Okay

Somewhere, in the recesses of my mind, I came up with this idea. Actually, I'm not sure I came up with it, because I'm pretty positive that other people share this idea. A lot of other people, actually. This idea is this: discerning the will of God is very difficult and arduous; it involves much prayer and fasting; and only once you've labored and labored is it possible to know God's will. Think: sackcloth and ashes, weeping, Catholic indulgences, beggars on the side of the road...

Or perhaps, if I beat myself over the head with a book, God will see that I'm serious and listen...

Eh, never mind about that one (now that I think about it, wasn't that from a movie? Hollywood and the way it influences us...)

Back to what I was saying...

What was I saying? Oh yes...

I have this feeling--you know, one of those feelings--that something's not quite right when I don't believe that God will tell me what to do unless I spend hours and hours begging and pleading to hear His voice. Or that I have to forgo food for a month in order to hear Him. It's not that there won't be any work involved in hearing God's voice--prayer and fasting are amazing and invaluable when you need to hear Him and it's imperative that we seek Him. He said, "Seek me with all your heart and I will be found by you." That's not exactly easy. Nevertheless, there's a difference between seeking God and groveling. One's really good; the other...not so much. The problem with this mentality is that it assumes that God doesn't want to speak to me. The reason I have to beg is because I think it's a burden for God to answer.

Wrong.

WRONG.

WRONG!

John 15:16 "You did not choose me, but I CHOSE you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

The fact is, God wants to share things with me and give me direction: "The Lord confides in those who fear Him" (Psalm 25:14) and "all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:16). He chose me, remember? When I've been pursuing the Lord with my whole heart and there's evidence of fruit in my life, then Jesus promised that "whatever [I] ask in [His] name, the Father will give [me]." Therefore, when I ask for direction and to discern His will, then I can trust that He'll show me.

And when He does, I don't have to freak out and discredit everything He just told me because it's "too easy" and I didn't spend 4 days groveling in the dirt.

Sometimes He says, "go."

And sometimes all I have to say is, "okay."

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