I’m so grateful to have participated in this series with Arabah Joy! If you aren’t already following her blog, I encourage you to do so. She writes anonymously so that she can write honestly about real life and real struggles. I am always challenged by her writings. 🙂
Most of us will not go through today without remembering where we were September 11, 2001 when we heard “the news.” So we pause this morning to remember, to pray, and to thank God for His grace upon our nation. May it be said of us once again that our God is the LORD.
Today also happens to be our final post in the Hearing God Series. I am very honored to be writing this post because originally Jennifer was going to close us out. {Please pray for her as she has a heavy load this week?} And although I personally feel Jennifer would do a better job of wrapping up ~smile~ than myself, I am honored to be writing this post.
So. As I prayed about what the Lord would have us part with, the weirdest thing kept happening….a certain scripture kept coming to mind! 🙂 The funny thing is, it doesn’t really have much to do with hearing God:
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
Romans 12:1
As I pondered this and asked the Lord for wisdom, He kept impressing that first phrase on my heart, “Therefore… by the mercies of God.” I realized He was saying, “Draw people back to My goodness.” In this series, we have talked about tips and strategies…about obedience and hindrances… and we’ve given some personal examples and good quotes. But as we close, I believe He wants us to rest in the fact that the nature of God is good. This is the reason and the means for Hearing God.
Simply put, God is good! When we can’t hear God, remember that God is good. When we fail to follow what He has said, remember that God is good. When we are soaring high, remember that God is good. When we struggle to discern His voice among the other voices, remember that God is good.
Because of His mercies, we are not consumed.
Because He is faithful, He will forgive.
Because He is steadfast in love, He will keep pursuing us, keep speaking to us, keep engaging.
Because He is kind, when we seek Him we find Him.
And He is faithful to us even when we are not faithful to Him!
See, it truly all does wrap up where it begins~ with the goodness of God. We can get very caught up in what we are supposed to do, but ultimately, that is not noble enough a goal! What really matters is that we are caught up in the character of God, because that will enable all of our “supposed to’s.”
So may we close this series on Hearing God with just this: Ponder the Character of God. That’s the greatest way to discern His voice, to trust His voice, and to surrender to His voice.
“Therefore, sisters, by the mercies of God…” Rom 12:1
If you want to shout out a praise for His attributes here, feel free to leave a comment. We bless You, Lord God!
I’m smiling at how Jesus works right now 🙂
Yesterday I found myself wondering where my energy has been for the past couple of days-wondering why I wasn’t finding joy in my seminary classes or even worship. I was especially wondering this, because the last couple of weeks, God has been so so good and So very near to me – drawing me into sweet times of fellowship with Him. So my sudden lack of enthusiasm and joy left me curious, so I asked God about it, and He showed me yesterday that I had staryed slipping once again into the trap of caring more about my perceived holiness than my relationship with him and his making me holy. He brought me to repentence in that, but I still carried a sense of guilt about it. As I was lying in bed last night, I found myself promising to make sure that when I woke up I would be on top of things and God and I would have a great time of Bible study and I would get it together today. In that moment, he very clearly whispered a reminder of HIS love and faithfulness and that he didn’t demand I come to him with it all “together,” but that he just wanted me to come to him. Period.
Well I woke up and helped J-dubb get off to work, and was planning on going back to sleep, but instead I decided I might jut stay up and have my quiet time. Almost immediately, in the most random but SURE whisper- Jesus pointed me not to my Bible study lesson, but to your blog. And I stumbled upon this entry about His faithfulness and goodness and character. I believe he led me here this morning so that He might set the stage this morning for me to come to him based on his goodness and love – not my sense of duty or obligation. I love the way he knows me better than I know myself. And I love the fact that he led me here this morning as I sip on a large mug of hazleneut coffee 🙂 thanks for smelling coffee! It has been such a blessing!