Is It My Time?

posted on Aug 04 by Linda Beck in the Guest Authors, Linda Beck category

Even though I’m able to drive to church now, I’m delighted that I can still catch Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Texas, on his Sunday morning services.  He has a new book out, “It’s Your Time.’

Osteen is a positive thinker/preacher and some people consider him charismatic or a prosperity preacher. If one really listens to his services, they can see God as “supernatural,” or the God who can do the impossible.

Looking over his audience (several thousand people), one can see that most of these people come out in their “Sunday best.” But Joel knows that many there are suffering through job losses, illnesses, broken hearts, and the consequences of sin. He knows that he and his family have been blessed and his ministry supports many worthy causes.

He encourages his audiences all over the world with scripture that shows the miracles that Jesus performed in Biblical days and still can in today’s world. Recently, he talked about Jesus’ first miracle of “turning water into wine.” He compared the value of new wine to aged wine. I liked the example he used of how God can take us “further quicker.” He told of some believer’s health problems and I wished he could know about my “healing” in the past.

Every time I lie down to do my bed exercises, I think about how far God has brought me since 2002 when I couldn’t even wiggle my toes for 29 days. There were the lessons of learning to use a transfer board because I couldn’t even stand to pivot to a wheelchair, toilet, or shower.

Some folks still ask if I can walk at all. I tell them I can walk a little, but I have fallen a lot. I’ve accepted my limitations because I know God has used these as lessons to those who are healthy, or encouragement to others who have illnesses that have brought them to deep stages of despair.

Joel discussed financial situations that have resulted because of today’s economy. Many in his church have experienced job losses, home foreclosures, and major medical expenses. Due to the size of his ministry world-wide, it is obvious that there are a lot of “givers” who support the ministry financially. But I suspect they have lost some support in today’s economy.  He encourages us to “look up rather than look down, to step forward, rather than living in the past,” and I personally believe that is what his ministry has done with their losses.

This spoke to me personally because even I know that I am more blessed than so many others; I also know I’m struggling because of taking on the debt of driving again. But I loved it when he said, “When you are down to nothing, God is up to something.”

I know I have the encouragement that selling some of my books has been. Osteen says that our Lord and Savior, is a “God of acceleration.” He may put the “pedal to the metal” and help me resolve my financial problems so I can buy the gas and drive wherever He leads me to go. After all, I have prayed for Him to expand my territory just as Jabez did in First Chronicles 4:10. I will be honored if He continues to use me to share how, in spite of illness, He can heal the brokenhearted.