Shrinking Back

Today's services at church just confirmed to me that God really wants us to get past being uncomfortable and have faith that God is drawing us to himself for our good, even if it feels different at first.  All I can say is wow!

During praise and worship this verse came to me:

Hebrews 10:39

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

 Paul is writing to the Hebrews and encouraging them by stating, as if it were a fact, that they aren't quitters or those who run away when things get difficult or uncomfortable. I am sure there were some in that church who didn't choose to have faith. Who didn't choose to trust God.  Because faith is a risk. It isn't easy. And our natural response is to run and not to get over ourselves and move forward toward the thing God is calling us to.

Yeah, responding to God when he speaks requires us to humble ourselves. To put God's plans in front of our need to control the situation and fully understand what God is doing. Because some of us need those things.  Or at least we think we need them.  

Responding to God requires us to repeat to ourselves one more time that God is for us and his ways are higher than ours and trusting God when there is no physical evidence, against all hope, is really the best choice. (Or maybe I'm the only one who has to convince myself that what I know in my head to be true is really true in my gut and my heart.)

And yet, sometimes I am one of those who shrink back. Who run away, with my tail between my legs, to hide until I am sure I can handle what God is asking of me. Because, quite honestly, it scares me. 

And God is gracious and merciful to us, despite our shortcomings and continues to call us to come, to obey, to have faith, to trust him and not shrink back.