Recognizing God at work
+ Dear Lord, increase my spiritual sight and spiritual hearing that I may better recognize the moments in my life that you are in fact working in and through my life to provide and to prosper me. Thank you Lord for those moments. Help me to recognize Your work in the lives of those I love and provide me with courage to help others to see Your movement in their lives. Amen.
Isaiah 45:1,4-6 I have called you by your name, giving you a title… it is I who arm you, though you know me not
I have called you by name… Sit with the Lord’s truth. You are called by Him, known by Him, you are not faceless or nameless to God. What stirs in your heart?
God seeks to be on a ‘first name basis’ with each of us. Has His desire become a lived reality for you?
If so, tell Him what difference that has made for you, tell Him what He means to you.
If not, ask Him to help you to know Him, ask Him to ‘arm’ you with the spiritual gifts to know Him.
Psalm 96 Give to the Lord the glory due to His name
God used a good friend to spiritually open my eyes and heart years ago with one piercing question, “I want you to think of one accomplishment or provision in your life that deep down you know you didn’t ‘earn’, something that was beyond your day to day ‘ability’. I immediately had my acceptance to PT school come to mind. He then looked at me and said, ‘That was God helping you to become who you were meant to become.’ I encourage you to spend time this week reliving the highlights of your life with God. He was there helping, recognizing that is one way of giving Him thanks.
Here is a witness moment of God breaking through for me. I began writing this Monday, then went to Mass. Our opening and closing song was, Praise to the Lord. I am including a link here to pray with the music and lyrics.
1 Thessalonians 1:1-5 For our gospel did not come to you in word alone, but in power and the Holy Spirit
God’s word is meant to pierce our heart, it is meant to be seed scattered on fertile soil that opens our hearts and minds and brings us into a relationship with Him, a ‘first name basis’ relationship. This is not something we can ‘do’, we cannot make it happen with our ‘will’. Moments when God’s word pierces our armor of humanity are moments where we released ourselves to Him, ‘thy will be done.’
We have been walking together with God’s word for 12 weeks now! Take some time this week to go back and relive the different moments that God’s word did indeed pierce your heart: where have you been moved, empowered, enlightened, consoled, healed, or convicted? These are moments of encounter with Jesus, the word made flesh! These are your moments, unique to you! Give the Lord the glory due His name!
Matthew 22:15-21 Give to Caeser what belongs to Caeser and to God what belongs to God
The Pharisees thought themselves rather clever, always looking for opportunities to trip Jesus up, to find a loophole in His teaching, to discredit Him. Throughout my own life, at different phases and stages, I too have thought myself rather clever and convinced myself of a loophole. In other words, I have justified moments where I refused to give God some aspect of my life.
Is there an argument that you are waging against God at this time in your life? Is it one of those internal dialogues with yourself or is it one where you actually bring it to God and ask Him to share His point of view? I encourage you to share these struggles with God, you will not offend Him if you are genuinely open to His perspective. Pray for the gift of patience though because this often takes time (trust me!). God’s answers come to us in His word, in the wisdom of another (think of that great question asked by my friend), in a sermon, or a book you are reading. If you ask in faith, He will deliver.
