An Online Devotional from Pastor Chad Carter

W e ' r e m o r e t h a n j u s t a C h u r c h . . . W e ' r e a F A M I L Y !

Shaping Our Future

Part 1

Pastor Chad Carter

Have you ever been in a “season of spinning,” where

everything seems out of control?

We typically call it by other names, like anxiety, worry, chaos,

confusion or trouble. I know in my personal life, there is no

time I dread more than those times of restlessness, when

no matter what you do or how hard you pray, you sense

uncertainty all around you – an overwhelming feeling of unease in your spirit. Things don’t feel right at home; people around you don’t seem the same; you toss and turn all night feeling like something’s left undone. In reality, things may truly be ok, but that nagging feeling that says “something’s got to change” keeps screaming in your ear.

It doesn’t feel pleasant by any means. In fact, it’s quite spiritually uncomfortable. You ask yourself, “where’s the joy? …Where’s the peace?” Everywhere you look, it seems things are spinning out of control!

But oh, my dear friends, nothing is spinning “out of control.” God is in control of it all! It is not just a random toppling of the things that are important in your life. It is not a whirlwind of uncontrolled chaos bringing you to the point of downfall and demise. It is you, spinning upon the wheel of a careful Craftsman who has a wonderful plan in mind.

“O LORD, You are our Father. We are the clay,

you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

Isaiah 64:8, NIV

God has been busy working on you. He’s been spinning you on His wheel and shaping you into a vessel that is fit for His use.

Things seem uncertain and uncomfortable because you are being changed from one thing into another thing. God is getting all up in your business. He’s getting hands-on and personal. He’s leaving no trace of who you used to be. He has sat your life, filled with uncertainty and fear, upon His wheel as though it were a lump of clay. It may be nothing of great beauty now, but God always leaves things in better shape than when He found it. He has a way of taking an unformed life and shaping it into something beautiful (Ecclesiastes 3:11). He knows that if He leaves you the same, you won’t be useful or productive. He knows – just as you do – that something needs to change.

And so, in His love for you, and His master plan to use you, He takes you into a season of spinning. He grabs hold of you, sits you upon His wheel and begins to spin you at a great speed. Then He bathes you in the water of His Word (Ephesians 5:26) to make you soft and pliable. And just as everything gets lost in the blurry speed of the spin, He begins to apply the real pressure.

He uses His careful hands to push, pull and stretch you. It hurts sometimes. Pressure is never pleasant, but it is necessary if your future is to be any different than your present. And just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. He sticks His hand right down into the middle of your mess and begins to push on you from the inside out.

But, the loving Craftsman working you over also took the time to help you prepare for the pressure. He gave you His Word.

The Word is full of promises for those who will stick it out to the end. “…He that endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 10:22). “…Those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind” (Isaiah 40:31, TMB).

My dear members and friends of Family Harvest Church, God has you on His wheel for a purpose. It’s so that He may shape your future into something different than the memory of your past or the experience of your present.

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to

prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

Jeremiah 29:11, NIV

What God is saying is that He has it all planned out! He has a plan to take care of you, not abandon you! He has a perfect plan to give you the future you’ve always hoped for.

But that’s not the end of His plan. He is shaping you into something different, so that He may shape us into something different.

Family Harvest Church is also upon the wheel of the Potter, and daily we are being shaped and changed into something new and better. Seasons of change have been part of this ministry since it was birthed just two short years ago, and we will enter into further seasons of change as the months and years move us forward. My prayer for us is that we will not get “weary in well doing,” for we know that “in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).

God wants us to adjust our perception of change. We’re learning not to be fearful or apprehensive when we hear the big “c” word. We’re learning to embrace it as a needed and vital part of this ministry’s maturity and growth.

God’s Word to us this year remains the prophetic word of Isaiah 43:18-19: “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

I like how The Message Bible translates verse 19: “Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is!”

Members and friends, be present! Be alert and in tune with what the Spirit of God is doing through YOU as an individual, and through FHC as the local church that God has called you to attend and support. Great things lie just ahead of us!

As God shapes your future and the future of Family Harvest Church, just look up from your position on the wheel and say, “Lord, I’m holding on for the long haul! Don’t leave me behind… Mold me, shape me, and use me for your glory!”

Together, my dear church family, our future is bright! Let us press ahead in faith and courage, for our best days are yet to come. 

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