Grab Hold Of This…And Don’t Let Go!

“It is good that thou shouldest take hold of this; yea, also from this withdraw not thine hand: for he that feareth God shall come forth of them all.” Ecclesiastes 7:18 

All I can say is…it’s been a bad week on this little farm. The “excitement” started last Monday when Bethany and Anna were out feeding and saw that our new chickens were out in the unfinished coop. How did they get there? Upon further investigation, the girls found a place in the chicken wire of the old coop that had been pushed in. Sadly, they also discovered that one of our chickens didn’t survive the great coop escape. 🙁

Repairs were made and now came the job of rounding up the fowl. These chickens are pretty smart, I reckon – all but one that is. Four of them went right back to the old coop on their own. That fifth one wasn’t quite as cooperative so, while Bethany held our new puppy (I haven’t told y’all about Rowdy yet, have I?), Anna had the not-so-fun job of cornering our stubborn little feathered friend. There are just too many places to hide in the shelter part of our barn but I finally saw her carrying that last chicken back to the safety of its coop. She then headed back to the shelter to put things back in order before coming up to the house.

When Anna finally reached the porch, she had a strange…kinda sick look on her face. She then informed me of her discovery – a big ol’ possum in one of the trash cans she had been moving around while trying to catch the chicken. Ugggghhhhh!!  “Its eyes were opened”, that poor girl said – “I just wanna go back to bed!”

The next day, we lost another chicken and at this point, we had the job of moving the remaining 4 back to the small, temporary coop.  Yesterday, Anna came into the house after feeding and I could tell something was wrong – again. “Everything ok?”, I asked. “No” was her reply as she informed me that our two adorable little Khaki Campbell ducks were missing from their home. The predator had somehow made its way under a part of the chain-linked fence. Now THAT news made me sad. Remember, I have this little soft spot in my heart for ducks. 🙁

Have there ever been times in your Christian life when, like Anna, you wanted to “just go back to bed”? You know, those seasons of life that would perfectly depict the saying – “when it rains, it pours”…and you’re really having a hard time seeing the silver lining in all of those storm clouds? If we are not very careful, we may even begin to question this thing called the Christian life. Oh, my friend, don’t think that you are too strong of a Christian to ever get to that point. If Job can wish that he had never been born, ANY of us are susceptible to times of discouragement and despair.

It is during these times that we must take action. I was talking to Bethany recently and in the midst of our conversation, I asked her if she ever got discouraged. She admitted having those seasons but went on to tell me that during these times she had to remind herself that GOD was in control. “I just encourage myself in the Lord as David did”, she said. I earnestly pray that she will always have that attitude!

The verse at the beginning of this post is one that I read and have been thinking about this morning. It is telling us to take hold of and not let go of something. That “something” is this – “he that feareth God shall come forth of them all“.  Did you hear that? In those times of discouragement, you will need to be holding onto this truth:

~ Continue fearing God and He will bring you through ~

If you don’t take hold of this now, settle it in your heart and remind yourself continually, you may throw in the towel and quit. There are too many Christian casualties already. I don’t want to become part of that statistic, do you?

“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23:10