Walk Boldly With Jesus

Our Shadow Side

2 Corinthians 11:14 “And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

I heard this verse last night while listening to an audio book on my way home from visiting my parents’ house.  The book is titled, “Falling Upward” by Richard Rohr.  Richard Rohr talks about how we all have a shadow side.  We all have good and bad inside of us and we need to recognize and be aware of both.  He said our persona doesn’t chose to see evil in ourselves so it always disguises it as good.  We do things in the name of prudence, common sense, justice, or I am doing this for your own good, but it usually manifests, fear, control, or vengeance.  Did you know that the name Lucifer literally means light bearer?  The evil one always makes the darkness look like light and light like the darkness.  I found this chapter to be really interesting. I have heard of the shadow self before but I enjoy hearing about it again as it is a great reminder to me that we need to be aware of all we think, say and do.  

What I thought of when I heard this verse is that I have seen a lot of evil things that people have done in the name of good.  People treated badly just because of their race, color, nationality, sexual preference or anything else that make people seem different from others.  A lot of times the people that are doing the unkind acts are justifying their behaviors.  They feel they have a right to do them and they don’t think that they are doing anything wrong.  It breaks my heart to think of how many people have been hurt in the name of love or in the name of religion.  I feel as though now a days the evil one is excelling at disguising himself as an angel of light.  We seem to be doing mean and unkind things and justifying them in one way or another.  Whatever we are telling ourselves, we are wrong.  God’s number one commandment is to love Him and to love others.  If we feel led to act a certain way, or if we feel God is asking us to do something we must stop and ask ourselves if we are living up to these two commandments.  If what you want to do contradicts these two commandments, then it is not from God.  

One thing that came to mind when I heard this was unforgiveness.  The Holy Spirit will sometimes put someone on our mind that we need to forgive.  He does this because the Holy Spirit is our guide in life.  He knows what is in our hearts and He wants to help us get to heaven.  When you feel that prompting, try to listen, it will serve you well.   Sometimes we can feel as though someone doesn’t deserve forgiveness. We feel as though we are completely  justified in being angry and not forgiving this person.  We feel as though our  reasons for not forgiving are pure and so it is ok if we don’t forgive. This is the enemy trying to get in our heads.  God calls us to forgive.  He calls us to forgive a lot.  He wants us to forgive again and again.  It says in Matthew 18:21-22, "Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”  That is a lot of forgiveness God is expecting of us.  Can we do it?  Can we do what is asked of us even when we don’t want to?

Richard Rohr talked about how our mind does things in the name of someone’s own good and yet it usually manifests, fear, control or vengeance.  I think we can get stuck in this trap a lot.  We think we are doing things for our children’s own good, or maybe its our aging spouse or aging parents.  We think we know better than them and we feel as though we are only trying to help them.  However, our real motivation might be fear that they will get hurt, they will be unhappy, or that we will lose them.  Some fear is ok.  We probably wouldn’t survive very long is we were 100% fearless. If we did everything we wanted to do without any fear, we would probably live a short life.  Fear can save us from making some bad choices.  However, it can also hold us and our loved ones back from growing and changing.  

When we feel fear we need to ask ourselves where the fear is coming from and what we are afraid of. Is our fear because of clear and present danger, or is it our lack trust that things will be ok?  The problem is that our fear is disguised as love or concern for our loved ones.  We don’t know we are making our decisions based on fear.  I think it is important to examine the reasons we feel the way we do.  Ask ourselves why we are making the decisions that we are making.  Why are we saying no to our child? Why are we preventing our aging parent from doing this, that or the other thing?  Are we truly looking out for their best interests?

We all have a shadow side, as much as we wish we didn’t.  If we don’t want to let this shadow side control us we must be aware of it and question the motivation of our actions.  If we are doing things that are hurting people or not treating people with respect then we are not acting as our best self.  Don’t let the enemy trick you.  Don’t let the enemy come into your life disguised as an angel of light.  Be aware that the enemy can disguise himself like that and that he may be leading you to make bad choices.  Question why you are making the decisions you are making, especially if you are hurting others and saying it is in the name of God, or religion, or whatever else.  God wants us to love Him and love others. If your actions do not do those two things, or if they contradict those two things, then they may be the evil one trying to disguise himself as good.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, I ask that this message reach those you intended it for.  Lord, we all have a shadow side, help us to see ours.  Help us to recognize it and accept it without acting on it.  Help us to question our actions Lord and discontinue any actions that are not of you.   We love you Lord, you are so amazing.  We are so grateful that you gave us the Holy Spirit.  Lord, we ask that the Holy Spirit show us when the devil is disguised as an angel of light.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Intercessory Prayer

Job 33:22-26 “Their souls draw near the Pit, and their lives to those who bring death.  Then, if there should be for one of them an angel, a mediator, one of a thousand, one who declares a person upright, and he is gracious to that person, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the Pit; I have found a ransom; let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;  then he prays to God, and is accepted by him, he comes into his presence with joy, and God repays him for his righteousness.”

I really like how this verse demonstrates how powerful intercessory prayer is.  This is demonstrated a lot in the Bible and yet I don’t know if we grasp how important and powerful it is.  God loves us, we are his children and He would do anything for us.  He is also a fair and just God.  This means that sometimes He has to do things that He doesn’t necessarily want to do.  For instance, I am not sure if He really wanted to banish Adam & Eve from the Garden of Eden.  I bet He enjoyed their evening walks together and enjoyed their company.  However, He told them the rules for living there, and they disobeyed the rules.  He needed to follow through with the consequences.  There are so many times throughout the history of the Bible when God gave his people rules to follow and they didn’t listen and He let them feel the consequences of their actions.  However, there have also been times when God wanted to impose consequences and someone intervened on their behalf and fought for God to go easy on them.  

Moses did this a lot when the Israelites were wandering in the desert.  It seemed like every time Moses was turning around they were breaking another rule, or turning against the Lord for one reason or another.  Moses spoke up to God a lot for the people He led out of Egypt.  He was constantly trying to keep them out of trouble with the Lord.  Sometimes Moses was doing it for the people and sometimes he was doing it because of his love for God.  For instance, when Moses when up onto the mountain and the Israelites make a golden calf, the Lord wanted to destroy them.  However Moses spoke up to the Lord in Exodus 32:11-12, “But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?  Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.”  Moses and saying this because He doesn’t want God to look bad in the eyes of the Egyptians.  

The Lord is calling us all to pray for others.  The lord does not want to lose a single one of His children to sin and yet this world is calling us all away from the Lord.  This world is confusing us with it’s noise and distractions.  It is teaching us that what we want is more important than what God wants.  It is teaching us that if we think something is right, then it is right, even if God says it isn’t.  The notion of fasting for spiritual reasons is looked down upon, however, the idea of fasting to lose weight it widely accepted.  The idea of spending hours binge watching TV is encouraged but the idea of spending hours reading the Bible is looked down upon.  Matthew 7:13-14 says, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  This is a very telling verse.  This means that although the Lord doesn’t want to lose a single one of His children to sin, he is actually losing a majority of them.  

So, how can we help the Lord?  We can pray for all sinners.  We can pray for a repentance of all hearts.  We can pray for a conversion of the whole world.  There were many saints that prayed daily for the conversion of souls and for the souls of all sinners.  It doesn’t have to be a long, wordy prayer where you make sure to say all the right things.  It can be as simple as Lord, I pray for the souls of all sinners.  Our prayers are powerful and if ask the Lord, He answers. Do you think you could add one extra line to your daily prayers?  Even if you just ask one time, even if right now you asked God to save all sinners, it would make a difference.  However, if you added it to your daily prayers it would make even more of a difference.  The Lord wants us to pray for others.  He wants us to intercede on their behalf.  

Another great way to intercede is to start by interceding for your loved ones.  If you have children, then you are probably worried that they do not believe in God, or that they don’t go to church any more.  You are probably worried for their souls.  Or maybe you aren’t worried about your children but you are worried about a sibling, a parent, a spouse, or a friend.  Often times when we are worried for our loved ones souls we think there is nothing we can do but pray, as if praying isn’t powerful.  Our prayers are so powerful and we don’t even realize it.  I heard a witness the other day from a friend of mine.  Her brother has fallen away from the Catholic church and she worries for him because of this.  She prays for him daily.  The other day he had a massive stroke and is not doing too well.  They had a priest come to the hospital and gave him the anointing of the sick and absolved him of his sins.  His soul is pure again.  Our prayers are powerful.  

You may have something that is really weighing on you right now and you feel helpless in this situation.  If that is you I want you to hear this message.  You are not helpless.  You are more powerful than you know because you have the power of Jesus Christ behind you.  Your prayers are going up to the Lord and He hears every single one of them.  Ask others to pray for you  and your situation also.  God loves it when we come together and pray.  Ask friends and family.  If it is something you don’t want others to know about you can ask them to pray for a private intention.  There are usually prayer lines at your church when you can give them the request and they send it out to a whole list of people who will pray for your intention.  If your church doesn’t have one you can email [email protected] and I will get your request out to all of our prayer warriors.  There are also websites you can go to such as Lourdesprayerrequest.com, unity.org/prayer-request, or hisradio.com/prayer/need-prayer/, just to name a few.  

One last thing I would like to mention is that there is nothing too small to pray about.  Many people turn to God for the big things in their life because they don’t know what else to do.  However, God is in all the little details too.  If you need $5 for something, ask the Lord, it’s not too small a request.  If you need timing to work out for something, ask the Lord.  It is actually amazing when you start to pray for little things as well as the big things.  When you do this you are giving God an opportunity to show up more in your life and you get to see how amazing He is at even the little details.  Trust me, you won’t be sorry.  You will begin to see how much He is willing to do in your life, if you just invite Him in.  He is there waiting for the invite.  Why not invite Him in today?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to the episode today.  Lord, we invite you into all areas of our lives.  We invite you into the big issues as well as the small ones.  We give you unlimited access into our lives.  Lord, help us to intercede for others.  If you want us to intercede for a particular person or a particular cause, put that on our hearts and help us to do it.  Help us to reach out and ask others to pray for us as well.  Lord, we love you and we are so grateful that you listen to our prayers.  You are so just and yet so merciful.  We are so lucky to have you as our heavenly Father.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Joy, Trust, Forgiveness & Love

Psalm 86:4-5 “Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.”

Joy is one of my favorite words.  It makes me smile just hearing it.  The reason I like the word joy so much is because it reminds me of God.  Only God can bring you joy in the middle of a difficult situation.  Only the Holy Spirit can remind you of something that makes you smile or laugh, when all you feel like doing is crying.  Have you ever been in a situation where you know you should be crying, but you are laughing?  That is the Holy Spirit moving in you.  I remember when my grandpa Desilets, my dad’s dad, passed away we laughed a lot at his wake.  It wasn’t that we weren’t sad, we were so sad.  Yet, we kept remembering the good times that we spent with him.  We remembered all the funny stories and we shared them with each other.  

The same thing happened at my friend Shannon’s wake.  This was even more sad in my eyes as my grandpa had lived a nice long life.  He got to see his children grow up and have children and then see his grandchildren have children.  However, my friend Shannon was 40 years old.  She had daughter that was only 9 years old.  All we wanted to do at that wake was cry.  Her passing was so tragic.  However, they Holy Spirit knew what we needed.  He knew that we needed to remember the fun times we had with Shannon.  We needed to remember how funny she was and all the times that she made us laugh.  She was so full of life and she loved to make people laugh.  She would have wanted us to be laughing and not crying because that is who she was.  

I also like how this verse is pairing joy with trust in God.  I have found the more we trust God, the more joy we find in our lives.  This makes a lot of sense.  It is difficult to have joy when you are worried all the time. However, the more you are able to let that worry go by handing it over to God and trusting He will take care of it, the more room you will have for joy. I found so much joy in my life once I learned to trust that God was in control.  Once I realized I could have joy even when I wasn’t happy.  I have a friend that is going through a really difficult time right now.  She is going through something that no parent should have to go through.  Yet many do.  She is devastated by the situation and yet she is still finding joy in her days.  She is trusting that God will take care of the situation and He will do a much better job than she can because He knows all the little pieces that she doesn’t know.  He can see both sides.  He can see right into the heart of her son and He knows what her son is thinking and feeling.  

It is not easy for her, or any of us, to let go of the control we think we have over our difficult situation.  However, the control we think we have is just an illusion anyway.  God is in control, whether we want to admit it or not.  We can waste our time and energy fighting Him and trying to keep hold of that control, or we can let go and let Him take care of it.  Once we finally let go, which usually isn’t until we have done all we can do and have no other choice but to surrender it to God, then we feel so much better.  If you have ever been able to turn something over to God, something that was really weighing on your mind and soul, you feel lighter afterwards.  You can actually feel this weight being lifted off of your shoulders.  It is amazing.  Then we always ask ourselves why we didn’t hand it over sooner.  Why can’t we remember this feeling for the next time this happens?  Why can’t we hand things over to God sooner?  Why do we always have to do it the hard way?  If we can learn to trust God with our struggles, trust that He will help us through them, we would have so much more joy in our lives.

The next line in the verse says, “ You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.”  This is something we can’t hear enough because it is so hard for us to believe.  The Lord is forgiving.  Do you believe this, really believe this?  And when I say do you believe this, I don’t mean do you believe that God forgives everyone else, but He doesn’t forgive you.  I mean do you believe that God forgives you. Do you believe that there is nothing beyond the scope of God’s forgiveness?  Sometimes we feel like we are not worthy of God’s forgiveness because we have done too many bad things.  My first thought is, we are right, we are not worthy, no one is.  However, God doesn’t give His forgiveness to those that are worthy.  He gives His forgiveness to anyone that asks for it.  There is no preferential treatment when it comes to God’s forgiveness.  There are only two requirements.  First, we must repent for out sins.  Repent means you feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin. Basically you have to be sorry for your sins.  Second, we must ask for forgiveness. God wants to forgive us, He is just waiting for us to repent and turn back to Him.  Ask the Lord and He will forgive you.  

The next step is the hard one.  After He forgives you, you need to accept that forgiveness and forgive yourself.  If the Lord God almighty can forgive us, why can’t we forgive ourselves.  Why do we hold onto the guilt?  It is like we are torturing ourselves.  If we hold onto the guilt even after God has forgiven us then it is like we are saying to God, that we don’t accept His forgiveness.  Do we think we know better than Him?  Our sins are not greater than His forgiveness.  When we realize that, we will have more joy in our lives as well.  Living with guilt and feeling like you can’t be forgiven makes living hard.  It is hard to be happy and joyful when we are filled with guilt and regret.  Let it go.  I know its not always easy to let God’s forgiveness into your lies.  However, if you do, you won’t be sorry.  If you are struggling to forgive yourself for something, ask God for help.  He loves to help us, and He is just waiting for us to ask.  

The verse ends with the words, “abounding in love to all who call to you.”  The Lord is abounding with love.  Isn’t that a great picture of the Lord?  The word abounding doesn’t really leave much room for lack.  Sometimes we might not feel loved by the Lord and we might think that He doesn’t have enough love for us.  This is not true.  The Lord loves you just as much as He loves everyone else.  When I picture the word abounding, I think of the word overflowing.  This is how I picture the Lord’s love for us.  It is overflowing.  Not only is there enough love for each and everyone one of us, but His love for us is overflowing.  In the mornings I fill my dog’s water dish up at the sink.  Sometimes I turn the water on for the dish while I do something else.  Occasionally I will forget and when I remember the dish is overflowing with water.  This is how I picture the Lord’s love.  It more than enough to fill each one of us up and then some.  If you are not feeling this love, all you need to do is call on Him.  Call on His forgiveness, call on His love.  Call on Him and He will give you all you need.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we love you so much and we are so grateful for all that you do for us.  We don’t always understand why you forgive us but we are grateful that you do.  Help us to accept this forgiveness and to forgive ourselves.  Lord, we thank you for all the joy you bring into our lives.  We thank you for the times you remind us to laugh when all we want to do is cry.  Lord, we have more joy when we put our trust in your, please help us to do that.  Help us to turn our worries over to you and not take them back again.  You are so great Lord.  We call on you to love us Lord.  Help us to feel that love, fill us up with that love.  You are so amazing and we are so grateful that you love abounds for those who call on you.  Help us to call on you Lord.  We ask all of this in accordance with you will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend.  

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Progress Not Perfection

Hebrews 5:7-9 "During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered  and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”

I think this verse struck me at first because of the line in the middle that says, “He was heard because of his reverent submission.”  My ears perked up because I am always trying to figure out how to maximize the power of my prayers.  Saying that out loud I understand how crazy that may sound.  Although I don’t think I am alone.  I am sure there are others out there that are trying to pray perfectly so that God will answer our prayers.  However, God doesn’t need us to pray a certain way.  He doesn’t need us do make our prayers powerful, that is His job.  And yet, I am still always trying to figure it out anyway.  I am constantly trying to figure out the perfect way to pray.  Why is it that we are always searching for perfection when God is only asking us for progression.  Progress not perfection is something I tell my friends and family all the time.  I celebrate with them in all their imperfections because I truly believe that we should focus on progress not perfection.  If we are moving forward towards our goal, no matter how small that progress is, we should celebrate.  God is not asking us for perfection, he just wants us on that journey to come closer to Him.  

This verse can help us on that journey if we really look at it.  The first line says that while Jesus was on earth, “he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” Reverent submission, do we all know what the means?  It can be summed up with these 8 words, “yet not my will, but yours be done.”  Jesus did not want to die.  Jesus was begging and crying for the Lord to take this cup from Him and yet He was willing to obey if that is what His father asked Him to do.  Can you imagine how hard it was for God on that night?  I have a hard time sticking to bedtime when my child is begging to stay up for one more show.  I can’t even imagine if they were begging me to save them from an excruciatingly painful death and I had the power to save them, but I couldn’t because it wouldn’t serve the greater purpose.  Just thinking about that right there helps me to understand how much God loves us.  It makes me wonder how anyone could question that God loves us if He could do that for us.  

Another powerful part of that line is when it says, “He was heard.”  This is powerful because we are told that Jesus’ prayers were heard, yet He was still crucified.  We sometimes think that God must not have heard our prayers because if He did surely He would have saved our loved one, or granted our request, whatever it was.  However, right here in this verse we are told that Jesus’ prayers were heard, and yet He was still crucified.  God hears our prayers, always.  Even if we don’t say them perfectly, even if we are not living our lives perfectly, He always hears us and He always answers our prayers.  Sometimes the answer is no and that is really hard for us.  We don’t understand.  I have been praying a lot for this friend of a friend.  She was diagnosed 2 years ago with ALS.  There is no cure and it is a really debilitating disease.  The end comes pretty quickly and yet not before taking away your ability to do the most basic things like swallow and breathe.  She was a young woman and she has two young children.  I was praying for a miraculous cure or healing.  I was begging God to not leave those two boys without a mother.  

This young woman died last weekend.  God heard my prayers and yet the answer was no for Him keeping her alive.  When I struggle with times like this I remember Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  We don’t always understand, but we can be confident that He heard our prayers, just as He heard Jesus’ prayers.  If He had to tell His only son no, he will have tell us no sometimes too.  God has a difficult job.  Imagine how hard it was to parent your children.  Whether you had one, two, or twenty, it wasn’t easy to watch them make mistakes and know that you can’t save them from it because it needs to happen.  And if you were like me, you weren’t always strong enough to let them make those mistakes.  I stepped in and shielded my children from things that I should have let them experience.  Now imagine you have more than 7 billion children you are taking care of.  Imagine how hard it would be to allow them to make the mistakes that you know they are going to make.  God is so strong and so amazing.  He is the ultimate Father.  

The last line in this verse says, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered  and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”  Jesus learned obedience from His suffering.  He didn’t want to do it and yet He did because His Father asked Him to and because of this obedience, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.  These last 5 words also stuck out to me when I read this verse for the first time.  Jesus is the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.  Obeying Him is something I struggle with sometimes.  I want to do what is right and yet, my mind wants to do other things.  For instance, I am working on writing a book that I truly feel the Lord asked me to write.  I think it will help a lot of people with their anxiety and bring people closer to the Lord.  I want to obey the Lord and finish this book.  I honestly do.  I think about it alot.  Then when I sit down to work on it, I open up Facebook instead of my writing app.  I got lost in social media for an hour and then run out of time.  The other day I had all evening to work on it.  I was looking forward to it all week.  Then when the time came I decided to watch a quick episode on TV while I ate my dinner.  Four hours later the night is over and I have not written a single word but instead I watched 4 hours of TV.  The words from St. Paul in Romans 7:15 come to my mind often, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

I think we all have ways we could obey the Lord more.  They may be small ways and they may be larger ways.  Only you know what the Lord is calling you to do.  Jesus was called to sacrifice His life in order to gain eternal salvation for us.  Whatever the Lord is calling you to do, will seem small in comparison to that.  Can we follow in Jesus’ footsteps?  Can we have reverent submission?  Can we say to the Lord, not my will but yours be done?  It is not always easy.  He will call us to do things we don’t want to do.  Maybe right now He is calling you to do something really hard, something you don’t want to do.  Maybe He is calling you to give up drinking, or calling you to fast, or something else that is really hard.  If this is the case I want to remind you, and myself, He is not calling us to do anything alone.  He will be there every step of the way.  He is also not calling us to do anything that He won’t give us the power and strength to do.  Call on Him as He is calling on you.  Be obedient and you will be amazed at the ways you see God show up in your life.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, you are amazing are we are truly luck we have you are our Heavenly Father.  We are grateful that you are in charge instead of us.  We are grateful that you are strong enough to make the hard choices.  We don’t always understand your plan Lord.  Please help us to stay faithful when we struggle to understand.  Please help us to remember that you are looking for progress not perfection and that it is not our job to make our prayers powerful, that is your job.  Lord, we pray that you give us the strength and power to obey even if we don’t want to.  Help us to pray the prayer and truly mean the words, not my will but yours be done.  Lord, we love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Thank you so much Tracie for sharing your journey with us.  There is so much in there that people can relate to.  One thing I want to point out that you touched on, but did not elaborate on is how God saved your son, and also your daughter from that abusive relationship.  I want to touch on it because God was still answering your prayers even when you did not feel worthy, even when you were living in a way that you were not proud of.  I think this is important for us all to realize.  We don’t reach out and ask God for help sometimes because we don’t feel worthy.  However, God isn’t asking us to do anything other than ask for His help.  Invite Him in to our situations no matter how crazy they are.  Don’t wait until things are perfect and your feel worthy before you ask God for help.  Invite Him into the mess and you will see that getting out of the mess, with His help, is so much easier than doing it ourselves.  Thank you Tracie, for sharing so many good lessons with us.  I hope one day you will share with us the story of how God saved your son from congestive heart failure.  We look forward to hearing from you again.

We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or just click on the link below.  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Stop and Think Before Reacting

Hebrews 5:1-3 “Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.  He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.  This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.”  

This verse is talking about the high priests and how they should e able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray because they themselves are subject to weakness.  I don’t think this verse just applies to high priests though.  I think this verse applies to each one of us.  I have noticed a lot lately that we, as a society in general, are not being very gentle with each other.  It seems to me that we are getting more and more inpatient.  We seem to forget that we are subject to weakness and that we are not perfect.  It seems as though society is getting less and less tolerant of those that make mistakes.  As if we don’t all make mistakes in one area or another.

Perhaps I am noticing this more because I am teaching my teenager how to drive.  If you have not had the pleasure, you are missing out.  It definitely increases your prayer life.  Driving with a new driver also helps you develop patience.  You have to remain calm because if you freak out, they will freak out.  This is like pretty much everything in parenting.  Kids take their cues from us.  It is easier to patient and calm when you are in the car with your child and you know they don’t know how to drive.  It is easier for you to empathize with what they are going through because you can see that they are trying and that they really want to learn.  However, what if you are not the one in the car with them.  What if you are in the car behind them?  What if you are stuck going 20 miles an hour in a 25 mile and hour zone because that is as fast as the person in front of you is going.  How easy would it be for you to have patience for that person?  

The other day while my son was driving we ended up on a road I did not intend for us to be on.  I had him stop by the side of the road so I could explain he had two options.  This car came up behind us quickly and was not happy we were stopped.  They started honking the horn and telling us to go.  I politely asked them to go around us.  However, they had pulled up so close behind us that they would have to back up to go around us.  They were not happy.  There was a man driving the car and a woman in the passenger seat.  When the car went around us the woman unrolled her window and yelled something at us.  My son was instantly angry that they would be so impatient.  I get it though.  They didn’t know what was going on, they didn’t know he was a first time driver.  The thing is, we rarely know the whole story.  Would they have reacted that way if they knew he was a first time driver?  We don’t know.  Maybe they would have been compassionate,  or maybe they were having a really bad day and it wouldn’t have mattered.  Maybe they were in a hurry for some reason and we will never know what it is.  The point is that we rarely have the whole picture.  So, what can we do about that?

We can treat all people with compassion.  We can react with kindness even if we don’t understand.  We can remember what this verse says, "He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.”  We all make mistakes, we all have good days and bad days.  If we can remember this when we are frustrated with others, maybe we could react more gently and with understanding.  When I was a teenager I was stopped at a stop sign and there was a stream of cars that were running the other stop sign.  I was annoyed that they weren’t stopping and so I beeped my horn and then took my turn.  However, I happened to be turning the same way they were and realized it was a funeral procession and that is why they were running the stop sign.  Of course I felt awful and immediately pulled over to let them all pass me.  We just don’t know, so much of the time.

We have no idea what others are going through.  I have a friend that suffers from chronic pain and yet you would never know it by looking at her.  I know someone who was in an abusive relationship and yet we never knew because she hid it from us.  People don’t tend to talk about the bad parts of their lives.  Whether it is because of shame, embarrassment, fear of being judged, fear of being hurt, or whatever else, we don’t share large parts of our lives.  I have really tried to adopt the idea “everybody is going through something.”  Whenever I get frustrated I try to remind myself that I don’t know what they are going through, what their cross to bear is, but I do know we all have one.  Trying to remember this in every situation helps me to respond with compassion.  It helps me to be more understanding.  I have heard people say that they honk the horn because they want the person to know that they did something wrong, so they don’t do it again.  Think about when you were driving and you made a mistake, maybe you cut someone off, or you stopped too quickly, or you forgot to blinker, whatever it was did you need someone to honk at you to tell you you did something wrong, or did you already know?  Most of the time we know, we didn’t mean to do it, that is what makes it a mistake.

Can you imagine how much better the world would be to live in if we were free to make mistakes without people jumping down our throats when we did?  Can you imagine how much less stressed you would feel if you weren’t so angry anytime someone did something you didn’t like?  It is not our job to fix everyone or correct everyone.  This verse above talks about how the high priests should deal with those that are ignorant and going astray.  It was actually their job to try and correct those that were ignorant and going astray.  It was their job to try to help direct them back to living the way God wanted them to live.  However, God didn’t tell the priests to yell at them and order them to get their lives in order.  He didn’t tell them to judge them and treat them badly.  The priests were supposed to be gentle and to remember that they are subject to weakness also.  I believe this verse is a call to all of us.  Whenever you find yourself wanting to yell at someone or find yourself frustrated with something they are doing, I urge you to remember that you are not perfect either.  You do things that others find frustrating and when you do, how do you wish they would react to you?  Not, how do they react, ask yourself, how would I like someone to treat me if I was doing this?  

If we just stop, take a moment and remember that we don’t know what this person is going through, or what the whole situation is, then I am willing to bet we would react a lot more gently than we currently do.  What about you?  Do you think you can deal more gently with people knowing that you are not perfect and that we are all going through something?  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to be patient and calm with those that frustrate us.  Help us to pause and remember that everyone is going through something before we open our mouths.  Help us to react more gently remembering that we are not perfect either.  Lord, we pray a special prayer of blessing and protection for all those that are teaching children how to drive.  It is not for the faint of heart.  Lord, you are so amazing.  You have done so much for us and we are so very grateful.  Just the fact that we have cars to drive is amazing.  You are so powerful and mighty.  We love you lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Our guest for tomorrow’s Witness Wednesday is Tracie H.  Tracie is going to tell us about her experience with faith growing up and how it changed over the years.  She is going to witness how God is there for us when we need Him, even if we aren’t always there with Him.  She will share how amazing He is at bringing people together just when they need each other the most.  I know you will lover her witness.  I look forward to sharing it with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Don’t Believe Everything You Hear

1 John 4:1 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

What first stood out to me about this scripture was the words “test the spirit to see whether they are from God.”  What came to my mind is the various opportunities that we are presented with from day to day.  The world is so busy and there is so much you can do.  We can be tempted to do a lot of things at one time.  We think to ourselves, well this is quick, it would only take me 10 minutes to do in the morning.  Well, I guess I could add this in too as it only takes 15 minutes.  Then a friend calls and asks if we can do something for them and although we already have a busy schedule we say yes because we want to help them out and it will only take an hour from start to finish.  Do you do this too, or is it just me?  I can start out with a completely empty day and then by the end it is filled to the brim with things to do.  Some of it needs to be done and some of it doesn’t.  Although, in my mind I probably think it all needs to be done.

This is what I thought of when I read this verse.  I though that we need to discern more about the things we are doing.  Even things with the church.  Have you ever taken on more than you should have at church because you figured if you didn’t do it, no one would?  Be honest, you know you have.  We all have.  Maybe it wasn’t at church, but it was with your family, friends or at work.  We don’t mind doing the work and we think that we are pleasing the Lord because we are so involved with our church, or wherever you are spending your time.  However, have you ever stopped to ask God if you should take on a role, before you take it on?  Have you ever asked what He wanted you to do?  I think if you did, you would be surprised.  Every opportunity that comes your way is not sent there from the Lord.  God is not asking you to do everything the world is asking you to do.  This verse is trying to remind us of that.  Test the spirits and see if they are from God.  Stop and pray about a new position before you take it on.  Don’t just say yes in the moment.  Take it to the Lord and see what He has to say about it.  

Maybe He doesn’t have anything to say and it will be left up to you.  However, what if he does?  We know that God knows things long before we do.  What if we want to say yes to a job but He knows that there is something better coming down the line.  What if we want to say yes to a volunteer opportunity but he knows you will be super busy in a few months and won’t have time.  We tend to feel if we are not busy all the time then we aren’t doing enough.  However, I don’t believe that is from God.  I think that is one of the things this verse is warning us about.  If we are busy all the time then we don’t have time to sit down and just BE with God.  If we keep our minds constantly going then we run out of time to even think of God, never mind talk to Him or sit and listen to Him.  If you are intentional about your relationship with God then you can find ways to include Him in all you do.  However, how many of us are doing that?  How many of us are inviting God into all of our daily actions?  I am not saying that we should be busy, I am just cautioning you and myself, to think about opportunities presented before jumping to say yes.  Stop and ask God if He is the one presenting the opportunity and if He wants you to take it.  Just as this verse says, test and make sure it its from God.  

The other things I thought of when I read this verse is best described by the Message translation of this verse.  It says, “Dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.”  The first part of that verse says, don’t believe everything you hear.  This is something we are told often, but do we pay attention to it?  This world is pretty divided these days and some people will use the Lord and scripture to push their agenda. Just because someone says something about God, doesn’t make it true.  Even if you hear it at a church, or from a preacher or pastor, it might not be true.  Sometimes we hear things and we feel in our inmost being that it is not true.  We should listen to this voice and we should test to see if it is really from God or not.  Sometimes we hear things that are in direct opposition to all we know to be true about God.  If this is the case, you should definitely question it and not just believe it.  

I found this article called Five Ways to Know If Something Is From God by Deb Wolf. (CLICK HERE for the article) The first thing Deb says is to begin with prayer.  This is a great starting point for anything you are doing.  However, if you are not sure if what you are hearing is from God, ask Him.  Sit with it and pray about it.  Ask the Lord and then listen to see what you hear, or what you feel.  Often times it won’t be an audible answer but you might feel one way or another.  The second things suggested in the article is to ask yourself, does this glorify God?  Whatever you are questioning, does it Glorify God?  God will never guide you to do something that will not give Him glory. The third thing would be to ask yourself, does it agree with scripture?  God gave us His word to show us His well.  Does whatever you are questioning agree with scripture?  The fourth thing from the article is to be willing to wait.  Be patient because God’s will is worth the wait.    If something is from God He will guide you to it.  Don’t rush it.  The fifth and last thing mentioned in this article is to trust God to accomplish His will in your life.  The article says “you can trust that if God wants something specific in your life He will guide you to it.”  Deb Wolf says, “The good news is if you are trusting and glorifying God with your life you can move ahead confidently.  

As you go through your day, question what you are told.  Don’t just believe things that you feel aren’t true.  God is good and someone is telling you something that doesn’t match up with that then question it.  The same goes with things people say about you.  Not everyone is speaking truth.  If someone says something unkind that makes you feel awful about yourself, even if it is you that is saying it, don’t believe it.  Question why it isn’t true.  Find proof that the statements are false.  Also remember that not every opportunity is from God as well.  Take a day to think and to pray about whether this opportunity is right for you.  Ask God if He thinks you should take it.  If you do decide to take the position do it because you want to, now because you feel you have to.    Trust that God will find the right person to fill that position if it is not for you.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to test the things we hear and help us to know which are from you.  We want to listen to you Lord and we want to reject any false prophets, help us to know the difference.  Help us to lean into prayer and scripture when we are not sure.  We love you Lord, you are amazing!  We are so grateful for all you do for us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ name, Amen.  

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Look At The Fruits

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;  abstain from every form of evil.”

The teaching at my prayer group meeting yesterday was about discernment.  I thought it was interesting because that is similar to the topic of my episode yesterday.  While I was writing yesterdays episode I remembered something my spiritual director told me about discernment, but the episode was already long enough so I didn’t go into it.  However, when I heard this verse today and then I heard a something similar in the teaching, I knew that the Holy Spirit wanted me to share it with you.  I think discernment is something that we all struggle with.  Discernment in the way I understand it is when we need to make a decision and we sit with the Lord and ask Him what He thinks we should do.  We give ourselves time to pray about it and really consider what God would want us to do.  This is my understanding of it anyway.  

The problem is that we don’t always get a clear answer.  We learned from Father Mike in yesterdays episode that if God wants you to change direction in your vocation or your purpose in life, He will make that clear to you.  However, the realization that He has been bringing me to, or at least I think He has, is that He doesn’t have a huge opinion on every little decision we need to make.  We say that we just want to know what He wants us to do and we will do it.  Have you ever said this?  I know I have.  Lord, just tell me what to do and I will do it.  I have prayed that so many times.  And you know what I usually hear? Crickets, I don’t hear God telling me His grand plan for my life.  While I was in with my spiritual director this week what came to my mind is that there is not just one way to live this life.  There isn’t a certain checklist of things that we need to do and if we miss one our lives will be over.  

I don’t know about you, but I am a perfectionist and a rule follower.  I never knew this before but it has really become apparent in these last few years.  I want to do things the right way.  I want to do things perfectly.  I don’t want to get it wrong.  What I feel God has been trying to teach me over these last several years, maybe my whole life, is that there is not just one way to do things.  For instance, maybe you make mashed potatoes by peeling them first, cutting them into small pieces and boiling them.  Maybe you don’t peel them and you boil them with the peels still on.  Maybe you don’t cut them into small pieces and you  boil them whole.  No matter how you boil these potatoes, you will still be able to make mashed potatoes.  I don’t know if that is a great analogy, but you get my point.  There is more than one way to do things.  Life is like this as well.  If it is a huge decision in your life, I believe what Father Mike said yesterday is true.  God won’t ask you to make that decision without making sure you have all the info.  However, what about the millions of decisions that aren’t huge, but aren’t that small either?  How do we make those?

I believe we should still bring them to prayer.  If we invite the Lord into the smallest of our circumstances He will be more a part of our lives.  We will turn to Him more and we will turn to Him sooner because we will be used to involving Him in our every day life.  If you are not sure what to do, be intentional about sitting with the Lord and asking Him what He would do if He were in your circumstance?  Or, maybe you ask Him what He wants you to do?  What your conversation looks like, is up to you, just sit down and make sure to have one.  Make sure you allow time to sit and listen to God and see if He has an answer for you.  It is unlikely to come in words, however, it may come in a feeling, a thought, a memory, a story, or some other way He has of communicating.  Pay attention, not just in that moment but over the next couple of days and see what the Lord says.  A friend said today that she usually hears things days later and sometimes it comes in the words of someone she is talking to.  If we are looking for answers we tend to find them.

However, sometimes we don’t hear an answer.  I was talking with my spiritual director about this and she said that sometimes God lets us make the choice.  Sometimes it is not super clear which way He wants us to go.  Remember, God put the desires in your heart.  He wants you to fulfill those desires.  So, if you are unsure as to which way to go, pray and really think about what you want.  Then step forward in faith knowing that God can use anything for good.  Once you make a choice, pay attention to how that thing is making you feel.  What my spiritual director told me is that we should look at the fruits that come from our decision.  This is what the verse above is saying as well.  “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;  abstain from every form of evil.”  Say the decision was to accept a new job.  How does that new job make you feel?  Do you feel happy and joyful or do you feel anxious or angry?  Is it helping your home life, or making it worse?  Is the overall impact of this new job good or bad?  Hold fast to what is good and abstain from what is evil.

I have a really good friend who was trying to decide if she should take a job or not.  The job sounded really good, she felt she could really make a difference in the kids lives and she felt it was the right job at the right time.  A few months into having the job, she realized the job wasn’t producing good fruit.  Her co-workers complained a lot and gossiped all the time.  She felt stressed and anxious when she left work.  It got to be where she didn’t really even want to go in to work because she felt the coworkers made it an uncomfortable environment.  Because she loves the Lord and spends time with Him, she was able to see that this wasn’t what He wanted for her anymore.  Soon after she started to feel this way, another job opened up at her place and she prayed if she should apply.  She wasn’t sure what to do, but after going in for the interview she felt so much peace.  She was excited for this new opportunity.  Now, we might be tempted to think that she made a mistake by choosing to take that first job.  We could say, the fruit was bad, so it was the wrong choice.  However, it felt great at first and she might not have found out about this other job if she wasn’t already there working at the center.

God is so good.  We worry so much about making the wrong choice, but when we do we are making God smaller than He is.  He is bigger than our mistakes.  He does not just have one path for us to go down.  I believe, as long as we are loving Him and our neighbors then He give us some leeway.  He lets us make choices, fulfill our desires and as long as we are paying attention to the fruit that our decision are producing He leaves it up to us.  So, step out in faith, trust that if you are spending time with God, He is leading your way, even if you don’t have that certainty or clarity you are searching for.  Know that there is not just one right path that you must adhere too.  God trusts you to make your own decisions sometimes, “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;  abstain from every form of evil.”  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we just want to do what is right and by doing so we get stuck wanting to have the certainty and that clarity.  You are calling us to step out in faith.  You are calling us to trust that you are leading us and that if we are heading down the wrong path you will help us do a course correction.  Lord, we know you are big and powerful and we don’t mean to make you smaller by thinking you can’t handle our missteps.  We know that our life is in your hands and that you want us to succeed even more than we want to.  You love us more than we could imagine and because you are so loving, you let us make our own choices.  Help us to look for the fruit Lord.  Help us pay attention to the fruit our choices are producing and change paths if we are producing bad fruit.  We love you Lord, you are awesome.  We are so grateful for you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

What Is My Next Step?

Psalm 43:3-4 “Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!  Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.”

I love the idea of the Lord leading us with His light and His truth.  What I like most about it is that His light can cut through any darkness and His truth can cut through any lies, even the ones that we tell ourselves.  These two things are so important for us to remember.  We can start to feel as if our hole is so dark no light will ever get in.  God’s light can always get it.  We have to let it in though.  We can get in our own way sometimes.  Picture yourself sitting in a room with the shades drawn and the lights off.  You are complaining that it is so dark you can’t see anything and yet, you don’t turn the light on or even open the shades.  We do this to God too.  We sit in our misery and we don’t invite Him in.  He is knocking at the door, but we are too sad, too upset, too angry, too whatever to open the door.  We don’t let Him in and then we ask Him where His is.  

One way we might not be letting in His light is that we may not be seeking Him.  God can be found anywhere and everywhere if we are searching.  If we are looking we can learn to see His light all around us.  However, if we aren’t looking we won’t see it.  No matter how bright His light is, if you don’t want to see it, you won’t.  You will make every excuse in the book but you won’t recognize God’s light.  The first thing we can do to let the Lord’s light into our lives is we can seek it.  

The next thing we can do is to be around others that can help us see it.  When we are upset, we tend to want to either be alone, or surrounded with others that are feeling similar to us.  We don’t want to watch happy movies, or listen to uplifting music.  We want to wallow in our feelings.  This can be ok for a brief amount of time.  Sometimes we really need to let ourselves feel our feelings.  However, we can't stay there.  It should be more of a brief pit stop than an extended stay.  After our brief pit stop, we need to be around others that can help us see the light.  If we don’t have people like that in our immediate circle we can use uplifting movies, TV shows, or music.   Even just being around people that are filled with the light of the Lord can help lift our mood.  Sometimes they don’t even have to say anything.  You know the person I am talking about.  That friend of yours who brightens your whole day just by being with you.  Maybe it’s your spouse, your parents, your sibling, your best friend, whoever it is, we should all have someone like that in our lives and when we are in the dark, looking for the light, they are the ones to go to.  Also, if you are not in the darkness right now, maybe you could be the light for someone right now.  God wants us to share His light with one and all.  Sometimes we need help seeing the light and sometimes we are the ones to bring that light to others.

When we are asking the Lord to send His light to lead us, sometimes we are disappointed with the way He does this.  When we ask Him to send His light what we really mean is for Him to send a floodlight that will light our way for the next 5-10 years.  We want to be able to see from where we are to where we are going. We want to see all the twists and turns. We want to see the finish line now so we know it is safe to follow that light.  This is not how the Lord usually works.  He sends His light more in the form of a candle or a flashlight.  He lights up your next step or two and then you are in the dark until you take that next step.  He doesn’t want us to rely on what we can see.  If we could see every step, every twist, every turn, then we wouldn’t be stepping out in faith.  If we faithfully take that next right step that the Lord lit up for us then He will light up the next step for us.  Your steps might not be too close together either.  You may spend sometime waiting in-between steps.  This waiting can be hard because we don’t always know how long we will have to wait for and while we are awaiting we are not necessarily hearing from God everyday.  

I saw a video on Youtube once with Father Mike Schmitz and he said he is constantly asked, “what does God want me to do?” (CLICK HERE for video) I will put a link to this video in the show notes because it was a quick 6 minute video and yet he explains it so well.  Basically what Father Mike explained is that God shows us what He wants us to do one step at a time.  Father Mike said we think we are seeking certainty or clarity, but what we are really wanting is God’s constant reassurance that we are going in the right direction.  He said that God’s never going to ask you to make a decisions with your vocation or what he’s call you to based of of what he hasn’t revealed to you.  God has revealed to us the way God wants us to live, the commandments, the sacraments, the beatitudes.

In the verse above it asks God to send out His light and His truth and to let them lead me.  Father Mike is saying, God gave us His truth.  We can let that lead us to where we are going and let that truth help us to take the next right step.  If God is not lighting up your next step for you, that doesn’t mean He has abandoned you, it means he wants you to stay where you are until He gives you the next right step.  Father Mikes gives us an invitation in the video and I want to pass that invitation on to you.  His invitation for you today is “to be content and confident to live in uncertainty.”  Or a better way to say it is “To live with a certainty that God has already given to you, to live with the clarity that he’s already spoken in.”  You know what He wants you do.  Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  God has already told you what He wants you to do and when He calls you to move forward, He will speak with clarity and that question will always have confirmation.  This doesn’t mean He is going to tell you the next five steps, just that next step.

Father Mike talks about how when the Angel came to Mary to ask if she would be the mother of the Jesus, and she said, “Behold, I’m the handmaiden of the Lord.  May it be done unto me according to your word.”  The very next line says, “Then the angel departed from her.”  Mary was asked to answer this one question, will you be the Mother of God?  Then the angel disappeared.  God’s certainty isn’t telling us all the future steps, God’s certainty is “I will be with you.”  Just stay on the path He has revealed to you until He asks you to turn.  I know waiting can be uncomfortable and the unknown is really hard sometimes.  However, Father Mike is telling us that if you aren’t hearing anything from God on your next step then He isn’t asking you to take one.  If God is wanting you to pivot in direction or take a different turn in your life, He will reveal that to you.  If not, keep heading in the same direction with the certainty that God is with you and if He wanted you to do something different He would let you know.  I will leave you with Father Mike’s call to us.  Can you be content and confident to live in the uncertainty?  Can you live with the certainty that God has already given to you, to live with the clarity that he’s already spoken in?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, send us your light and your truth.  Help us to follow them to wherever you want us to go.  Lord, help us to  be ok with not knowing all the steps.  Help us to just take that next right step. Help us to be ok with following your light, even if it is one step at a time.  Help us to live in your truth for the times when you just want us to keep going forward.  We love you Lord, we are so grateful for your light, especially in the dark times.  We are grateful that you light and your truth break through any darkness and any lies that we find ourselves in.  You are amazing Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

We have all seen God working in our lives, however, we might not all be aware it is God who is working in our lives.  This is why it is so important we start talking about it more.  The more we share our experiences the more people understand how God works and how much He truly loves us.  If you would be willing to share any experience you have had of how God has worked or is working your life, please email me at [email protected] or (CLICK HERE).  It won’t take up much of your time and your story could be just the story that someone needs to hear today.  Prayerfully consider sharing.  Everyone has a story and the world needs to hear them.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow and I will have another witness for you next Wednesday.  Have a blessed day!

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE FOR RETREAT INFO

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emails

CLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

CLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace