“Move God, or Move Me”

Recently, I heard this statement on a Joyce Meyer  broadcast, “Move God, or move me.” Its has been on my mind ever since. What did this mean to me? Why did it keep coming to mind? I think I’ve figured it out.

Over the course of my life, I’ve experienced discontent so badly that nothing could make me happy. I felt stuck in the proverbial a rut. At those times, my heart was in an unpleasant, ungrateful, and unhappy place. I did several things to change my circumstances. I had a baby, lost weight, started a business, changed jobs, went back to school, joined a new church, and went back to school again. I never really prayed about it, though. Only recently have I begun to see how God was working in my life all through those times. As I change my thinking God seems to make things more and clear to me.

At one point I decided to take a new job, but on the first day I decide it wasn’t the place for me. It was a dirty, dusty, sticky place. In fact, once my shoe actually stuck to the floor behind me as was walking. I had to hop back a few steps to put my foot back into my shoe peel it off the floor. I shared a small office with a heavy smoker who didn’t like to clean much. I was very uncomfortable. Since I had been actively searching for a new job before being hired, my resume was already in the hands of several other companies, one of which called me for an interview. When they offered me a job, needless to say, I jumped at it the chance.

After about three years with the new company I got that uncomfortable feeling again. The company was moving into a new commodity that I wasn’t familiar with and really had no desire to learn about, so I decided it was time to move on. At about the same time a friend from the previous company, the one I left after only a month, invited me to come by for a visit. He said the owner wanted to show me what they had accomplished since I had left, and guess what? He had accomplished all that he promised he would when I decided to leave three years earlier. During that visit, the owner was gracious enough to offer me a job, again.

It was different this time. I could see things had changed. More importantly, I had a real peace about returning so the decision was quite easy. Everything clicked for a while until that old feeling of discontent started creeping in again, so I went back to school. I was trying to change my circumstances again, hoping this would improve my work life. It didn’t.

My work life started changing, really improving, only after my spiritual life started changing. God didn’t have to move me, He moved in me. He changed my attitude. As I learned, and continue to learn, about being humble, about forgiveness, about serving, and about working for God my whole life, not just my work life, keeps getting better and better.

I’ve shared my story before about being young and unhappy and asking the Lord for money, but getting a job instead. I’ve had one ever since, but even though I’ve always known where the job came from, I haven’t always been grateful for the gift. That’s something I had to work on. I’ve come to realized though that God places us in certain circumstance for His own reasons. It might be to reveal something of Himself to us, to discipline us for going against His will, or for us to help others. Ultimately, He wants to bring us closer to Him. As far as the job goes, God must want me there and I’ll be there until He moves me. I can’t wait to see what He has planned!