I Will Move the Rock

by Cindy Lu

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.

This the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's mind such as: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it."

Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure, these thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man even more. "Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort, and that will be good enough."

And that he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"

To this the Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewed and brown, your hands are callused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done.

"I, my friend, will now move the rock."

It's been quite some time since I've written a blog.  Ronald reminded me this past weekend that they are a useful tool in the lives of people and that I needed to keep doing it.  Sometimes we allow discouragement in our lives.  When I found this story, I said, wow, that's exactly where I've been at in my spiritual life lately.  I've allowed an overwhelming amount of discouragement into my life and felt as if I had failed in my Christian walk.  I became discouraged about a lot of things that I've done.  That's just how Satan wants it, isn't it?  We tend to sit back and have ourselves a pity party saying, "I just can't do it anymore."  "I'm not doing this right so I'm giving up."  "I'm tired of fighting with it, so I'm just giving up."  I came to a place just a week or two ago to where I was reminded that God has to be all.  Mentally, I know this, but sometimes I let that discouragement come in and I just forget that God is my ROCK and he is in control of everything in my life whether big or small.   This past week, I found out that my job isn't very stable right now.  The construction industry is down because the housing market is down.  My dad is struggling with all his might to keep the business going.  Friday, we were all told that if something didn't come through this week, we'll probably be laid off.  Well, being human, I started to worry.  I said, okay, I have a truck payment due, insurance, bills to pay, etc., what am I going to do if I'm laid off?  How am I going to survive?  Unemployment really doesn't pay squat.  I figured up that I'd get about $269 a week for unemployment which is about half of what I normally make.  Satan tried throwing up all the worries and anxiety.  I was feeling kind of down and still worried and then God reminded me that He has everything in control.  He can move the mountain for me!  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, so what does  a little truck payment and my bills matter  to him?  I had to put my focus on HIM being the one to handle my problems and not ME!  I have trouble with that sometimes.  Just like the man in the story, I try to use my efforts to move the obstacle.  My efforts, just as his, are really in vain.  When the man in the story went to God, he saw that the challenge that God had given him only made him stronger.  He felt like a failure, but God showed him that everything he had done was not failure, in fact, it was far from it.  He grew to be a strong man.    Let Him move the rock for you!

Struck down, but not destroyed!

Katie