Fascinating
Sorry I haven't written much. Life has a way sometimes of interfering with the best plans we make and that is the place you would find me these days. One night, I'm having dinner with the Who, and the next I find myself headed in a completely different direction with my life.
One that I'm absolutely positive is an answer to prayer that I did not expect, nor was it just an answer to my own prayer, but the prayers of three different people.
Somewhere in there, I found the time and opportunity to see my beloved Oregon and the Pacific Ocean. I needed that. Even if it was only for just a hot minute.
I am in the midst of learning something important about God; something I'm still having trouble understanding, but still fascinated by the concept of: it's the idea that things are going to end well just because God sent me on the journey.
I've seen the same thing twice now. This time, though, it's much more evident to what God is doing; mainly because He point blank told me and the other person involved what He was doing. The other thing He did was give that person a choice of how to respond to what it was that God did.
I have a hard time with that I guess because I think I should expect an outcome that didn't happen. Much like the day came when the Who was faced with a choice and she chose not me, the person about whom I'm speaking is also facing a choice: everything that was lost has been made available to that person and that person has to decide what to do with that.
It's a tough choice I think because we as human beings are so ingrained to what we expect from God that a lot of times we don't leave room for what's possible. I was so confident about things working out with the Who, the possibility of them not wasn't something I'd prepared myself for. Some six months later, I would have still bet they would have just because I'd had dinner with her three times in two weeks. That, and the stuff that happened when life was normal for a minute seemed to be pointing in that direction, but the answer to a prayer about what God was up to there, was to go a different direction. Abruptly
We have free will. And we make choices in that free will that do not surprise God. But we ultimately have a choice about whether we're going to surrender to His plans or whether we're going to go our own way. I've been learning about that concept this week through Scripture.
Jonah went his own way and spent three days in the belly of a fish to think it over. God had a plan; stay fish food or do what I want. That choice was Jonah's, but it took the fish to help Jonah see it God's way. Free will meets Sovereign God. Scripture doesn't sugar coat Jonah's story either. Jonah wasn't happy about what God had him do. In fact, we are left with God talking with Jonah about him being displeased. But the fact remains that Jonah did what God asked of him.
I try not to be like Jonah. I'm trying very hard to accept some things that I just can't fathom, but what I can do and have been doing is accepting God's plan as best.
I'm good with that.
Because so was Paul. Paul had plans to go to Asia on his second missionary journey. God had other plans and because paul was available and willing to submit, God led him to where God wanted him to go. It didn't end well for Paul either. He wound up in Rome and got dead. But how many millions have come to faith because Paul obeyed God?
I'm keeping that in mind this week as I start understanding more the role of our own free choices and how God can work things to His will within the choices we make.
And that's something that just fascinates me to no end.
One that I'm absolutely positive is an answer to prayer that I did not expect, nor was it just an answer to my own prayer, but the prayers of three different people.
Somewhere in there, I found the time and opportunity to see my beloved Oregon and the Pacific Ocean. I needed that. Even if it was only for just a hot minute.
I am in the midst of learning something important about God; something I'm still having trouble understanding, but still fascinated by the concept of: it's the idea that things are going to end well just because God sent me on the journey.
I've seen the same thing twice now. This time, though, it's much more evident to what God is doing; mainly because He point blank told me and the other person involved what He was doing. The other thing He did was give that person a choice of how to respond to what it was that God did.
I have a hard time with that I guess because I think I should expect an outcome that didn't happen. Much like the day came when the Who was faced with a choice and she chose not me, the person about whom I'm speaking is also facing a choice: everything that was lost has been made available to that person and that person has to decide what to do with that.
It's a tough choice I think because we as human beings are so ingrained to what we expect from God that a lot of times we don't leave room for what's possible. I was so confident about things working out with the Who, the possibility of them not wasn't something I'd prepared myself for. Some six months later, I would have still bet they would have just because I'd had dinner with her three times in two weeks. That, and the stuff that happened when life was normal for a minute seemed to be pointing in that direction, but the answer to a prayer about what God was up to there, was to go a different direction. Abruptly
We have free will. And we make choices in that free will that do not surprise God. But we ultimately have a choice about whether we're going to surrender to His plans or whether we're going to go our own way. I've been learning about that concept this week through Scripture.
Jonah went his own way and spent three days in the belly of a fish to think it over. God had a plan; stay fish food or do what I want. That choice was Jonah's, but it took the fish to help Jonah see it God's way. Free will meets Sovereign God. Scripture doesn't sugar coat Jonah's story either. Jonah wasn't happy about what God had him do. In fact, we are left with God talking with Jonah about him being displeased. But the fact remains that Jonah did what God asked of him.
I try not to be like Jonah. I'm trying very hard to accept some things that I just can't fathom, but what I can do and have been doing is accepting God's plan as best.
I'm good with that.
Because so was Paul. Paul had plans to go to Asia on his second missionary journey. God had other plans and because paul was available and willing to submit, God led him to where God wanted him to go. It didn't end well for Paul either. He wound up in Rome and got dead. But how many millions have come to faith because Paul obeyed God?
I'm keeping that in mind this week as I start understanding more the role of our own free choices and how God can work things to His will within the choices we make.
And that's something that just fascinates me to no end.
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