When God Speaks: How to Recognize God’s Voice and Respond in Obedience
We met at LB’s home this morning to wrap up our fourth week of doing the Bible study together. It was an awesome morning, really was a blessing. We’re starting to become comfortable with each other and are really opening up, discussing our whole lives, not just isolated parts of them.
CH seems to be doing better. He found a group at one of the mega-churches that is much like an AA meeting and went on Wednesday. He’s already hooked up with a sponsor and when I talked to him last night, he was going to have coffee with him to help overcome the desire that was enveloping him.
I’m not sure how or even if 12 step programs like this work. It seems to me to be trading one addiction for another versus eliminating the root cause. But then, I’m on the outside looking in and haven’t travelled that road. In this case, it seems like this group is yet another answer to prayer, God providing a practical solution to a problem.
LB really opened up today. I can see the transformation before my very eyes. He’s starting to obey, not just know. And it’s making a huge difference for him, especially with his daughters and their families. I had to wipe the tears away several times as he talked about the road he’s travelled and how he is reaching out to his family in a way that is positive and God led.
Day 16: Prayer Is A Relationship
This was by far the day that influenced me the most for the week and is still at the forefront of my mind. This was the day that I discovered Isaiah 1:10-17, a powerful passage that made me immediately rethink what I was doing, why and where I am going.
Interestingly, CH and LB both disagreed with Blackaby’s thoughts on this day. I think that they misunderstood his point. They think that prayer isn’t what changes us – that God changes us. I guess they really just disagreed with the title for the day because the thoughts that they had matched up with Blackaby’s. They didn’t even consider his first point, that God takes the initiative, causing us to want to pray. They are still reaching up from the pit, straining for relief, and cannot see that God was always there, calling to them.
Day 18: Prayer is Answered in Different Ways
I think CH is a little bit angry, a little bit confused and a little bit frustrated that God hasn’t taken away his desires for the things that mess up his life, even though he has prayed over and over for relief. He wants instant relief, much like the relief that LB discussed. What CH is missing is that God is answering his prayers all around him – heck, all he had to do was look across the room at me and LB for one answer.
I don’t even know him, yet have talked to him every day for four weeks. That isn’t me, that’s a God thing. LB knows him even less than I do, yet he’s opened up his home and his life to him. The megachurch that he hooked up with was certainly not of Satan’s doing!
Day 19: Prayer May Be Hindered
I’m not so sure that any of us liked this day. No one likes to peel back the layers of their hidden world and expose it for what it is. We want to be all prim and proper, act like some model/idea of what a Christian should be and let no one see us as we are. The topics for this day simply do not allow that to happen.
When I read Isaiah 1:15 aloud, with God declaring that we have blood on our hands, you could’ve heard a pin drop, it got that quiet. Stop sinning! Change your life. Work for justice. Help the down and out. Go to bat for the defenseless. Hard stuff to ponder.
Day 20: Prayer Requires Spiritual Concentration
Look around! Acknowledge God’s answers to our prayers! Nothing can stand in His way.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve already completed four weeks together, 20 daily Bible studies, 4 gatherings to discuss them, countless phone calls to check in. We’ve come a long way in a short time, I’m looking forward to next week.
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