God puts his stamp on each of us from birth. Even as babies, we have ideas, talents, and a unique personality. God sets us in families and surroundings that train us and lets us choose how we will be shaped by challenges and opportunities.
God's requirement of us and our privilege are to say "Yes!" to him, over and over. Often we just get enough vision to keep us moving ahead. We may not understand how preparations we are making fit with where we are in the present. We may have no idea where obedience is taking us. And others may find our direction incomprehensible.
There have been times when I've felt like a blind person in a brightly lit room. Everyone else seems to know where they're going. As I'm staggering, clutching God's guiding arm in faith, I have to keep trusting he will keep me from falling into catastrophe.
Not everyone willingly makes space for the dreams God puts in our hearts. People question how what we are doing benefits them and their own dreams. If they don't "buy in" to God's pathway for us, they may put obstructions, hindrances, and obstacles in our way. Following the Voice, we carefully pick our way around roadblocks and pray our way through the swamps of diversions.
As I wade through the process of doctoral studies, there seems to be too little time or energy to invest in what I have been called to do in this season of life and work: research, write, learn. The space I try to create encounters resistance as I am hemmed in by obligations. And like an undergrad student, I don't know where these studies will take me in the future.
But I know the Voice who is calling me to this task. The Creator of time and space will make a way and a place to complete what he has asked of me. No matter what the constraints, the outside demands, or other people's expectations, my job is to please God with steady work, best efforts, and a consecrated heart.
What is the call of God on us? What is he asking of us today? Does it seem utterly impossible? That means his strength must be our sufficiency and our source of strength and help. We will look back with joyful surprise and say, "Thus far our God has helped us."
God's requirement of us and our privilege are to say "Yes!" to him, over and over. Often we just get enough vision to keep us moving ahead. We may not understand how preparations we are making fit with where we are in the present. We may have no idea where obedience is taking us. And others may find our direction incomprehensible.
There have been times when I've felt like a blind person in a brightly lit room. Everyone else seems to know where they're going. As I'm staggering, clutching God's guiding arm in faith, I have to keep trusting he will keep me from falling into catastrophe.
Not everyone willingly makes space for the dreams God puts in our hearts. People question how what we are doing benefits them and their own dreams. If they don't "buy in" to God's pathway for us, they may put obstructions, hindrances, and obstacles in our way. Following the Voice, we carefully pick our way around roadblocks and pray our way through the swamps of diversions.
As I wade through the process of doctoral studies, there seems to be too little time or energy to invest in what I have been called to do in this season of life and work: research, write, learn. The space I try to create encounters resistance as I am hemmed in by obligations. And like an undergrad student, I don't know where these studies will take me in the future.
But I know the Voice who is calling me to this task. The Creator of time and space will make a way and a place to complete what he has asked of me. No matter what the constraints, the outside demands, or other people's expectations, my job is to please God with steady work, best efforts, and a consecrated heart.
What is the call of God on us? What is he asking of us today? Does it seem utterly impossible? That means his strength must be our sufficiency and our source of strength and help. We will look back with joyful surprise and say, "Thus far our God has helped us."
Read more:
*Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24 NIV
*Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31 NIV
*Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?"
You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ's authority, knowing that God is watching us. 2 Corinthians 2:15-17 NLT
*But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7 NIV
*Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24 NIV
*Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
*Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?"
You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ's authority, knowing that God is watching us. 2 Corinthians 2:15-17 NLT
*But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3:4-7 NIV
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