MAKING ROOM FOR GOD’S WORK
Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide,
do not hold back;
lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
ISAIAH 54:2
When Almighty God encounters a life, it’s always a time of rejoicing and expectation for the future. Isaiah described this experience as similar to that of a child born to a previously barren woman. The child’s arrival changes everything. Whereas the dwelling place might have been large enough for two, it must now be made bigger. The child’s presence causes the parents to completely rearrange the way they’ve been living.
Isaiah proclaimed that when God comes, you must make room for Him in your life. You must “enlarge the place of your tent” because God’s presence will add new dimensions to your life, your family, and your church. You don’t simply add Christ to your busy life and carry on with business as usual. When Christ is your Lord, everything changes. Whereas before you may not have expected good things to come through you or into your life, now you should have a spirit of optimism. You ought to expect your life to become richer and fuller. You can anticipate God blessing others through your life. You can look for God to demonstrate His power through your life in increasing measure.
God rewards people who are faithful to Him. Throughout your life God seeks to grow your faith. He continually brings you to times when you must trust Him. He leads you into situations that require a little faith, and if you’re faithful, He will then take you into situations that require even greater trust in Him. Each time you’re able to trust God at a higher level, He will reveal more of Himself to you. Your faith and experiencing God are directly linked.
The best way to determine whether you’re prepared for a greater revelation of God is to evaluate how faithful you’ve been with what God has already given you. This is a foundational principle in God’s relationships with us: if you’ve been faithful with the little He’s given you, you’re ready to be entrusted with more (see Luke 16:10). If you failed to trust God with the little He gave you, He won’t trust you with more. God won’t lead you beyond your present level of trust and obedience to Him. He will return you to your area of unfaithfulness until you’re prepared to trust Him. The children of Israel were unwilling to trust God to lead them into the promised land, and tragically, their generation was never again able to move forward with Him.
As a Christian, how do you make room for Christ in your life? You repent of your sin. You allow Christ the freedom to do what He wants in you. You eagerly watch for His activity. You live your life with the expectancy that Christ will fill you with His power in the days to come and will stretch you to do things in His service that you’ve never done before.
How has God’s presence changed your life?
Consider the steps of faith you’ve taken in the past. In what ways have you trusted God and proved faithful with the little things?
How are you making room for God to do greater things in and through your life?
What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture you read today?
Reword the statement or Scripture into a prayer of response to God.
What does God want you to do in response to today’s study? [Henry T. Blackaby, Richard Blackaby (2014). Seven Realities for Experiencing God – Member Book. LifeWay Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]