Crossing Your Rubicon

In 49 B.C., Julius Caesar led his army to the banks of the Rubicon, a small river that marked the boundary between Italy and Gaul. Caesar was well aware that Roman law forbade a general from leading his army out of the province from which he was assigned. By crossing the Rubicon, he would violate that law.

Caesar turned to his men and remarked, The die is cast. As he began to wade through the river as he forded it, it was a bold move and an act of defiance that sparked a three-year civil war. But his actions ultimately left Julius Caesar the undisputed ruler of the Roman world.

Since that time, the phrase, Crossing the Rubicon, has symbolized the conquest of a significant figurative boundary. I believe, friends, that this not only can apply to generals in war, but to soldiers in the Lord's army. I truly believe that the Lord God will bring each of us to the place in our life in service to Him where a vital decision must be made if we are to progress in our usefulness to God.

Our circumstances may be just as challenging as Caesar's as we are surrounded on every side by obstacles too great for us to surmount on our own strength and resources. It may be a time in our life of a great crisis that challenges us beyond our natural ability and our physical capacity. How we respond to God is critical here, as it can affect the rest of our days.

Whether it is a call He has placed on our life that we have refused to obey, or whether it's an area in our life we have yet yielded in submission to Him, or perhaps it is a test of our faith where God is trying our hearts to see if we really do believe His word and trust in Him. I woke this morning with an irregular heartbeat that only worsened as the morning progressed. I had trouble breathing, and I couldn't catch my breath for over two hours.

I was sweating profusely as my heart raced faster and faster, and my assessment of myself grew pretty grim. All I could do was to sit upright in a chair, knowing this was exactly how the great George Whitefield died, and I felt like I was dying. The words of the prophet Jeremiah came to me, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.

All I could do was to focus all my attention and energy on the word Lord twice mentioned in that passage, and it was there I camped out with my God and leaned on and believed in and relied on Him and His providence in calling me home or prolonging my life for His use and His glory. It was well with my soul either way to go to be with Him or to be healed by Him. My mind had only one possessive thought, that title, Lord, that spoke of His sovereignty over all things.

Once I got there, it all changed. My heartbeat became normal once again. My breathing was restored.

I was able to climb two flights of stairs without any difficulty and appear before you today, friends, to bring this message to you now with His enabling. I believe I crossed a Rubicon today and can say with the psalmist I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. If God and His sovereignty brings you there, friend, to the banks of your own personal Rubicon, know this, there are great rewards to those who ford it and make it to the other side.

Let us pray.