Josh Mihalko shares this very personal and powerful devo with us. It will bless you and hopefully encourage you in your relationship with the Lord.
So just to begin the devotion, Tara and I have learned to sit in silence with the Lord daily and listen to what He has to say. With that being said it was Sunday morning, October 4, i was off work and still woke up early and was spending time with the Lord. And He explained to me something that He wanted people to understand. So just think about this for a second. When we are praying to the Lord, there are times that we are expecting immediate responses or answers to prayers or something related to what we are praying about. I’m sure everyone understands what I’m talking about. We all pray for those things that we need or want. Just think about how many times that God reached out to you before you accepted Him as your Savior. I’m not saying at all that the Lord plays tit for tat. I’m not saying that He is saying. “It took Josh 40 years to be saved. He can wait three years for this prayer to be answered.” I don’t believe He is saying that at all. What the Lord showed me this morning was that when He was waiting for us to accept Him He was hurting for us, but He waited.
So when in times of waiting for answers remember how long you had the Lord wait on you. Psalm 33:20-22 says, “ our soul waits for the Lord, he is our help and our shield.” Psalm 27:14 says “ wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.”
So for me, I was lost for 40 years. The Lord waited 40 years for me and during those 40 years, He was there keeping me safe. Guiding me without me knowing. Protecting me without me believing that He was. I know He was now for sure.
I’ll tell you a quick story not many know. I was in my early 20s, just got married. Tara and I had her first child Liam. And I was addicted to cocaine. Well, I was on a streak of probably not sleeping for like five or six days straight. I probably did enough cocaine to kill half the Church during those 5-6 days. It was in the middle of the night, I barricaded the doors and windows. I thought the police were coming. I was sitting on the couch and beside me was a person. The person was in all white. A white wrapping over the head. I couldn’t tell if it was male or female. It didn’t say a word. I said to myself, and I can see it so clearly right now. “ you need to get your shit together, you’re hallucinating.” A symptom of a cocaine overdose is hallucination. It was the very next day Tara and my mom confronted me asking me what the heck was going on. I lied for a while that day until finally I came clean with them. With help from Tara and having a slip up once I can say I haven’t touched that stuff in over 20 years now. I wasn’t saved when I quit. Fast forward many years, we are now saved. Tara and I have a relationship with the Lord that elevated when we learned to sit with Him and give Him thanks. We love talking to Him and growing intimately with Him. The Lord talks to me. One day I was sitting with the Lord and He said to me plain as day. “Remember the night in Windber when you saw that person in white? It was me. I have always been right beside you waiting for you to see me.” I was in immediate tears and everyday I think about the day He told me that I cry. To know our Lord is there even when we are so far away just blows my mind. Now I want you all to understand something back in those days when He was beside me on the couch. Those were some of my darkest worst days of my life. I was not doing anything related to the Lord at all. I mean, I have to be honest I was doing the exact opposite. But He was still sitting right next to me. So I don’t care where you are in your life. I want you to know that the Lord is right next to you all the time and He’s waiting for you to begin that relationship with Him. He doesn’t just show up. He’s there waiting for you to show up! Now show up and quit waiting. I hope you all have a blessed day. I hope you all know how much the Lord loves you. And that you show that love to everybody. And just watch how you get blessed. Have an amazing day.
Make it Trusting Tuesday! God is good…