I got up this morning wondering how I would admit that I had not done yesterday what I proposed. My intention after I wrote that I needed to go back and see what God was telling me through the first 142 of the journals I had written in this quest for a Word from Him, was to do just that. It seemed to me at the time, that I could skim them and pick out the theme, write it down, and then move on to the next.
But it did not work out quite that way. I found myself going deeper into each one and seeing if the idea had really impacted my life since I penned it. By the end of an hour or so, I had only gone back through 23 of them. That was enough to realize a trend of sorts, but not my stated purpose and my goal.
So, feeling a bit chagrined this morning, I read what Oswald had to say. Here is one quote I picked out of the reading today:
"God's training is for now, not presently. His purpose is for this minute, not for something in the future. We have nothing to do with the afterwards of obedience; we get wrong when we think of the afterwards. What men call training and preparation, God calls the end."
Obedience is the process, not the end result. Could that mean that I am OK in not getting to the end of the journals yesterday, but that God is training me in the process?
A verse from Isaiah comes to mind: "My plans are not like your plans". (Isaiah 55:8)
My plan was to read through them all, get a summary statement written, and then move on. I don't really know what God's plan is in this, but I sense that I should continue to read and see.
Another thought from Chambers today: "We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end."
OK back to the old journals. I'll pray for His leadership each day and leave the results up to Him. Maybe that is a goal after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment