acknowledged your submission. But you got up and it is as if it was not the same you that was surrendering all to Jesus. Now going to church has become an inconvenience meanwhile before, you practically wait for the church doors to be opened on service days. Our scripture reference today shows us that God puts us down, He allowed us to go through what we went through for only one purpose. To show us that man does not live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. However, the beauty is that God does not put us down in withered and brown pastures. He puts us down in green pastures; if you will stay down, you will see the green of the pasture.

Prayer: Lord, I receive the grace to stay down and submit to God’s dealings because You have good plans for me, in Jesus Name. Amen!