It's Day 29 and we're in John 14.
One thing that's important as we read daily: being eager to hear Him speak to you. Go into your reading expectant that God desires to share something with you.
Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 12 - I want to see "greater things" - I'm tired of only seeing small prayers answered. I want to see Him pour out His power to overflowing.
If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.
If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.
Your Questions and Comments:
- "How can we distinguish between what God is directing us to do and an idea that pops into our mind that seems right and we think is a good idea? I’m thinking of situations where we have to make a decision on a course of action and we must decide what to do. We think and pray and read Bible and come up with an idea or plan. Inevitably when we start that path, adversity hits. Is that God telling us we have made a mistake or is that experiences that God has placed before us to teach us a lesson, like humility, or patience or trust on the Lord? How do we know when we should stick with what we thought was a good plan (God’s plan for us) or perhaps God is telling us to change course? Just because life gets to be tough doesn’t mean we aren’t following God’s plan, or does it? He didn’t promise life would be without adversity but how do we know when the hardships are telling us it’s time to change the plan?" - That's a great question - and a difficult one. You've covered the easy stuff. For instance, we always want to make sure what we are pursuing doesn't contradict the teaching of the Bible. The situations you are referring to are the harder ones. There is not a simple, easy way to discern in those situations. There are two big ideas that come to my mind as the starting points in situations like that. First, I like to go to the Father and pray something like, "Father, I want to do Your will. I want to want what You want. If I'm off-track, please block my path if I'm going down the wrong road." Second, this is hard to quantify, but usually when I am in God's will there is an internal peace about what I'm doing. This doesn't always match up to the external circumstances (things may seem a little crazy but I'm still at peace deep in my heart).
- "In all of my years of reading and hearing lessons about Lazarus, I don't think I ever realized that after Jesus raised him from the dead, people were out to kill him! The most emphasis on the story is about waiting on the Lord and his timing. But can you imagine being Lazarus? You died and were buried, miraculously raised from the dead, by Jesus Himself, and now you have the government trying to hunt you down. Instead of a 'happily ever after' ending, maybe Lazarus lived the rest of his life as a fugitive. So much detail in Scripture. I wonder what else I have missed? The Bible always has something new for us."
