I have found again and again that when I have no desire for anything and I feel unsure about life, I just need to take a couple of days off from everything and spend time communing with the Lord. I just need to find His Presence, find His joy, and find my reason for living in Him again. I can’t do His work without His presence anyway. I can’t do His work without His voice leading me. That would be like me walking into a room without any lights on in the middle of the night. I will definitely stumble. The best thing for me to do is spend time with God and seek His face and His strength, so I can find the courage I need for the next step in my life.
I don’t trust too much in my own strength. I have experienced that when I do, I just turn around and cringe later, embarrassed at what I’ve done. I have done foolish things, which were the result of being too confident with myself. It is easy to assume God wants us to do something when we haven’t even sought Him out for direction, or we haven’t spent enough time in His presence. I have in times past assumed God wanted me to be in this or that church, or be a worker in another church. I even thought I sought Him, and yet realized I didn’t wait long enough for Him to direct me. I just assumed that’s where He wanted me. After all, the church needed my help! Surely that is good in His eyes. Although He is so merciful and so gracious, and has always worked things out for my good, it is so much better to do it right at the get go. When I do, I save myself from a lot of heartaches.
It’s tempting to find interests outside of God. But when you feel you have a calling in your life and He has chosen you for a work, whatever interest you find yourself immersed in will soon become a stumbling block in your life. I remember watching one of my favorite A&E movies and getting these impressions that I should turn it off and spend some time with the Lord. I continued to watch and ignored the impressions. After the movie I checked my phone and I got a text that sent me crying on my knees and wishing that I had listened and had turned off my movie. It was a text from my sister telling me that they had rushed my two-year old niece to Presbyterian Hospital in New York City because of a collapsed lung. (I had related her miracle story in another blog post, Finding God’s Help.) That day I had decided to stop watching my movies and surrender my life to the Lord, again. I am thankful it was just a movie I had to give up. I am thankful that God was merciful enough to hear my prayer despite my stubbornness in refusing to listen to His nudging for me to pray. Thank God my niece is alive, and I don’t have to live with that guilt for the rest of my life because I didn’t listen to Him.
It is so easy to lapse into the world of distractions and entertainment when we don’t want to do something, especially praying. It is so easy to just take a back seat and let God choose someone else to do the work He desires for us to do. But then a day is going to come and you are going to find yourself empty. Empty because the world can never fill the calling and the longing that you have in your heart. Sooner or later you’re going to have to make a hard choice to take up your cross and follow Him. It’s better now than later. The sooner we find ourselves in His presence, the sooner we will find His peace that passes man’s understanding, His joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.
Finding contentment in God is easier than we imagine it to be. Like anything in life, practice makes it perfect. If we practice coming to the Lord, approaching our time with Him as something that is so beneficial to our well being, not something that we must deny ourselves pleasure, but rather we find pleasure in His presence, we will find it is easy. Soon it will be something we want to do all the time. Soon, not taking the time to be with Him will seem abnormal, something we hate to miss. When we start to see a glimpse of Him in our lives, our prayers being granted to us no matter how small and insignificant, our questions answered, our emptiness being filled by His presence, we soon would not want to part from Him. When our soul is being filled by His joy and love, experiencing His peace we have not known before, and everyday becomes an adventure, spending time with Him becomes something we look forward to. So much so we start to find that many things in this life are superficial. The things we used to think are a big deal becomes meaningless, something we don’t value anymore, and they have lost their attraction. We have found something so meaningful now and it’s simply God’s presence. He is more than enough. We don’t need to have our dreams fulfilled or our goals completed, because His presence alone fills us and it is enough to content us. If He desires for me to go forward and do His work, or whatever else He has in mind, I’m all for it. Because I have found again and again that in my weakness He is my strength. He will be my reason for going forward. He will give me the desire to do His work. I don’t have to drum up strength and pretend I am brave. I have found that when life throws me a curve ball and I have decided to cower in a corner and go into my safe zone, I can just reach out to Him in my heart and in my spirit and find Him. He will take me in His arms. He will lift me up again. He will give me the strength I need to go on and move forward to the work He has for me. I have found again and again that in my quiet moments with Him, being content in His presence is my purpose. I don’t need to do any thing else. I don’t need to be some great preacher or prophet to feel special. His presence alone fills me and satisfies me. He gives me worth. He makes me feel special. I just need to find Him and He alone will fill my life with meaning. Whatever work He desires in my life to accomplish, He will get it done, if I simply find my contentment in Him.
“For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” {Philippians 1:21}
“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” {Psalm 16:11}
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank You Father that You are my God who hears and answers prayers. I thank You so much for Your love for me. Everyday You cause me to hope in You. I am lost without You Jesus. I need You everyday. Thank You Father for being here for me all the time and never ever failing me.
Lord Jesus, I pray Savior for Your grace upon my soul. Please Father forgive me of my sins and for always ever so much wandering in my heart away from You. Please Savior, save me. Save me from this world and help me to love You with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength. Help me to seek after Your will in my life and do Your work. What would it profit me if I could gain this whole world and suffer the loss of my soul? Lord Jesus, Father, help me to love You, to do Your work and to do Your will. Father I pray this in Your most wonderful and lovely name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
Rp5/2017
