Ruffled Feathers

Has anyone ruffled your feathers lately?  Have there been any

unforeseen bills?  Any sickness in your family recently?  Any

inconveniences or interruptions in your life?  Have you complained

lately? Have you asked for release? Have you felt any discomfort in

your world?
 

If so, I have a word for you.

 

"In a desert land He found him, in a barren and howling waste. He

shielded him and cared for him; He guarded him as the apple of His

eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest

and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and

carries them on its pinions. So the LORD alone did lead him…"

Deuteronomy 32:10-12 (NIV)

 

Life affords many opportunities for ruffled feathers.  We should not

be unaware, for the Bible clearly teaches that:

 

"Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”  Acts 14:22 (NAS)

 

God loves you enough to provide for your needs and He loves you enough

to want to see you grow up and mature.  He has a purpose for your

life.  He has a specific task that He wants you to do.  No one else

can do what He has equipped and is equipping you to do.  That’s

powerful!  So He must stretch us.  He must stir us up or we will nest

comfortably until He takes us Home.

 

Let me explain a little about an eagle and her nest of eaglets.

The eagle pads her nest with downy soft feathers, gentle moss, and

other soft articles she finds.

Her young are loved and cared for as the apple of her eye.

She lovingly instructs, shields and guards her young.

She wants to see them strong.  And though she loves them and would not

mind coddling them all her life, she knows that in order for them to

fulfill the purpose for which they were born, one day they must fly.

 Learning to fly requires faith, perseverance and often A BIG PUSH!

 So, as they grow, she begins to remove the downy soft feathers.  She

speaks to them lovingly.  She is not mad.  She is not tired of them

and meeting their needs.  She is just keenly aware of her purpose, and

the purpose of each of her eaglets.  She has been blessed to hold them

tightly, but now she has been chosen to set them free to fly.

 

We sense that we were born for more than just resting in the nest.

But we’re afraid.  We complain that "so-and-so" gets all the big

breaks.  And when given the chance, we choose the comfortable over

trusting in God alone for the unseen.  Instead of seeing

inconveniences and surprising trials as opportunities to grow, we

whine.

 

The mother eagle is very aware of time; even more aware of timing.  At

precisely the right moment, she instructs her young that NOW is the

time for them to fly.  We are all big talkers while we are safe and

secure.

 

Yet God says the same thing to us, “You were made for the wide open

sky.  You were made for more than this.  You were made to spread your

wings and fly.  I want more for you than the familiar.  I want more

for you than muddling through this life.  I want you to allow Me to

help you soar.  I want you to taste and see that I am good.  I have

great and awesome things in store for your life!”

 

YOU WERE BORN TO SOAR!

 

Friend, did you know that God enabled some to walk on water?  Some to

be healed.  Some to see miracles.  Some to be enabled to forgive.

Many have come to know their purpose for life.  We long for the

indescribable joy of soaring above this world.  God teaches us how to

fulfill our purpose to soar.

 

Is God stirring up your nest right now?

God doesn’t walk behind us yelling, “Go!”

God goes ahead, bidding, “Come!”

 

He is inviting you to take the next step with Him.  He alone will

lead.  At times it will seem that He is pushing you over the edge, but

it is not to see you dashed against the rocks below.  It is to see you

soar.

 

Do you want more from this life?

Do you want to get to a place where you can see your trial, your

testing, your tribulation or your troubles from a different point of

view?

 

Then I invite you to trust the One who loves you more than His own

life.  I invite you to consider that maybe God is removing some of the

feathers in your nest because He loves you.  Remember, the Word of God

says you are the apple of His eye.

 

If He is stirring up your nest, it is because He wants to take you a

step further toward Him and His purposes for your life.  What an

incredible God!  He wants more for you.

 

One last fact about eagles…did you know that when a storm moves into

the area where an eagle is flying and the winds are at a high

velocity, the thunder is rumbling across the canyon, the lightning is

cracking in the sky, that at that very moment, the eagle flies

straight into the eye of the storm.  She allows the very winds, that

threaten to overcome her, to be the channel through which she soars

higher and more steadily.

Up, up, up.  Up to a place where her view changes!

 

Only God could think of such a thing as that!

 Friend, give to God the area that is threatening to overwhelm you.

Spread your wings.  Trust your Heavenly Father.  If you start to fall,

He will bear you up on His wings, for you were BORN TO SOAR!

  

PRAY:

Lord, the storm has been brewing for some time now.  I am very

uncomfortable.  I have asked you to feather my nest and make me cozy

in this particular situation but I realize that You are much more

concerned with my holiness than my happiness.  You are much more

concerned with my Christlikeness than my comfort.  I thank You for

reminding me that I am the apple of your eye.  You will not let me

fall.  You will enable me to go sky-high.  I trust You.  Please change

my shallow view.  Thank You for reminding me I was born to soar.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen!

 

Brenda Blankenship is a wife, mother of four, Bible teacher, speaker,

author, and composer.  Her husband, Hub Blankenship, Jr. pastors

Milestones Church, a church they planted in the fall of 1996.  Brenda

asked Jesus Christ into her heart at the age of 5. She committed her

life to full-time ministry as a junior high student.  She holds a

degree in Bible from Columbia International University.  She serves as

the Director of Women’s Ministry at Milestones Church.

Her heart cries with the Psalmist, “Teach us, O Lord, to number our

days that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12.