It is so cool that through letting go of self-things, allowing God to lead and focusing on Him throughout the day, He reveals so much to me unexpectedly!  (Not only here but last year as well) One is about prayer.  The only point of it is because He wants to see if we desire Him more than anything and will trust Him, even though it doesn’t make sense.  God knows everything but allows us to make that decision to be disciplined.  You may have had a question such as “God knows everything so why does it matter what we do?” The answer is trust.  We won’t know everything.  He made us and He made this Universe, He is closer to us than our own feelings!  Everything comes down to faith; we must not try to reason everything out.  In the case of living for God, most things won’t make sense; if it did we would not be living by faith.   Faith and God must go together.

James 5:15 “And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.”  Prayer is so we can grow in our faith and fellowship with Christ.

1 Samuel 7:3b “Rid yourselves of the foreign gods … and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and He will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines.”  How we live in this world shows who our god is, whether money, our body, stomach, time, or God Himself.  Our faithfulness on earth determines our rewards in Heaven, not that is what we live for, it’s not about religion; that is works.  But rather being repentant and in all we do is in our love for God.

Another thing He has revealed to me is a deeper meaning of living by faith.  It is continually walking in the unknown as God leads. Faith is the unexpected, if we are not living by faith or continually walking out of our comfort zone for God we have not totally accepted what He has done on the cross.  Christ died on the cross to set us free from our sins.  Disobedience is sin, so when we choose not to be open we are disobedient.  We are disobedient and unwilling to be open because we don’t know what the outcome is so we are fearful and worried.  Accepting what Christ has done for us at the cross, rising from death to life, means we will be open and obey His Spirits’ leading, because we trust for His best outcome and that He will protect us no matter how uncertain it looks and seems.  We can trust Him because He has made us. Only in Him will our souls be filled.

He suffered so we will too, if we are truly following Christ.  The Bible tells us that we are to consider it a privilege to suffer for the Lord (see Philippians 1:29).  Only then can we experience the quenching thirst that is within each one of us. The question is not whether I want to live by faith, as this life seems difficult, rather it’s what God our Creator wants. He knows us better than anyone and it isn’t fair to make a decision without asking Him and choosing His ways.

When I am confused or anxious, I remind myself to be patient and allow God to lead.  Since I know I can trust God and that I want to love Him more than anything, times like these I experience Him in such a precious way. Even though it hurts inside, He knows what is best for me. He sees the future; I don’t, so my intimacy draws near to Him! And he gives me a burden and a heart to pray for others. I just say, “Holy Spirit take over, God has a great plan for my life.” There is no place I would rather be then in the arms of God.

When we live out what we’ve learned, our memories improve.  The same is true of spiritual memories.  2 Peter 1:1-10 Peter urges believers to live out what they have learned, he warns us that if we neglect spiritual disciplines we forget what Christ has done and live inconsistently.  This only makes it harder to get back on track. So instead of doing our own things, wait so you don’t need to go through the extra struggle, reaping what you sow. Rather be patient in the Lord and realize even though it looks “greener on the other side” most often it’s not. Especially if we aren’t patient because then we rush into things on our own and God is not in the center, which causes more problems on our side.  Besides discipline is love, so when the Lord disciplines us it just means He loves us 🙂

We need to also be careful with what we say.  I am a quiet person and open with my life. God has been showing me to wait on Him before I speak.  We will have many thoughts, as that is where the battle takes place, but we need to keep our thoughts captive and allow God to show us the right thinking.  We can say a lot, but our thoughts are all over the place, so “… Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” James 1:19. Often when we are frustrated about ourselves, others, or just confused, we say all that we are thinking. When we do we get more frustrated because we are not letting go of negative thoughts.  What we speak will either build us up or bring us down.  We make it more difficult for ourselves when we speak up right away, so we need to slow down and wait on the Lord.