Immediately you hear people shouting, you okay? And what was
that? There were many speculations to what the noise and movement was
until we looked outside and realized that it was the construction across the road,
they were preparing the ground for the foundation, and that’s what we had
experienced.
In those couple seconds I was afraid, confused, worried and
concerned all at the same time. The flood of emotions and adrenaline that
surged through me, and I would imagine the rest of the people I work with, was
quick but forceful. I am a jumpy person by nature so this took me a
couple minutes to settle my nerves down.
In re-reading Acts 16:26 tonight, I thought about this moment in
time at work and how quickly a normal day, with normal emotions, went to a moment
of uncertainty. Now, thankfully this was not a disaster and everyone was
fine, and actually we got a chuckle out of it afterwards, because it stirred us
all up. But I was drawn back to this verse tonight because God will often
times shake our foundation to get our attention, or to pull something out of us,
to make us change.
Verse 26 says Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that
the very foundations of the prison were shaken; and at once all the doors were
opened and everyone’s shackles were unfastened.
There are many points and lessons I believe in this one
verse. The use of suddenly here tells us that there doesn’t have to
be a warning to when things in our lives are going to happen. You can be
going about your day like it’s a normal day and suddenly everything
changes. These suddenly's can be for the good, or for the bad. I think
many times we associate change and things happening quickly as negative, when
they can very easily be positive as well.
God never promised us that He would give us forewarning to life’s
changes and suddenly, what He has promised us is that He will be with us
through them all. In the case of Acts 16:26 this suddenly was beneficial
for all involved.
The next thing that stood out to me was the great
earthquake. That whatever God is going to do in your life to provoke the
change or transition is going to be done with great force, wisdom, insight or
blessing. An earthquake can have many different levels of
destruction, but anything strong enough to separate the ground from its core,
is not a small force. There are also many times things that need
repaired, fixed or cleaned up in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Again, this doesn’t mean that God will literally cause an
earthquake to happen in your life, but it also doesn’t mean He won’t, but don’t
miss the message that is being given to us here. It’s going to take a
mighty force, whatever that may be to cause the foundation of your life to
shift, change, erode or for you to become aware of it.
God shakes our foundation, to shake us. He uses these things
as a way to say, hey, what’s going on right now is not ok, and I need you to
recognize it.
You know many times you will hear a person needs to hit bottom
before they can accept their actions, problems or addictions. I think
this is God’s way of bringing that bottom about and quickly. Many
times in our own lives we don’t recognize the warning signs. We don’t see
what’s right before our eyes, because we don’t want too. We will even run
from people who open our eyes to the truth of our lives because it’s too
painful, or we are not ready to change and accept the responsibility of our
actions.
God is only going to let you go on so long that way before He
pulls the rug from underneath you and causes you to take a look. We
need to see our lives through the eye of truth and also through the eyes of
God. We need to see the mistakes we make instead of covering them up with
another poor decision, or running from the truth. But we also need
to see ourselves and our healing through God’s eyes.
As we see in verse 26 after the foundation shook, all the doors
were opened and everyone’s shackles were unfastened. This is the rainbow
at the end of the storm. This is to tell you that yes, it might
take something quite uncomfortable to happen to bring about your change or eye
opening, but…BUT God is right there waiting, with the doors open and the
shackles unfastened.
God is standing there beside you through everything. Through
the bad Doctor reports, the divorces, the miscarriages, the loss of loved ones
and the loss of your job. God is standing there to heal you while you
make another bad mistake after bad mistake and He will cause the earth below
you, figuratively, to shake so you can see your truth before your eyes.
He does this because He loves you. He does this because He wants your
life to be the best life it can possibly be. He doesn’t want to see you
in pain, on drugs, struggling with life, no, He wants to see you free, without
shackles and walking through all the open doors He has opened for you.
Verse 26 symbolizes so many things but mainly, to me, it
symbolizes transformation, freedom and hope! All these things can
be found in God, if you look for them. You will find Him in every low
place and every high place. In every door that has closed and every door
that has been opened. He is there.
I have felt the ground move below me figuratively, and literally,
and each time this has happened there is a release inside of me, of my need to
be in control and surrender to God that He is in control. When we
acknowledge the changes that God is trying to do in and through us, the process
of the change isn’t as painful or scary as we imagine it to be.
Sometimes when God moves your foundation, I’d actually say most
times, when God moves your foundation, it’s because He’s moving you to
something better in your life. Just allow the foundation to shake for a
moment, hold on tightly to God and then look for the open doors that lead to
freedom!
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