Dear Church,

 

Here is an encouraging testimony by Lee Grady. In life, everyone faces challenges. As a Christian we too have challenges. The important thing is to know how to handle them in God’s way – and have victory. This testimony will encourage and show us how to face transitions in life without fear and with faith in God.

 

May the Lord bring you and me to our Rehoboth!

 

Serving together in Christ,

 

Ps Khim and Ang

 

 

 

By Lee Grady (www.themordecaiproject.com)

 

If you find yourself in an anxious season of difficult transition, take comfort from the life of Isaac.

 

If you had told me seven years ago that I would resign my comfortable magazine job in 2010 and make a shift toward public ministry, I would have asked if you were smoking an illegal plant. I liked my paycheck and my benefits. And in 2004 I was trying to figure out how I would put four kids through college when I had no extra money in the bank.

 

Fast forward to 2010, to the middle of the Great Recession. They say the economy is showing signs of improvement, but I don’t see this in Florida, where the foreclosure rate is still one of the nation’s highest. Yet right in the middle of these uncertain economic times, while the unemployment rate is hovering around 10 %, I sensed God telling me to make a career change.

 

”We must keep walking by faith, even when we feel trapped in Philistine territory. We must keep trudging ahead. We must go over the next hill. We must turn the next corner, There is a Rehoboth nearby!”

 

Everything in my flesh screamed, “No! Please God! No!” Yet I knew I was facing one of those Peter-get-out-of-the-boat-and-walk-on-the-water moments. Because I have been in one place for 17 years, the thought of change was terrifying, Ididn’t even want to ‘look’ over the side of the boat, much less stick my foot in the waves and try to walk.

 

But 2 weeks ago I put my toes in the water. Like Peter, I have wavered a few times since then, The sound of the crashing surf is scary and I’ve looked back at the boat more than once, But I know that I know that I know that this faith-stretching exercise is going to end well.

 

What has carried me through this season of transition is the comfort I receive each day from reading my Bible. I don’t read it just because Christians are supposed to have a nice devotional life. I read it for survival.

 

Since the New Year began I have focused all my reading on the journeys of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, mainly because these patriarchs pioneered this thin we call faith. Their life lessons provide a framework for our own adventures with God.

 

I read last week about Isaac’s difficult life journey. Things were not easy after his father’s death. His brother Ishmael was bitter because Abraham gave Isaac the first-born’s inheritance. Then a famine cam and Isaac had to move his family to Gerar, where hostile Philistines were cramming garbage in the wells that Abraham had dug.

 

Life in Gerar was not easy. Every time Isaac would dig a new well, the Philistines would claim it as theirs. In one instance, Isaac named his well Esek which means “contention”. Another time he dug a well and called it Sitnah, which means “enmity”. What a depressing trend! It seemed like 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. He wasn’t making any progress.

 

But then, Isaac journeyed just a bit farther. “He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, "At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land." Genesis 26:22 (NASB)

 

It was right after this experience that God appeared to Isaac and reconfirmed to him the promise that He had given his father. The Lord said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you, and multiply your descendants, for the sake of My servant Abraham". Genesis 26:24 (NASB)

 

 

 

Many of us have felt stalled in the dry places. The past few years have not been easy. You may feel that the devil has been contending for your family, your finances, you ministry of your health. He throws all this discouragement at you to stop you from advancing. He wants to keep you in a desert.

 

Rehoboth means “broad place”, and it refers to the land of inheritance that only God can give and that the enemy cannot steal from you. The Philistines did not contend for Rehoboth. God kept them away. Rehoboth reminds us of the place God brought King David when he announced in Psalm 18:19 "He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.”