Psalm 37:6-7 — And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

Myra and I are praying about ministry. It’s not that we are doing nothing, but we feel we should be doing something more. Equally, we know that we might be misguided — we might have allowed a burden to be laid on us by other people’s expectations.
“Well,” you might say, “that’s your problem, but what’s that got to do with me, and why put it in a devotional?” Well, I write about whatever the Holy Spirit makes “top of mind”. And the thing about this one is, I don’t think our situation is unusual, so I thought I’d share and hope that it would help.

A few years ago, we were running a home group, and were actively involved in children’s ministry. We might even have been overdoing it — but we were growing, and we could see fruit. Then life changed …
We were called to vocational ministry and started building our financial support. As part of the process we were asked to detach ourselves from other ministry activities. Recognizing the need for priority and obedience, we did as we were asked. We learned so much from that journey, although in the end the challenge of raising support in the economy of the last few years defeated us.

The thing is, when the ministry that had called us cut us loose we were suddenly not very active in any ministry. We each have things we do … But essentially we’re lying fallow and praying for direction. We’d appreciate your prayer support!
What I have come to believe, in this season of prayer, is that there may never be the “big answer” that we have been hoping for. In his book “Crazy Love”, Francis Chan quotes a lady called Annie Dillard as saying “How we live our days is …how we live our lives” and he goes on to say “We each need to discover for ourselves how to live this day in faithful surrender to God”. Maybe that’s the point. Maybe surrendering is about being available day-by-day, and being ready to do the small things.

Maybe being fallow is “resting in The Lord” — and not such a bad thing. There’s a reason why farmers practice crop rotation and let even the good fields lie fallow — it’s so they will, in due course, be more fruitful.
If, like us, you’re feeling a kind of spiritual restlessness — divine discontent — wait patiently for The Lord, and live each day in faithful surrender …
And pray for Myra and me!