Stuck in the ditch?

ROMANS 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

I sometimes wonder why, eventhough i am abiding in the Lord, i still find myself stuck in the ditch. Often enough, i am sure many of us find ourselves in ditches and wonder why we are so stuck, eventhough we're abiding in the Lord.

Somehow, God led me to being stuck in the rain at a swimming pool today, and as i lifted up a book i mindlessly threw into my bag as i left my house for my exercise, God moved me not only to tears in the pouring rain, He made me realize that things work according to God's programme, not ours. And even if He choses to stick in right in a ditch, He has His great and sovereign purposes for doing so.

Instead of relating how God spoke to me through Dr Bob Jones Snr's book "Comments on Here and Hereafter", i think i'll the Spirit speak to you Himself, through a short account by Dr Bob Snr, a man of God, and the founder of Bob Jones University.

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["I" being the author himself]

Years ago out on a speaking your in North Alabama i closed the week one Friday night in a lovely little town. I was tired. I had been speaking three times a day for several weeks. After i went to my room from the auditorium where i had addressed a large crowd, i got in bed and remembered that next day i was to rest. i decided to go to Birmingham, have my car gone over, go to a hotel, and shut myself up for the entire day.

Next morning when i got up, it was pouring rain. I asked the Lord to let me get to Birmingham without any trouble. i had to travel over a dirt road. There was mud and clay. i had faith to believe the Lord would hear my prayer and i would reach Birmingham in safety and without delay. i got into the car and started.

i went down the country road about ten miles when my slipped into a ditch. i tried to get out of the ditch but i couldn't. i said to myself, "this is funny. i prayed with faith. i cannot understand why this happened. God said if i would ask in faith, He would hear my prayer." But it wasn't any use in arguing; i was in the ditch.

I got out in the pouring rain, walked up the road about fifty yards to a simple little country home. I went on the front porch and knocked at the door. Somebody said, "come in." There was amn with a lot of children around him. He was trying to dress a little fellow.

"I'm in the mud," I said, "and i thought you wouldn't mind getting a mule and pulling me out". He looked up at me, and tears were running down his face. "I'll help you as soon as i geet the children dressed," he said, "i am not much good at dressing children. I have never had this to do. I buried their mother yesterday."

My heart went out to him. There is nothing as pathetic as man trying to nurse little children. He just doesn't have that mother touch. i told him i would help him. i took a little girl in my lap. She was about two years old. Her little stockings were ragged, but i got them on. Her little shoes were worn. i put them on.

After we got the children dressed, i asked, as we started out of the house, "Are you a christian?", He said, "No, but my wife was. She prayed for me and talked to me alot of times. I ought to be a Christian. I have these children to raise."

I put my arm around him and said, "Well, we'll stop here and settle that." i had prayer with him and led him to Jesus. Then we got the car out of the mud and i said to myself, "i know why God stopped me. He wanted me to eelp Him put over His programme. That wife's prayer reached over the battlement of heaven and pushed my car of right there."

It is worth getting in the ditch to help God with His programme. It is worth going to jail as Paul had to do. It is worth suffering and torment. It is worth dying for.

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This account, together with Romans 8:18 only makes me more excited to suffer for our Father's purpose and mission. It sounds stupid to non-christians who do not know who God is and what He aims to achieve. But for us Christians, shouldn't we be excited and joyful if the Lord chooses to place us in a position of suffering? Well for me at least, the Spirit has indeed taught me, that in a circumstances of suffering, God's glory can be all the more manifested, and His purpose, with His person, made known to the ends of the earth.

Like Dr Bob said, to be able to help God with His programme, "is worth dying for". I am so encouraged and challenged! I really hope you are.