In a new situation and feel like you have hit a wall?

Sometimes we feel like we have hit the wall.

Maybe you are a teacher or student in a new situation and feel like you have hit the wall. 

Luke 10.

³ Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

Did you have a time when you felt like you were in the majority in America as a follower of Jesus?  If you did that may or may not have been true.

Acts 23.

23 Paul, looking intently at the ^[a]Council, said, “Brethren, I have ^[b]lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.” ² The high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth.

2 Timothy 2.

¹¹ It is a trustworthy statement:

For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
¹² If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
If we ^[d]deny Him, He also will deny us;
¹³ If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

Jesus called men who were not afraid of storms.  He called fishermen.  He knew that the Jewish culture would be against them and the Roman culture would be in opposition.  He called them salt and light because they were different.

Those who walk by faith have always been counter-cultural.  This is the norm.  The storm is the norm. 

We often don’t know the why of the storm.  Sometimes if we live through some storms we look back through the rear view mirror and learn they why of an event but often we don’t ever know the why.

What we can know is the who?

Our God is our redeemer.

Isaiah 35.

35 The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the ^[a]Arabah will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus
² It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
³ Encourage the ^[b]exhausted, and strengthen the ^[c]feeble.
⁴ Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”
⁵ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
⁶ Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the ^[d]Arabah.
⁷ The ^[e]scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
⁸ A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
⁹ No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
^[f]These will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,
¹⁰ And the ransomed of the Lord will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will ^[g]find gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Our God is the Lord of the Storm

We teach our children to shape their lives and hearts for the long haul.  We find ourselves in new circumstance and they hit a wall.  Things are not as we thought they would be. 

 It was about this time in 1968 that I hit the wall of teaching 120 students each day for five days a week.  I had done some student teaching for a half a day with a teacher, Bob Joy, watching over my work.  It seem fairly easy.  Jack Mildren was the quarterback for Cooper High School in South Abilene that year and he went on to OU.  The practice teaching seemed fairly easy.

Then I walked into a classroom of 20 young men aged 15 to 18 who had to take a public school course I taught called, “The Bible as History”.

Then I walked into a classroom of 20 sophomores aged 16 who were to take biology from me.  Though I was a farm boy who knew how to dissect frogs and “operate on calves and pigs” I was not ready for being a biology teacher who was to love the green snake brought in by a student.

Then I walked into a second grade P.E. class with 25 sweet second graders who loved and respected all their teachers especially the recess teacher.

Then I walked into typing, (keyboarding) class with 20 senior students.

Then I walked into a bookkeeping, (basic accounting) class with 20 senior students.

Then to junior high boys basketball practice and junior high girls basketball practice.

Then to home to crash for one hour.

Then to get some food.

Then to three hours of study for the next day.

Then to sleep for five hours.

Then repeat for 180 days.

This was a storm.  I don’t know how I survived except by the grace of God

Psalm 46

46 God is our refuge and strength,
^[b]A very present help in ^[c]trouble.
² Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the ^[d]sea;
³ Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. ^[e]Selah.

⁴ There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling places of the Most High.
⁵ God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her ^[f]when morning dawns.
⁶ The ^[g]nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;
He ^[h]raised His voice, the earth melted.
⁷ The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

⁸ Come, behold the works of the Lord,
^[i]Who has wrought desolations in the earth.
⁹ He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
¹⁰ “^[j]Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the ^[k]nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
¹¹ The Lord of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.

The who leads do the how.  Worship God.  Get up and move forward. Fall down.  Worship God. Repeat until it seems normal and natural for you to be a lamb in the midst of wolves.  Long for Jesus to come back and give you His reward for your work.  God has salvation for all of us who long for His appearing.

That's what I have learned so far.

Larry Wishard