A GOOD WAY TO MOVE FORWARD IN OUR SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
Two painters were teamed up on a small six-foot scaffolding. I
looked over and my friend, Karen, was ducking and trying to move away from the
flailing arms of her partner, Jill. Jill was on meth and jumping erratically all
over the scaffold, arms and legs going in all directions. Sometimes we act like
Jill.
We get ourselves going in so many directions that we aren’t really
moving forward.
To become a more grounded Christian, we need to slow down a bit
and take charge of our lives, and move forward diligently. The dictionary
definition of diligence is “a constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is
undertaken; persistent exertion of body or mind.”
But we have to remember that we can’t really do this alone. All
the human effort we make to do God’s will and live a more holy life is only empty
religion and rules, if the Holy Spirt and the Lord Jesus Christ aren’t involved
in the process.
Jesus told the disciples: “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send, shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).
This is how it works: The Lord leads us to something that
resonates in our hearts; we connect with it, acknowledge it, and make up our minds
to pursue what He is leading us into. Sometimes if He shows us a direction to
take and we don’t listen and instead we get busy going a bunch of other
directions, the Lord will just stop and let us go ahead and do our own thing.
He’ll wait for us to wake up and come back to where we left Him.
The Holy Spirit reminds us to go back to the idea He gave us before. Yep, the
one we didn’t follow the first time He told us. The Lord is patient. He’ll wait
a long time for us to “remember, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
Each person’s journey will be different. John 16:13 tells us the
Holy Spirit is present to guide us: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide
you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall
hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things.” WOW! How awesome for the
Spirit of God Himself to take the time to really show something to each of us,
individually. That’s love.
Isaiah 48:6 says: “Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye
declare it? I have shown thee new things from this time, even hidden things,
and thou didst not know them.”
How exciting and fulfilling it is if we just take the time in our
frenzied lives to take notice of what He’s really doing for us and give Him
some credit for it.
Job 8:7 tells us, “Though thy
beginning was small, yet thy latter
end should greatly increase.” As we acknowledge the Lord in our daily lives, we
grow spiritually and we see even more.
Hebrews 11:6 says: “He is
a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” How amazingly wonderful can the
rewards be when they come from the creator of all things?!
QUESTIONS AND EASY CHALLENGES
1. What truth have you received from the Lord lately that has
resonated in your heart?
2. Describe a time when you were going in way too many directions
at once. How did it effect you?
3. If you think you might be going in too many directions now,
what is one small change you can make this week to change that?
4. What good thing has happened to you recently? Have you
acknowledged the Lord for the blessing?
5. What verse gives us hope that even though a beginning may be
small, later it will be much bigger?
6. Where does it say the Lord will show us new things? Do you
believe it?
Love, Carolyn
If you’d like a free PDF download of 6 chapters on
seeing with Spiritual Eyes, let me know at cjmolica@hotmail.com.
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