Is your life challenging? God wants us to know peace that passes understanding.
Enjoy everyday reminders with me, when God calls us to “Come, have a peace!”
Why is it so hard sometimes to do what I know I need to do? I was "on my way" to having my quiet time this morning (past the laundry and the kitchen and the dog, etc, etc) and was praying about some upcoming events as I was making my tea (not a coffee morning...). As the tea bag was steeping, it was like the steam was a lot of SOS rising. You know what SOS is .... Satan's Overwhelming Suggestions. Have you heard them? Do you recognize them?
In preparing for and praying about some opportunities God has brought my way, I've found myself waffling between excitement and discouragement from SOS. Suggestions like "You aren't qualified to do this. You're going to so embarrass yourself. What were you thinking when you said yes? Why did you pray for this if you are so inadequate? You've wasted your time." Satan knows so well how to stir up doubt and fear and anxiety in my heart. He knows just what whispers to use, the same ones that have worked with me before. Today I read from Alisa at Faith Imagined about the messages shared by the two voices in the world: God and the enemy. Does Satan know what works with you? Thankfully, he is not omniscient, but he is observant.
In my moment of distress, I was just about to compose an email to a few close friends and ask them to pray with me over the next few weeks; I had even started to make my list mentally. One of the opportunities I have Saturday is to lead a breakout session on "Strengthening Your Quiet Time." (Close your mouth. Stop shaking your head. ;)
Before I could turn on my laptop and send my plea for prayer, the Lord grabbed my attention and put me in my prayer chair with my Bible. I turned to 2 Corinthians 4 to meditate on verses I've been studying. I found myself going "back" and "back" and "back" to read more of the context and understand more of God's words. As I did it was like the verses were spoken directly to ME, answering my specific and personal concerns and prayers and worries. All of the questions I had just spoken out loud to God were answered in His letter to me right there in my hands. ..... and I'm doing the session on Strengthening Your Quiet Time. :) He needed to remind me of why a "quiet time" is so precious.
"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place ... Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God ... But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us ... that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body ... we also believe and therefore speak ... that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God," 2 Cor. 2:14, 3:5, 4:7-15 AND SO MUCH MORE!Why am I so quick to think I need to turn to someone else, when my Heavenly Father's word has the wisdom and the right thinking and the encouragement that I need? My time became sweet communion with Him, and I was glad that it was all I needed. I felt rebuked. I felt refreshed. I felt relieved.
Has Satan been sending his SOS your way? Are you believing them or have you found truth in our sword of God's Word to fight against them?
7 COMMENTS ~ Click here to leave a COMMENT:
Satin has been trying but Praise God!! God has reminded me of all the promises and plans He has for me!
♥Blessings!♥
This so hit home with me today! I was just praying about this very thing and talked to my husband about it yesterday. There's a sitiuation we're dealing with in my extended family and all I could think about was finding someone who could give me good counseling on what to do. But it hit me yesterday that maybe I should spend more time praying for the Lord to show me what's best to do instead of trying to find someone else! Thank you for this timely reminder...isn't it amazing how God knows exactly what we need to hear?
Tyra
Those questions you were filled with - "You aren't qualified to do this. You're going to so embarrass yourself. What were you thinking when you said yes?" can be debilitating. And they can be over anything.
One of my elders has really been encouraging me to use powerpoint (for about 4 years now). I've used it some, but have resisted using it much. I just gave some notes to our computer guys at church and had them put it in. They did all the operating of the system, too.
But, I had a Proverbial Family seminar coming up for another church this past weekend, and there was so much material I knew powerpoint would help. So, I loaded powerpoint on my home computer and had my 17-year old daughter teach me how to use it. It helped so much at the seminar. I had 3 of 4 lessons on the pp, and my wife asked, "The pp went so well, why didn't you put the 4th lesson on it?" That was my first time to actually use it myself, and it went off without a hitch. And everyone loved it.
Mmm, we need to recognize when those voices are SOS and just ignore them, don't we?
And, I think I am going to try that blueberry cobbler recipe you have in a previous post.
wb
I know the feeling, friend!!
Praise the Lord that His Word is sufficient and His Spirit is active - amazing how quickly I find myself turning elsewhere when He is all I need! [yes, I'm hearing Dr. Dixon sing that in my head...] :)
You are a blessing!
Pam
What a great post! I was just watching Beth Moore today and she said something like... Stop helping Satan do his job!
I've struggled with this a lot over the years and I've really just started to talk right back to Satan. Outloud. :-) Taking those thoughts captive, telling Satan he is a liar and that you do not receive what he is trying to give you. It's been such a blessing to me to have the peace of God after I do that.
Your session sounds wonderful!!! I wish I could come listen. I've just started getting into a consistent quiet time and would love to learn more.
Blessings,
Theresa
What an awesome post! You are right that sometimes we turn more easily to friends than God, but if we think about it God is as close as the mention of His name. :D Thank you for sharing!
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