Do you know where you are going?

But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside. (Job 23:10-11)

There are times when we feel like our path is a bit more complicated than we'd like it to be. We find ourselves knee deep in some muddle or another, wishing things could be different very quickly, but they just don't seem to change all that fast. In the 'testing pathway', will we remain faithful to what we believe, while wrestling with everything we find 'contrary' to the way we hoped life would turn out? If we struggle just a bit with the test, we aren't alone. Most of us struggle to make sense of things at times, but when we still trust God in spite of the difficulties, we are going to make it through!

God knows where we are going, even when we don't. That is good news for someone today who is on some 'path' to who knows where, wondering if God has abandoned them. He hasn't! In fact, if you look closer, you will see he has not only not abandoned you, but he has been carrying you for the past while because you have grown so weary in your journey! The 'testing pathway' may not be finished, but he hasn't abandoned you to your own devices. In fact, he has been helping you to sort out the stuff you want to take away from the journey and the garbage you will leave behind.

Stay and follow - two very distinctive words that describe commitment. In the midst of the test, it isn't uncommon to want to escape. If you are anything like me, you look around at the circumstances and take inventory. You find yourself looking for the good in the moment but being quite certain that nothing good will ever come out of it. Then you see a glimmer of light, a bit of hope dawns, and you trudge on a little bit further. More light comes, maybe only a sliver, but it is light nonetheless. You move on and follow the leading of that light. That is how we make it through, my friends. One tiny step at a time. One little battle with our emotions that want us to just give up after another. 

We likely have no way of judging what will await us at the end of the 'testing pathway', but when we stay the course, following his lead all the way, we are sure to find what God has prepared. Something that resembles refined, pure gold. Just sayin!

Listen and Believe

Are you able to listen when there are multiple distractions? I have difficulties 'filtering' out sound, conversations, or music lyrics when I am really trying to concentrate. I was never one of those students who could study with the most popular band's music blaring from the stereo in the background. I also know I don't do well where there are multiple distractions. My desk faces the wall, not the window. My computer desk is free of papers and the like because it would just distract me during my quiet time each morning. When I travel, I find a quiet spot, take my coffee and sit a while with God, listening as he shows me things in the scripture. Remove the distractions and we might just find ourselves able to 'listen to the message' God wants to bring into our lives today.

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. “And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. (John 5:24-25)

Listen and believe - both are active components of faith. We cannot have one without the other. When we actually do all we can to eliminate the barriers to listening, we might just find that God has been saying something to us all along that we have been missing because of all the 'noise' the world places in our way. As Jesus is facing the criticism of the religious leaders, he is also aware there are some in the crowd, his disciples included, who are willing to 'press past' the distractions of the 'loud critics' to hear the truth. We need to be willing to be like those who 'listened and believed' that day. As Jesus said, we can be assured we will find life when we listen.

Whoever imagined that life was linked to listening? We might not always want to listen, but in hearing what he says we make a choice to live. Hearing is the beginning of faith - it plants a seed of hope that begins to take hold the more we listen and obey. Jesus isn't just calling for his children - he is imploring them to turn away from the distracting criticism of those who do nothing more than put up roadblocks in their path. Distractions will always be there in this life, but when we do the best we can to manage them, God will help us lay hold of the things he desires for us. We must listen and believe - allowing what we hear to remove all our doubts. In the face of doubts and criticism, don't give into those 'distracting forces'. Press into God and listen. What he says next may just set your free to live in a whole new way. Just sayin!

Handle life properly

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in. (C. S. Lewis)

We all have those moments when we are thinking about what WE want. We get lonely and desire the closeness of another. We feel anger over things that bug us and want revenge. We have messed things up so badly and see no way out, but desire it so greatly. We find ourselves in the pit and want a ladder to climb our way out. We look all around for any other answer, but we know the one and only answer to each of these issues is Christ Jesus. We seek answers, but we don't go to the one who knows the answer ever before we pose the question.

I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free. (Romans 7:22-25)

We know that reality of the 'war' within - the one that pits self against Jesus. 'Self' demands its own way - Christ is right there asking for us to just look to him for his way. We don't realize that we are slaves to our 'self' nature - the thing that poses demands and demands over and over again. Our mind can be the greatest place of our struggle - thinking one thing but knowing another. Yup, we KNOW the right thing to do, but we struggle with doing it because our minds want something else entirely. All because WE think it will be better.

Looking to Christ when we are struggling with this walk with him may not be the easiest thing for us to do, but the more we look to him, the less our 'self' will demand its own way. We all have questions about how to live this Christian life, so ask them. There is no room for doubts within us, but they exist - be bold to share them with Christ. There is no room for unforgiveness within us, but it exists - only Christ can help us let go of that hurt and pain that leads to that desire to hold onto the bitterness. God doesn't want us to be unthinking - he wants us to bring our thoughts to him so he can rightly order them.

Doubts handled properly can become a stronger faith. Refusal to hold onto what only becomes a cancerous growth within us actually helps us to become more loving. We don't get to these points in life without Christ. WE want to be free, but WE don't move from the place where we are bound. It is only as WE get up, turn around, look squarely into the Word of God, listen to the voice of Christ, and take step after step that we can be free. We doubt we will ever be free but let me assure you of this - without taking the first step forward, we will always be bound. Just sayin!

Deny it!

I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else, so no one can kidnap them from me. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30 TLB)

If you have ever wondered just how 'secure' your salvation is, then wonder no more. The place we hold in God's heart isn't going to change, no matter how poorly we perform or how far we drift from closeness with him. While he'd like nothing more than our uncompromising love and dedication to his principles each and every time we make a decision, he knows the reality of the struggle with our will. He knows we will slip up from time to time and that we will need his forgiveness. If we doubt his love or his power in our lives, we can rest assured in knowing there is absolutely no room for us to doubt. The gift of his Son's life was enough to prove the depth of his love.

Sometimes we might believe we can 'slip away' by the power of some force outside of us - like the enemy of our soul snatching us away from the keeping power of God. This is impossible, although the enemy of our souls will do everything he can to convince us otherwise. Why? He knows if he gets us to doubting our relationship with God, we drift into a 'performance pattern' of trying to 'earn' our salvation again and again. In fact, he points out our shortcomings to get us to do just that - to get us to attempt to do what has already been done for us is really his aim. He doesn't want us to accept that the work is finished on our behalf. He wants us to believe there is still something we have to do to 'earn' our right-standing with God.

Nothing could be further from the truth, but he won't rest in attempting to convince us otherwise. It is this seed of doubt he plants and without fail, our minds and hearts go into overdrive to agree with him at times! The scripture we should stand on when this occurs is the one I chose for us today - no on shall snatch us away from Christ - no one is more powerful - no one has authority over our lives other than God himself. With this in mind, let me just say that we are expected to make right decisions. God doesn't want us making the wrong ones, but he makes a way for us to return to right-standing with him if we do. This is called grace.

Assurance is a tough thing sometimes, especially when people in our lives have let us down. We come to doubt intentions, mistrust promises, and be cautious in our approach to relationships because we have been burned by these things. I have never been burned by God. I have never had cause to doubt even one of his promises. I have never found his intentions on my behalf to be anything short of amazingly wonderful. It isn't easy trusting at times - especially when the world, Satan and his hosts, and even our own minds are causing us to doubt. One thing I know for sure - when I deny those doubts access to my mind and heart, I begin to find strength far outside my own capacity to walk without compromise. Try it - you may be surprised by the results! Just sayin!