Storms

God impresses me. That may sound silly but he really does. I am constantly amazed at how when you listen, He will tell you exactly what he wants you to do. Where he wants you to be.

The thing that gets me is how often, no matter how sure you are of where He has put you, or how certain you are of the path he has chosen for you, life always gets in the way.

Even though you are totally aware that this is where God wants you to be, you still wonder why, and for how long, and for what purpose.
Especially when it gets hard. Or it hurts.
It would be so much easier to say forget it. It is too much. Most people around you would agree that it is too much.

But God... He has a different plan. So you step back from the situation. You take a deep breath, close your eyes and sing in you head, probably something like "strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord" or "give me a revelation, so me what to do, give me a revelation, I've got nothing with out you" and then that still small voice comes in. The one you don't tell you therapist about. The one that is always there, you just have to shut up long enough to hear it.

It says something like "do what I told you, and I will handle it all"

Then it all makes sense again. Sometimes just for a moment, but it is a moment that you remember when the storm starts again, and you listen and obey, even though others don;t understand.

A wise friend told me once that we spend so much time asking God to remove our problems and trials from us, but instead we should be asking him what we are supposed to be learning, what character is He trying to build in us through that situation? Then gradually it may not seem so bad coming from God's perspective instead of our own.

So we seek to grow, and listen and obey, and then before we know it the storm is over, and God's promise is before us, and we know why we were supposed to do it His way and not our own.