Devotionals for Pastors - How to Live Really Large
By Ed Wrather
DAY 27
Enlarge the place of your tent, And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your stakes. - Isaiah 54:2 NKJV.
For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. - 2 Corinthians 5:2 NKJV.
Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease. - 2 Peter 1:13-15 NKJV.
And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory...." - 1 Chronicles 4:10a NKJV.
In Warsaw, Poland, a new house is being built between two existing buildings. The architect for the project is Jakub Szczesny. The house will be a temporary home for various artists and writers beginning with Israeli writer Edgar Keret. What's so unusual about this house? The Architect said, "It's the most challenging project I ever had. The living conditions in it will require a spaceship like adaptability." Why is that? At the narrowest point, the house will be two feet, four inches wide. At the widest point, the house will be slightly less than four feet wide. The reason for building the house? To provide a living space that has a restrictive feel to the inhabitant's surroundings. I think that would do it for me! (Orange News 09.12.12)
Jabez prayed asking God to "...bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory." Just moving from a smaller home to a larger one, you do have a sense of enlargement. The first home for our family was a small apartment where we lived for a few months, and then we bought a small mobile home that was our home for about four years. It did seem as though the longer we lived in the mobile home the smaller it became. Maybe that was why the next home that we bought was an old two story house with about 3,000 square feet. It was not in the best of shape, but we did enjoy our enlarged area for living. We only had the house for a year and a half, but we enjoyed our time there.
Another way to enlarge your territory (coast - old KJV) appears to be as Jabez was suggesting with a land area. This would fit in with the idea of a merchant having additional markets for his goods. It also fits with a larger ministry area. When I changed careers from being a parole officer to that of a pastor, my ministry area increased dramatically. With the advent of the Internet, my ministry area had an exponential increase.
A third way that our territory can be increased is in a personal way. Isaiah speaks of enlarging the place of your tent. The apostle Paul and the apostle Peter speak of their human bodies as being a tent. More specifically, they are speaking of their earthly lives as being like a tent. Your earthly tent can be enlarged by an increase of margins. When you have less debt, and more savings you have a financial margin. When you are in a good relationship with your spouse and your friends, you will have an increased emotional margin. When you are in a good relationship with your God by spending devotional time with Him, as in time, in the Bible, prayer, fellowship with other believers, and serving the Lord, you will then have spiritual margin. When you have spiritual margin, you will find it results in your having increased margin, an enlarged tent, for every area of your life. And that, is how you can really live large.
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