THE CHAIR

As I sit in an orange chair this morning, my eyes and my thoughts are focused on the faces around me. Some are just like me, sitting, waiting, wondering, and others are in obvious discomfort, pain, and worry. Sitting in this chair I realize where I am and all the different outcomes that can take place while sit here waiting. I ponder on the things that will happen and the news at the end of my minutes passed taking up space in this waiting room, along with so many others.

It is here in this chair that words begin to pour into my thoughts from a familiar place, inviting me to think of another seating place. My mind takes me to a chair, a chair found in the throne room where the Lord of Lords and King of Kings sits, enthroned over all the earth and the heavens. He is sitting there completely at ease. To look at me one would imagine looking down into the Earth and being able to identify one super tiny dot out of thousands of other dots that are really His creation, His children. I am one of them. There on His throne, He sits being able to see me, to know why I am here, and knowing every thought that is passing through my mind.

God sits on His majestic chair and smiles. 

Earthquakes shake the foundations of the world. Furious winds turn oceans and everything on Earth into spinning tops. Humanity is going crazy with rumors of wars, fighting against one another and not ever being happy or satisfied with what they have. Protestors fight for their rights and others seek to remove the Bible from existence and still, through it all, God knows where to find me, in this room, on this chair.

We all sit on chairs, different kinds, while the turmoil and the whirlwinds take us for a spin. Sometimes even our faith gets moved to see if we are going to stand and believe. 

We are on chairs that hold us in our fears and in our pain. God sits on a chair that is not moved by our frailty and our unbelief. He sits unmovable, unchanging and unable to lose even a hair of power. He sits securely to remind us to be assured that He is with us. He sits up tall and confident to remind us that we are not alone in the waiting room of our lives. He sits robed in splendor and majesty so that we can look upon His love and be filled with that love that changes the hardest heart and heals the broken spirit.

This morning, I've spent a long time in this chair. I know what is coming and I knew some of what would come my way. Many of you sit in a chair of waiting and despair. Maybe it's a dialysis chair you wish you could pull the machine off and run, run, and run quickly away and away and never return. Maybe you're on the train full of people that are hurtful with their words and attitude and your stress level has hit the ceiling and you're desperate to get out. You feel like you can't breathe because you have so many worries on your mind. Maybe you sit on a chair of feeling like a failure. It's easy to sit in this chair when you see your child going from bad to worse and you begin to hear that voice that says, "It's all your fault! You should've been more aggressive in making him check his sugars. You should have forced him to try new foods. Failure!" 

But, this morning as I rise up, ready to head home, I no longer sit in that chair of waiting because the Lord showed himself to be sitting on my side, ruling in my favor and reminding me His voice is the only voice that matters. If you're like me, maybe you've worried and wondered about a lot of things, even when you have faith and believe. I think God allows these hard moments in our lives to see where we stand and where we shall continue to sit and stand. Will we run and abandon our faith the moment the news is negative and we have to live with more challenges? Will we go from believing God to blaming God and denying His power or will we accept this new moment in our lives and use it to get closer to the Lord, really learn how to pray and seek His face and hunger after Him, trust Him and wait for a miracle. I still believe in miracles. 

Throughout the coming weeks, there are many more chairs waiting for me. Most of those chairs are cold, hard and have been used over and over by people who have made on of two decisions. They've accepted the challenge life has delivered and decided to fight with faith in their hearts and God in their lives, or the pain has been too great, the loss has been felt immediately and they've lost the battle way before they even started to get up and leave the waiting room.

As the weeks go by and I find myself in one of those many waiting rooms, each room will be a reminder of prayer room, a room for seeking the One who sits on the Throne, an invitation to enter in to the Throne Room with Him. Each time I sit in the waiting room, I will see my family and our situation wrapped in garments of royalty, claimed by the King, and covered by His mercy. I will not fear this chair, for it will become my comfort and my joy as I walk through the valley of shadow and death, and fear no evil, for the Lord is with me. He is with my family. He is with you and your family as you go through your difficulties 

Do not give up! Hold on and never lose hope. God is not shaken and confused by our problems. God is not overwhelmed and stressed by our anxieties. He invites us to sit before Him and be at peace and that is exactly what I intend to do. We will lost many things. Moments spent on the chair will cause us to be our or that chair we occupy as work or school and cause us to lose money or time of learning. Still, as the loss comes, we will gain new strength and a greater revelation of who our Heavenly Father truly is for us and in our lives.

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I sit on this chair or waiting. Today I leave this chair and surrender it to the Lord. God, I give you the seat of my heart. Come and sit in the midst of my heart and my life.

I pray that today, if like me, you find yourself going through some hard moments where it seems you just keep getting negative news, that you will stand up, take a deep breath and surrender all your cares to the Lord. He is real and He will never abandon us in our hardships. I pray that you will be confident and trust no matter what comes your way. I pray that I will have the ability to persevere no matter what comes our way and that the Lord will truly and absolutely be glorified in our lives and through our lives in Jesus Name. Amen and Amen.

By Angeline M Duran Santiago