“Stand up, son of man,” said the voice. “I want to speak with you.” The Spirit came into me as he spoke, and he set me on my feet. I listened carefully to his words. (Ezekial 2:1-2 NLT) I must ask this morning - if God came so plainly to you, speaking to you, telling you to listen carefully to his words - would you? God says to us these very words each and every day - "I want to speak with you." We choose to listen to them, heeding the request, and taking the time to really stop what we are doing to just listen to what he has to say to us, or we choose to ignore the request. What will it be today? God's desire is to speak with us. It isn't just that we speak TO him. He wants to tell us stuff, too. Sometimes I think we get this prayer and meditation thing all backwards. We somehow believe it us bringing our stuff to God and then we just move on expecting him to 'handle' whatever it is we brought before him. While he delights in meeting our needs, he wants to j...
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6 NLT) Have you ever just sat down, kind of defeated because you 'gave in', and wondered when or if God would ever be finished 'sanctifying' your life? You return to an old way of acting, engage in a display of hurtful behavior, or just plain don't do what you knew was the right thing to do - then you just wallow in the 'when will this ever be different in me' kind of questioning. Take heart, dear ones, for God will CONTINUE his work UNTIL it is finally finished - but you can count on that to continue until he returns! We don't change overnight, although the work begins. We aren't transformed with a magic wand, but we do have supernatural power resident within us. We won't have our desires instantly changed, but we do sense there has been a shift in those desires. That is God at w...