Hemmed In

 “But God has hemmed me in to nothing, that I may have nothing, do nothing, want nothing, save Himself. Lord, Thou seest the impossible of my hopes, and I expect deliverance from Thee is some days.”  -Jim Elliot, January 18 1951, Shadow of the Almighty

When I look at my life I can sometimes feel hemmed in, but I must realize that fear, sin, laziness and complacency are not God’s work of hemming us in. That is our refusal to do as He has called us to do. We can be hemmed by that lack of relationships, lack of gainful employment, lack of opportunities to serve Him, we can be hemmed in by many different ways. God has a purpose in hemming us in, but when we hem ourselves in we turn from His purposes. Laying around watching television, pursuing our own interest, wasting time playing video games and other things we do to escape God’s plan, is our way of hemming ourselves in. Psalms 139:5 states, “You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.” And Hosea 2:14 says, “"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.” When God hems us in, He uses this time in the desert to speak to us. When we hem ourselves in, we use this time to avoid God from speaking to us. A desert is a dry place to be, it shows us our need for God. It is a time to consider what God has done for us, and ponder what He wants us to do. We have nowhere else to go, but to Him. We can do everything to avoid Him, but in the end, we will have to deal with something in our lives. If we come out of it the same person we were when we entered into it, then we can expect to come back into it again. To be hemmed in is to grow closer to God and see what He wants us to do with our lives. If we refuse to allow Him to work in us and through us, then we can expect to repeat this lesson, over and over again.