No Retreat! - August 16, 2011

Hmmm, what happened to the post for yesterday? Tuesday's devotional:

Good Tuesday morning! I few months ago I wrote down some notes from one of the sermons on the radio. This one had a quote from Bill Borden, a missionary from back in the day. His quote: "No retreat, no return, no regrets" I have brought that quote in to place over my desk because I need to add one more 'r' word - remember. What do I need to remember? God's provision. Mr. Borden gave up a large inheritance to become a poor missionary. Quite the opposite of the prosperity gospel we sometimes hear on the telly these days. We have this tendency to judge our position with God by our bank balance. Jesus tells us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear tomorrow. I also need to remember that God does not bring us to a new place just to turn around and head back to the old.

That is where ol' Bill's quote seems to hit me most. That temptation to look back on parts of my life with regret, to attempt to return to some other part, or to sound the retreat on what I believe God would have me to do. All of these things must have happened to Bill back in his missionary days. Perhaps when his cupboard was bare he thought back to the fancy meals served in his father's mansion. He must have faced that desire to return with same words we have: remember your Father's mansion in Heaven. Bill may have felt the regrets of leaving what appeared to be an easier life, but at the same time remembered God's words of comfort and love. Bill may have felt the strongest temptation of all to retreat from his mission location and go back to America to take up that soft, warm mantle of a high position in his father's company. However, like you and me, he would have remembered his position in the Father's church and faced the future with all the hope of Jesus in his heart. Our now doesn't look so bad when we remember who has called us out of wherever you and I were a few days or years ago.

It may be that you are not living where you did before and now miss those old friends. It could be that you can no longer afford some of the things you once took for granted, but now you have more time to walk and talk with Jesus each day. The next call may be to go home to be with God in Heaven for all eternity. What a terrible shame to miss that call by looking back in regret, returning to something from the past, or retreating from where God would have us to be right now.

A little quote from Job: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." Job 1:21

Amen,

Bucky