When to stay and when to leave

Where God leads, there is joy and peace. In the book of Isaiah there is a beautiful account of God’s blessing. It speaks of rain and of flourishing. It speaks of seed and of bread. There is accomplishment and purpose and the part I love the most speaks of mountains and hills and trees in the field that burst into song and clap their hands.What a beautiful picture of God’s blessing.Don’t misunderstand me. There may be trouble and hardship along the path where God leads. The scripture speaks of perseverance under trial and patience in testing. Yet, when God leads, even in the hardest of places, even on a seeming solid rock, life grows and flourishes.The difficulty comes in knowing what is adversity for the sake of His calling and what is a place devoid of his blessing and filled with hardship because we became involved in an endeavour and took a road we should never have travelled.Here are some indicators that the road we are on is perhaps not God’s purpose for us.  When these exist, it's probably time to leave:

• When people get broken. Plans and possessions and purposes are never more important than people.

• When money is a motivating factor. Money is a tool, for sure. It is needed to accomplish things. There is nothing wrong with profit. However, God requires that we love people and use money. Never should we love money and use people. When money and possessions becomes the motivator above doing good, then the love of this will bring evil.

• When people are unequally yoked. What does this mean? When the internal, external and philosophical motivations of people are so different, they cannot possibly pull together.

• When the purpose, the “why”, is unclear and unwritten. There’s a reason why the scripture warns that where there is no vision, the people run lawlessly. God instructs us to write the vision for a reason; so that all can see it and run in the same direction.

God’s plans and purposes for us are always with the intent of changing us to be more like him, reflecting his love to the world. Our accomplishing some great goal does not matter to him. People do.As far as I can tell, there are only three institutions that truly matter to Jesus.  Marriage, Family and the Church.Organizations and companies do not matter to him. People do.  The blessing of God is present in these places when the people within them work with integrity and are ethical in their dealings with one another and with the world – reflecting Him.God asks that we go to great lengths to serve, not to be served; that we give, not take. When this happens, we are growing to be more like Him and we reflect His character to a broken world.   This is when the mountains and the trees and the fields burst forth into applause. “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign that will endure forever.” – Isaiah 55:12-13