God hears my voice.
You know when you are entertaining the idea of something and you know it's not God's plan but you convince yourself it could be? How stupid is that?
Do I not believe the Lord is capable of speaking clearly enough for me to understand?
Do I think God leads me to an open door blindfolded and then dips out, leaving me stranded?
Why do I think that feeling unsure means I should act on my ideas to determine the answer?
Where do you draw the line between acting foolishly and taking risks? What I've figured out, in my own limited realm of life, is to look at the motivation behind it. When it comes to taking risks, I usally feel fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of rejection, or loss of control.
When it comes to acting foolish, I tend to feel like I might be missing out on something. Or, it just looks like fun. That stems from not trusting that the Lord always knows what's best for me. I feel like God's best is no fun. I feel my best is better than His best. How do you out-best The Best?
I don't have the formula for determining God's will for your life but trying something out usually doesn't work. If God said it, you don't have to try it out. If you feel like trying it out to see what it's like, then the Lord hasn't spoken yet. Divine declarations kinda take the guessing out of the picture.
"Our days on earth are like grass; like
wildflowers, we bloom and die. The
wind blows, and we are gone- as though we
had never been here. But the love of
the Lord remains forever with those who fear Him."
Nothing I do will last! I can leave no legacy. The only thing that lasts is God's love. No good deeds, no good reputation, no life-changing event lasts the test of time. Only the love of the Lord lasts. The only effect I can ever hope to have on eternity is to plant and water the seed of His love.
I think of it like being a syringe. Injecting God's love into everything I come into contact with- sometimes the injection brings healing, sometimes protection, sometimes drawing the disease itself out.
The syringe can affect nothing outside of itself, it can only take what it has and use it. It doesn't spend all it's time trying to fill itself up.The syringe doesn't decide what or how much goes into it. It simply seeks the right place to inject and fulfills its purpose continuously.
More importantly, it does not judge the one needing the injection. Injections are limitless. Regardless of the need, the syringe performs.
I'm not the cure- just the tool being used to bring the cure. I'm not the miracle, it's the skill of the hands who hold the syringe. It's not the syringe that lasts, but the healing that the syringe brings.
This came to me in church yesterday.
There are times we feel so heavy, the weight of the world literally on our shoulders. We struggle to carry it, to stand, to even kneel with it.
This creates the opportunity for intimacy with the Lord. It can be an invitation to Him to literally come between us and the weight. His body covering mine, He shoulders the burden. He carries the weight as He carries me. His shoulders bear the weight, my shoulders bear the glory of intimacy with Him.
Heaviness breeds initmacy.
Acts 4:32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. NLT
How can I feel that my possessions are not my own so that the pursuit of money isn't my priority? Even the things I buy or own were bought with His money. I am a steward of every blessing and increase He gives me, financial or otherwise. Am I a good steward of the people, positions, opportunities, relationships, gifts, talents, and abilities that God has blessed me with?
Ps 139.23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. NLT
I asked God to point out anything in me that offends Him. He said, "Your anxious thoughts. Not everything can be calculated! You want to take my blessings and wrap them up in a neat box. There cannot be overflow without an open box. How can I open up the windows of Heaven and pour out my blessings into a closed box? My blessings can't be managed because that inplies limitations. My blessings are limitless and can only be received.
Open wide.
Romans 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. NLT
I don't want to copy what's been done before. Anyone can imitate what they've seen before. It shows the mark of individuality, of talent, of being truly set apart to create what's only been seen in the mind's eye. We are achieving our goal of being Christlike when we reproduce the occupation of our own Creator. His Word is creative, the gifts He has placed in us are creative, His timing is creative. The Holy Spirit inside us is creative. Anyone can follow a path that's already been paved. Jesus did not come so we could walk His path to His intimate place with the Father. He came so that we would see that that place exists, that we could learn how to create our own path, and that once He left, we would always know our way back.
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