Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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From a sermon by Preacher Clark in 1971
On a Sunday afternoon prayer meeting in 1971, Preacher Clark said, “Until you are left alone, God will never get His hands on you.” Nobody can say such a thing unless he has been left alone. When God has manipulated the circumstances of our lives to make it so that we are left alone, He can deal with us as at no other time.
When I was a senior in college, majoring in theater, a huge musical production called Man of La Mancha was to be produced in the spring. It was to be such a large production that virtually everyone in both the theater and music departments of the university would be needed to pull it off. Most people, including myself, felt fairly certain that I would play the lead role in that play, but God had other plans. He turned the heart of the head of the music department against me. I had shown him great disrespect when I was an arrogant freshman, and he had not forgotten it, and now he saw his chance at revenge. So, I reaped the evil that I had sown, and since everyone I was close to in college was involved now in that gigantic production, God had me where he wanted me--alone. He took advantage of my inability to stay entertained with foolish company and turned my life around.
Uncle Joe thought the time when his body was being eaten up with cancer and no man could help him was the best time of his life. He was past all hope, given by his physicians ninety days or less to live. Because God wanted him all to Himself for a while, he afflicted him and dealt with his heart. Uncle Joe humbled himself and responded in faith. God healed him and gave him over thirty-seven more years to live on the earth.
Obedience to God sometimes makes a person alone with God, and at other times disobedience leads to it. Regardless of which way it happens, to be alone with God is a blessed place to be.
Noah, being “a preacher of righteousness”, was alone with God while building the ark among a generation of completely wicked men. Abraham was alone with God when he left all earthly securities in Ur of the Chaldees and followed the call of God into unknown territories. Moses was alone with God when he heard a voice calling to him from the burning bush he had seen. Paul was forsaken by all men when he stood before mighty Caesar. Apparently, God had determined in that case that Paul would receive all the honor for confessing Christ before the Emperor of the world.
Jesus was alone with God many a night in prayer, receiving wisdom and power that he would demonstrate in the villages and byways of Palestine the next day. And when the angry mob came to arrest him, “his disciples forsook him, and fled”, leaving him, again, alone with God to face the cruel hatred that all flesh holds against true holiness.
Do not fear being alone with God. That is where the best memories are made. Just fear God, knowing that if you do, there may well come a time when He will choose to draw you aside to be alone with Him.