Upon reading your post title the scripture that sprung to mind;
Isaiah 50:7 KJVS
For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
I have not arrived. But I can say that He's done much to bring me from where I was. What makes the changes in us? Trouble, then waiting for His deliverance, seeing it - or not -. If I know that He is always with me, that I am walking with Him, then whatever comes He'll get me through. Death is the hardest. It is our enemy.
When He decided to take our daughter back to Himself I was filed with anger and confusion. After waiting so long, fourteen years, for children then having Him take one of them back I was surely moved. I thought that for some reason He had deceived me or that somehow I deserved this. It was my fault. That all I thought and knew of God was somehow false. After a lifetime of self condemnation and a harsh father it was easy to blame myself.
It took years to really realize that what He did was for the best. To trust His judgement in so great a loss. I couldn't see or believe that for years but finally it settled in. If He took her life then it was in mercy and love. The closer you are to a tragedy the harder it is to see clearly.
Isaiah 57:1 KJVS
The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come .
I believe that not being moved means never giving up on belief in Him and His grace. It doesn't mean that I won't stumble, stumble over my corpse. The word says we will indeed stumble. Stumble over the sin nature of the old man. Reading the 7th chapter of Romans shows us how Paul wrestled with stumblings. We are a new creation in Christ but the old man, the corpse of sin as it were, is always ready to be raised up. The devil will throw things in our path to cause the old sin nature to react. We stumble.
Nahum 3:3 KJVS
The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses;
they stumble upon their corpses:
Being moved as brother Paul uses the word, infers being moved away from a constant faith that clings to God no matter what.
Once the Lord told me a story that illustrates all of this. The Lord our father is on one side of the yard and we as a small child learning to walk, are at the other side. The Lord encourages us to take steps toward Him and hesitatingly we do. Uncertain, unsteady we wobble toward Him. Then we trip, we stumble in our walk. We curse a rude driver, or yell at the kids, or get testy over some trifle, or worse.
If we fall down we lie there. There is another child in that yard. An evil taunting child between us telling to quit. Look at our failure. See the uselessness of even trying. All the while the Father hasn't moved. He's still beckoning us to come. To ignore the taunts of the devil, that evil accuser of the brethren.
We get up from our fall, believing in the voice and words of the father over that evil voice telling us to give up.
This cycle of walking and falling continues. The father never moves, never stops encouraging and the evil child's taunts and accusations never cease. If, as we continue walking our steps grow steadier. We stumble less and at different obstacles. We are learning to walk.
This is the picture the Lord related to me one night years ago. I have never forgotten it. Not being moved is continuing to walk toward the Lord no matter how often I we have stumbled or fallen. Being moved would be giving up the walk. To cease walking toward the waiting father and take another direction. To Hearken to the lies of the taunting accuser and simply give up. Because you stumble you have not moved.
Sadly I know of those who gave up. They were moved and quit listening to the Father. Bob was our pastor. He was not meant to be a pastor I think and that stumbled him. He was an excellent Bible teacher and had wonderful insight into the scriptures. He listened to the evil accusing child and abandoned his walk toward the father and went back to drugs, sex and playing in a rock and roll band. He died a few years ago after having abandoned a beautiful family and returning to the world. When I think of Bob I am numb. Bob was moved. I'm glad I don't have to judge Bob. Perhaps God retreived him.
Oh my dear father in heaven I pray you keep us from being moved in our walk towards your voice. What does it profit us to only walk part of the distance and not the full way to the waiting arms of Him who called us?
Everything is seen more clearly from a distance if we moving steadiltytoward Him. Years bring clarity to events that once were unclear and confusing.
1 Thessalonians 3:3 KJVS
That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
Being a winner is getting up and not lying in your stumblings. You're a winner every time you rise up and rebuke the devil. The Lord hasn't moved from His position with outstretched arms.
This friends from a man who once came home drunk and broke out windows. Jesus you see not only stands beckining to us. He comes, puts His arms around us and lifts us back to our feet.
- always kind, generous, selfless.
