Deep thoughts as I am gardening today...
Have you ever noticed how mosquitoes hang out in the darker, shady areas of your yard? Not the sunny, light areas? As I am sitting in my beautiful but shady Godspot beginning my daily quiet time, I am swatting at the buzzing in my ears. It's very distracting and makes it hard to hear God speaking through His Word.
Then it struck me..... isn't that the same with sin? It is often those shady areas where we have trouble discerning God's voice. We also have the constant barrage of the world's voices buzzing in our ears. Sin is rarely just the neon sign proclaiming all it's worldly pleasures! It ALWAYS starts with one "seemingly innocent" choice that leads us on a really bad path.
Eventually just like the mosquito, sin bites too! Sometimes that bite is just an annoying, temporary sting. BUT like those disease carrying mosquitoes, sin too often can leave permanent damage.
Since we have had a rainy summer we have a lot of mosquitoes. Most of them found to be carrying West Nile Virus. So now along with my morning routine I spray my yard before going out. Nowadays we have spray that will give you a 99.9% guarantee of getting rid of mosquitoes. Yes we are still human and mess up! Yet, if you are daily reading and applying the Bible to your life you can have that same guarantee against sin!
Friday, July 24, 2015
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Wilderness Wandering
This is one from end of November 2013 I was working on but never got posted:
I might have mentioned this before but I have never understood how a people who could see, taste, smell, and feel God's provisions could not trust him for the dailies! As I have been reading it again this year I am starting to understand that it is a choice. Are you going to choose to focus on the circumstances that you are currently in or are you going to choose to see how God is working in the midst of those circumstances?
The beginning of October God began to convict me on two areas of my life: 'covetousness' & 'choosing to see Him" despite life's circumstances. Conviction came through my daily reading in Numbers. My coveting was not about "things". I have always been a control freak so for me coveting is about wanting control over my daily life instead of allowing God. A word study led me to Hebrew 13:5.
It is no coincidence that God had me in that particular spot! I believe that He was preparing me for what was ahead.
Then November 1 he drove it deeper by my living in ICU with mom for 1.5 weeks. As terrifying as it was I can also say what a blessing that experience was because I learned how to trust Him deeper. God is STILL always there but we have to make a choice to see Him and how He is at work! AND we have to make the choice to trust that His ways are right not ours!
Maybe I am strange but looking back I am thankful for those trials in my life. I often learn the most effective lessons through them! I love how God uses His Word to teach! No more than a few days after realizing for the first time that the Isrealites simply were not choosing to see I got a phone call saying my mom was at the Emergency Room and they were going to lifeflight her to Peoria. I got a first hand lesson in how we humans still have to "choose to see" Him amidst the chaos.
I might have mentioned this before but I have never understood how a people who could see, taste, smell, and feel God's provisions could not trust him for the dailies! As I have been reading it again this year I am starting to understand that it is a choice. Are you going to choose to focus on the circumstances that you are currently in or are you going to choose to see how God is working in the midst of those circumstances?
The beginning of October God began to convict me on two areas of my life: 'covetousness' & 'choosing to see Him" despite life's circumstances. Conviction came through my daily reading in Numbers. My coveting was not about "things". I have always been a control freak so for me coveting is about wanting control over my daily life instead of allowing God. A word study led me to Hebrew 13:5.
It is no coincidence that God had me in that particular spot! I believe that He was preparing me for what was ahead.
Then November 1 he drove it deeper by my living in ICU with mom for 1.5 weeks. As terrifying as it was I can also say what a blessing that experience was because I learned how to trust Him deeper. God is STILL always there but we have to make a choice to see Him and how He is at work! AND we have to make the choice to trust that His ways are right not ours!
Maybe I am strange but looking back I am thankful for those trials in my life. I often learn the most effective lessons through them! I love how God uses His Word to teach! No more than a few days after realizing for the first time that the Isrealites simply were not choosing to see I got a phone call saying my mom was at the Emergency Room and they were going to lifeflight her to Peoria. I got a first hand lesson in how we humans still have to "choose to see" Him amidst the chaos.
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