...is actually not of this world.
I don't know about you, but I find the world, life, and people SO discouragng sometimes. Just when I made a plan that I will go bother people at the Foreign Student Office if I can get into the next semester although another office hasn't sent me the papers I need, my work schedule changed in the way that postpones my trip to Cologne; and then it really may be too late.
Well meaning people. Just when I decided it is time to take a step in faith, a loving disciple (!!!) would warn me to reconsider, because if it fails to bear fruit, I may not be able to cope with the disappointment.
And this is hard to balance! Because sometimes God works through people to direct us!
But! -
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Cor 10:5
This is it. If we are ever to know what God wants in a certain situation, we need to have a deep, personal, meaningful and living relationship with Him. We need to recognize His voice among all the other voices. In Jer 29 God promises us that we would find him - if we really want to.
Capture every thought - especially doubts when it comes to acts of faith - and weigh it against what God is telling you. Unless you know a prophet, nobody else can tell you exactly what God is planning specifically for you.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Rom 5:5
"Listening to your heart" in this case doesn't mean following the emotions. It means that God found a way to dwell n us, and we agreed to it. We are carrying AMAZING POWER within us. It is available to us at any time!
Warnings and doubts are actually good, so is advice. Take all of that and bring it before your God, make sense of it together with Him. But beware letting the doubts go by unfiltered, they can damage your faith and relationships dramatically. Make sure that every decision you make is one made in the knowledge of God, one made after considering the doubts and the warnings and hearing God's voice.
The best thing in this discouraging life and world, is the fact that we have the power, love and wisdom within us, that's not of this world. Within us! What do you want to do with it?
I will devote the month of August to prayer for specific direction in my life.
Please contact me if you want to do something similar and would like to exchange the thoughts and experience. Would you fast too? How much extra time praying would you spend? Do you have any special place to go to pray?
Many Blessings,
Silvija, Düsseldorf
3 comments:
Sometime last month I took my car to the garage and they said they would call me when they were done and also that it would not take long. The day went by and no call. At about 16.30 I call the garage annoyed and asked why they hadn't called and when I could pick my car. He said "anytime now, you can come and get it". I was at work, so I decided to go at 17.00. Suddenly the sky darkened, my colleague and I went to the window wondering why it was so dark on a summer afternoon and the just as suddenly these HUGE hailstones started falling from the sky with such force they were bouncing of the window sill and ground. I saw a BMW afterwards with dents and a smashed windshield and was like WOW!!!. Then I remembered my car (not a BMW :-)), which was safely indoors at the garage. I normally park it outside and in that moment I saw God in the garage not calling. In the delay of not getting my car "on time". There is always a reason why, which we will understand by and by :-)
Dear Eunice, thank you for sharing, it is encouraging to (continually) be reminded of our wonderfully-good GOD!
Sil!! Another amazing arrow in my heart. I WILL join you in praying. I will fast too. How do you propose we do it? Thank you for your heart and for this blog. It is nice to have a place to go in this discouraging world....hvala lepa!
Silvija, this is a GREAT idea. I definitely will join you. Maybe we can circulate a list of specific things where we're looking for direction and pray for each other. I really need some clarity, hope and a renewed sense of purpose. This will be great!
Eunice, great point! Glad to hear that you were able to see God's love expressed this way.
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