HAVING A PLAN TO TRUST IN GOD

Greetings in the name of Jesus:



  I heard some words of wisdom today that caused me to think somewhat more deeply about the decisions  that we each one make in life.  These are not dealing with just the decision to follow Christ as our Savior, but in our every day decisions made about how we will follow Christ.  The problem isn't that we are unwilling to follow Christ, but that we simply don't know how.

  That sounds too simple at first but let me explain what I heard; from the start we need to be consistent in coming to a source where we always know truth can be found, and that source is God and in His word to us.  First of all God has provided us with His word so that we will know what His mind and thinking are on almost every topic.  If we look upon His word as being a way to find out what His thoughts are on anything that we may need answers to then our attitudes toward His word changes somewhat.  Our greatest need is to be able to come to that source of truth consistently when making any kind of a decision.

  When we ask God about something He will always give us an answer; even though it may not be the one that we want or the thing that we feel is best for us.  That is a part of trusting in the absolute truth that is found in His word for us.  We have all heard about the way God answers prayer as  "YES...NO..OR WAIT A WHILE"  but in no way is it instant;  many times God will need to prepare us to receive the answer that He has given.  He tells us to seek, knock, and ask...and then He will open  the door for us, but none of that is instant.  In many cases we ask expecting to receive NOW! because we are living in what is called and instant society where everything is immediate.  Fast food , instant communication, and instant gratification are a part of life in America today, and yet God does not deal in instant...He deals in eternity.

  It is not easy to reset our minds to understand how to wait on God to answer prayers, or even to wait to make decisions that are required.  We need to train ourselves to get on God's wavelength of thought  so that we can learn that we must first unload the sin that lays within us before we begin the process of asking God for anything.  We even need to prepare before we go into prayer by allowing our hearts to be put in a neutral place where we can follow God's will for us.  If we have  our minds already set of one train of thought about what we want God to do He then has to persuade us to listen to Him, and that is wasting much time on our part.  In some cases God may have to do a lot of things before we will even listen to the truth that He is trying to give us; and in the process years may go by before we finally get His clear answer on things that are important to us.


  Prayer is our connection to the Father through His Spirit and yet we must be one with Him in order to connect properly.  We cannot do that if we are carrying around sin in various forms in our life.  Getting things out in front of us with God allows us to come to Him with a pure heart...it puts our will in a neutral place where we can be willing to ask for His will to be done in us; and not our will.
  One of the biggest problems is in trying to be one with God and one with one another as was Jesus request for us in the body.  We cannot do that while holding ill feelings toward someone , or something that may have taken place in the body of Christ that has separated us from fellowship with someone.  Things like that need to be fixed before we can even have God's ear.

  Many of us have gotten to the point where we feel we cannot trust God because we feel that He does not hear us or is not willing to answer our prayers, and yet for the majority of people any true prayer to God will go no higher than the ceiling of the room we pray in until we deal with the sin in our lives.  If we dare to wonder why we cannot get along or fellowship with one another we have no further to look than our own attitudes toward another person or situation within the church.  No matter if it is doctrine or individual differences we hold we are to  do all that is possible to get along with our brothers and sisters.  God seeks perfection in our spirits toward Him in love and toward others in our intent of heart, and we cannot fake that intent of heart no matter how hard we may try. Even if we are trying to force ourselves to be obedient it will not work unless we lay it down in front of the cross and leave it there.  We must trust God to be true to His word to us, and we must begin to form a plan of coming to that place where we can find truth every time we make a decision.  Allow God the control and the Lordship in the way you have made a promise to do, and He will guide you properly.  May you richly bless God through your life in Him.



THE UNWORTHY SERVANT