Straddling the Fence
Posted by Linda Darlene Gibson June 5th, 2016 2,961 Views 0 Comments
“Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing.” 1 Kings 18:20
When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have to truly Trust him in all the decisions in our lives because he doesn’t just want part of us, he wants all of us. We can’t be a follower of Christ in one part of our life and not the other. I used to waver in my opinion to suit myself. Yes, I ‘straddled the fence’ over many things in my life.
Life can become challenging when trying to own up to our decisions of the past. I have found there are some of us classified as a runner and others as fighters. The ones’ that have a good balance in their lives know when it is time to run and a time to fight. I believe this comes with maturity in our Christian lives. I once was a runner; I didn’t want to face things as they were. Fear gripped me when thinking of hurting someone or having to say “no”. In reality, I was hurting my Heavenly Father, myself and the ones in my life that truly loved me. I wanted to do right by him and most of all for myself, I wanted to trust him but I was selfish and in some ways of my life, I did as I pleased.
I straddled the fence for so long it became so easy for me until one day I knew God wasn’t going to accept it anymore. It was either ‘follow him’ or ‘follow Baal’. I was scared, confused and angry. God knew me and my ways, so he wanted to change my heart. He wanted to know my sincerity for him. He tried me, he wanted me completely, not just part of me. I knew what I had to do and that was to cross the fence and walk away from it. I had to choose to walk in God’s field or in mine, but I knew it was going to be a battle for that fence had been there in my life for a long time.
God was challenging me to grow up as his child. He gave me the choice to follow him or not at all just as Elijah ask the people, how much longer are you going to waver? When I finally was able to answer the question and made the choice to cross into God’s field, I tried often to go back to that fence out of fear but God put people in my life to remind me of what I needed to do.
Every step toward God I took, the enemy would try to push me back till I eventually just kept doing as God would have me do. I became stronger with every obstacle and I learned to fight. I was no longer a runner, I was a warrior for God and you can be too. You just have to decide to follow God or to follow Baal, what will it be?