Leaning on God

 This is something you often hear spoken about in Christian circles. But what does it really mean to "lean on God" and what does it look like when we do this?

I want to share a testimony of something I went through recently when I was challenged in this area. I had just experienced an extremely busy week at work, and a very full on weekend to top it off. By the time I started work again on Monday morning last week I was very tired from the week before. I got about halfway through the day when I all of a sudden realized that I could not find my prescription reading glasses.

I retraced my steps and went back to every site I visited throughout the morning at work, and there was no sign of my glasses anywhere. I asked at the front desk in every department I visited if anyone had handed in a pair of prescription reading glasses, and everyone said no. I work in the IT Department at a local hospital and my job means that I am often on the move to different departments during the day, so there were many places I needed to check. I looked around on the ground to see if they had fallen out of my pocket, and I couldn't see them anywhere.

I was very distressed about this as prescription glasses are expensive, and it is a hassle to get new ones as you need to get another eye test done by an optometrist, then order the new lenses and frames. It can take at least a week for them to arrive and that means a week without any glasses, which for me will often mean headaches and sometimes even migraines. I was praying in a desperate and frustrated manner and begging God to show me where they were, but He was silent. I eventually had to give up the search for the day and come home. I was extremely upset about all of this as I have always looked after my prescription glasses very well and therefore I was mortified that this had happened.

My wife strongly got the word back from God that He wanted me to lean on Him during this time of uncertainty. Despite only having a few hours sleep that night I still had a lot of energy when I woke up in the morning and knew that I had to go in to work that day. I continued the search while running my usual errands at work, but with less enthusiasm, and I began to wonder if perhaps they were gone and that I just needed to learn to let them go. While I was on my lunch break, instead of praying my usual frustrated prayers I decided to change how I prayed and said to God "you know where they are. If you want them to come back to me, you can show me where they are or you can show them to someone who will bring them to me. I trust you." 

Once I said this the words from a Bethel song came through my mind - "So let go, my soul, and trust in Him, the waves and winds still know His name". I thought that while I was on my lunch break, I should retrace my steps from my lunchbreak the day before, as I have found a little walking track next to my work that I often do on my lunchbreak to get a bit of fresh air and exercise. As I was walking on the footpath just down from my workplace I felt an urgency in my spirit saying "LOOK DOWN AT YOUR FEET RIGHT NOW!" I looked down at my feet and sitting there on the grass verge were my glasses, completely unharmed, with a few drops of rain on them as they had been sitting in that same spot for the last 24 hours, patiently waiting for me to find them. I cried tears of relief.

The funny thing is, I had retraced my steps down that same stretch where I walked on my lunchbreak several times before that but I just didn't see them. It was only once I had really learned to lean on God that I found them. Even more incredible was that they sat there on the grass verge of a busy stretch of road for nearly 24 hours before I found them - they could easily have been stood on and broken, or someone could have picked them up and taken them with them, but they were completely unharmed. Everyone at work whom I told about this was amazed.

I learned to lean on God and was able for the first time to say that I trusted Him with the outcome of this distressing situation - and I was able to 100% mean what I said. I do not believe I would have been able to do this even a year or two ago, but throughout this year I have been working really hard on healing myself of internal stress. I've also been really learning to forgive those who have wronged me in my life, which has been a first for me. The results of the hard work I have been putting in to bettering myself have finally started to show up. I have realized that this is not a one off thing - I need to continually apply this lesson of "leaning on God" in my daily life to avoid stress and help maintain a mindset of peace.

My challenge to you is this - is God asking you to learn to lean on Him? If so, learn to allow yourself to do this. You will learn that He really is in charge and that you can trust Him with everything.

Take care.