I do not know how to go out or come in.
...So give Your servant a hearing heart [.]
From Solomon's prayer, 1 Kings 3
NASB: "an understanding heart"; original literal wording "a hearing heart"
...I am but a little child;
I do not know how to go out or come in. ...So give Your servant a hearing heart [.] From Solomon's prayer, 1 Kings 3 NASB: "an understanding heart"; original literal wording "a hearing heart"
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A thought came to me just now about decision-making. I've made a few particularly bad decisions in my life, thinking they were God's direction for me. Many other Christians have done this, too. I'm curious about what leads us to decide something is God's will when it's not, but I think it looks something like this:
We tend to commit the process to God rather than committing ourselves to Him. We then resort to human ways of decision-making, treating God as our CEO rather than our intimate Master of everything. We do this because we are still living our own lives. Christ living His life in and through us hasn't begun to be a reality yet. We may think it has. But how would we even know the difference, if we haven't yet begun to do life-fracturing, life-reconstructing business with Him? Born-again Christians and people who don't know God have exactly the same chance of making a poor decision, as long as the Christians are not living moment-by-moment in a fully surrendered, vital and growing relationship with God. Should our church expand? Should I marry this person? Maybe God is saying, "NO!!" but we're too busy figuring it out to ask Him properly. Not "Should we...?" But "We surrender ourselves utterly to You, God. Please reveal Your will to us in Your own time and in Your own way." This may get uncomfortable: He may not show us what we want to see. He may take what seems like forever and a day. But are we His, or are we our own? He's either fully Master or He's a figurehead. "Your best advice, Father?" Sometimes I think that's all He longs to hear. The voice of His child. He will answer it. |
All thy sins were laid upon Him, Jesus bore them on the tree;
God, who knew them, laid them on Him, and, believing, thou art free. Joseph Denham Smith (c. 1817-1889) Praise reflection archives
May 2020
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...take root downward and bear fruit upward.
2 Kings 19:30 |