April 22, 2020
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You learn a lot about eagles when you spend time with Native Americans. Like how their babies learn to fly. When Mama builds their nest, she lays a foundation of rocks and sticks - then covers it with leaves and feathers and foliage. And the baby eaglets love hanging out there.
Until one day Mama starts pulling all that soft stuff out of the nest. Oh, it's not comfy anymore. Why? Because she wants those little eagles to learn to fly! Which requires getting them out of the nest. Which requires messing with the nest, making it not comfortable. But fear not, junior eagles! This isn't a bad thing. You weren't made to stay in a comfy little nest. You were born to fly! Uh...so were you!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Why Your World's Being Shaken"
Right now, everybody's nest is being shaken! By what I call the coronaquake - the fiercely contagious virus that has caused our schools to close, the stock market to tank, major world events to be cancelled, the economy to explode, futures to be rewritten...basically, it's just rocked our world - or our nest - as never before.
Which leads us to our word for today from the Word of God in Deuteronomy 32, beginning with verse 10. God's referring to His people here simply as "him." But this isn't about just one guy - it's about God's people. For me, it's really shed light on the bigger picture behind all these life-changing events we're trying to navigate.
"He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye." Okay, cool. You and I are being shielded, cared for, and guarded by the Most High God in the middle of all this mayhem.
Now here's where it gets really interesting. "Like an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft...He made him ride on the heights of the land."
Let's look at all the shaking things going on in our lives right now through this Biblical lens. God is using it to disturb the comfort and complacency of our status quo - so we'll take some steps we'd never otherwise take... Not so we'll crash, but so we'll finally fulfill our destiny and touch the sky! Which we might never do if He didn't "stir up the nest."
So, here's a peek behind the curtain at the life-enlarging ways of God. God shakes us up to wake us up to take us up higher than we've ever flown before!
Proverbs 19:21 says: "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." All those plans we had - they're somewhere between doubtful to devastated, right? But not the Lord's purpose in all of this. His purposes are untouched and unhindered by all the upheaval in our world right now.
But sometimes He needs to hit the brakes hard to get our attention and turn our hearts totally - even desperately to Him. So, what might some of His purposes be?
- To bring us closer together
- To prune things we really don't need in our life
- To expose our idols - the things in our life that have become more important than Him
- To rearrange our priorities - so the things that really matter become our focus
- To open hearts to Jesus.
Maybe that's what He's doing in your life. Suddenly your security isn't secure. Your "go to's" have gotten up and gone. Your heart is fearful and searching. You need an anchor that no storm can move. That's Jesus. Who loved you enough to die for your sin. Who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave. He's waiting for you to open the door of your heart and let Him come in today.
If you want to finally put your life in the only truly safe hands there are, tell Him, "Jesus, I'm Yours." And check out our website - ANewStory.com - to find the information there that will help you be sure you belong to Him. Check it out today!
You have nothing to fear from your future when Jesus takes the wheel!