Ever Had A Day?

Have you ever had a day where God kept pressing you to review areas that you didn’t want to review? Not only that, He expects you to DO something about it? Yah… me either…as my nose grows like you know who! It seem to hang on and bug you no matter how busy you make yourself? Oh, you can make it go away for a while, but then the Holy Spirit taps you on the shoulder again to remind you that some action needs to take place. What do you do with that? Do you take action in obedience? Or do you tend to ignore it and hope it goes away?

There is a reason those nudges keeping pressing in on us. God wants to convene a prayer session. He wants to work some thing out in you. So let me ask you this…do you have margin in your life for prayer? Or, do you keep so busy that your prayer life becomes marginal? Is your prayer life shrinking with the busyness of your life? If so, it becomes easier and easier to ignore those nudges that the Holy Spirit is placing on your heart. Maybe your life has been so busy that you feel displaced, or out of sync. You may even feel like you have lost touch with yourself, and you don’t want to spend time alone with God because of what you KNOW He will tell you. About that…don’t go speeding through life to just keep from dealing with issues God may want to deal with you about. Keep your speed down so you get those burdens off your shoulders.

How can this possibly change in your life, you ask? Let me tell you what I have been doing over the last few months. I am doing a study on prayer. I read a book and led the study, and now we are all doing the 40 Day Prayer Challenge as a follow-up. It means committing to reading a message each day on prayer and then we talk about it online. I have done the study before, but timing is everything. It seems particularly relevant for me right now. I have always felt it was important, but knowing that your prayers will always be out there, as well as any other prayers said on your behalf by others, is a blessing that I can’t explain. If God cares enough about our prayers to keep them all no matter how many times we have prayed about it, it sure makes me want to pray my heart out! Never give up, or as scripture says, “Never get weary in well-doing.” It has put a fire in my soul for an even better prayer life. As you pray, you will find purpose; purpose for life, but also God’s purpose for your life.

How can you begin? Give priority to God in your life by having that prayer and conversation with Him. There are no right and wrong ways to do that. Doing it is what counts. Ask Him to show you what His purpose is for you. As we go through different seasons in our lives, we change. Pay attention to that change, by paying more attention to what excites you. What gets you excited about life? That, my friend, may be your purpose. Maybe God is leading you on a path that is new. Ask for clarification and praying over it. If God is in it, it will be worth taking a risk on. If we ask Him to confirm or give clarification, He will let us know if it is His idea, or yours. He will close doors if He needs to close them. But that means taking the time to talk with Him about it.

Have you ever been in a situation where you thought you were following God’s lead and it turned out to be more of your own works than God’s? I think we have all found ourselves in that situation a time or two. On the other hand, if you are IN that situation right now and something doesn’t feel right, don’t keep on doing it just because you think you have to. Ask God to help you find the open door to gracefully withdraw. He will make a way.

I have always been one to write things down and I do that with my prayers also. It helps me to see where God has worked and answered prayers, and reminds me to keep praying over the ones He has yet to answer. I love keeping a victory log!

As I sit in my cabin at my desk and write this, I have my mocha, a candle lit and I can see nature out my window. I make an atmosphere for relaxing. I’m learning, that slowing down my life means, I don’t hear God’s voice whizzing by my ear wondering what He said. Instead, I’m creating an atmosphere that slows me down so His voice can be heard speaking quietly to me. I want to hear every word.