This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls… Jeremiah 6:16
The most difficult part for me in writing my blog usually is getting started. Once I feel like I am off to a good start the words flow and I can write for a long time. Now part of that problem is at times I use too many words. But, the main point I am attempting to make here is so often when we stand at a crossroads, we are not sure where to start. Or, at least I am not sure where to start. I shouldn’t assume that my struggles are the same as yours.
The Lord shares with us many times in His written Word, the Bible is where to start. In this verse all the way back in the Old Testament in the Book of Jeremiah, long before we knew Jesus, God shares with us where we should start when we stand at the crossroads. Stand and look…ask for the ancient paths…ask where the good way is….walk in it…you will find rest for your souls… How many of you find yourselves standing at crossroads on a regular basis? It happens to me quite often. God’s word tells me where to look, what to do and how to find rest for my soul. I need more rest for my soul.
If you follow my blog then you know I am not a Bible scholar. I am just someone who loves the Bible, loves to read it, loves to know it is close by and loves to gain greater insight into the Bible as often as I can. I get insight from a sermon delivered by Andy Stanley, a message from a country preacher, a book, a friend, or when I see God through the eyes of a child or my daily life. I love to share God too. He has done so much for me.
God has been very active in my life over the past 5 years in particular. I have always “searched” for God. I remember as a child wondering who God was. I heard things like God is everywhere. God is love. I went to church on a regular basis and remember getting attendance pens in our church for coming to church 13 consecutive weeks. What I barely can remember was if I knew God in a personal way. I would pray to God. I would be asked to love God. I would try to stay awake in church long enough to understand more about Him, but He was not someone I could claim I had a relationship with. I do remember things would happen that I might believe were evidence of God showing up in a real way, but I still was not quite sure what I believed. Thanks to His grace and mercy and my continual journey to find God, that uncertainty has changed for me in a big way. God has become very real for me. He has become “my Father in heaven, thy will be done…” When I pray, I have come to know He hears me and answers my prayers. One problem is that the answers I get are more often than not very different than the answers I am looking for.
When I write or speak with others about God being very active in my life, I recognize a variety of responses from others. I cannot hear very well and have not been able to since birth. As a result I see a lot in people’s body language because that is one of the ways, I have learned to understand what people are saying when I can’t quite hear them. I can see people’s reactions when we speak who think I must be crazy suggesting that the Lord communicates with me. They rarely say it, but their body language speaks loud and clear. I also have some really close friends who ask me about it in bewilderment at times, but we do talk about how I know God has spoken in my life. This is hard to explain, but I believe it is worthy of our attention.
First of all, I have only recognized once in my life that I actually heard the Lord’s voice. To my knowledge and understanding, I have never had a dramatic encounter with God like Moses. I have not had a burning bush experience. The time I actually heard His voice is worth sharing at some point, but that is not my focus today. My focus in this series is how He speaks in my life on a daily basis. I have come to learn when He is speaking to me and how He is doing it. As I have learned of His presence, I have also come to realize that there are likely many ways that I STILL miss hearing Him when He speaks to me. (to be continued...)
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