Those of us born in the West struggle to overcome the vast gulf of understanding between us the Eastern text of Scripture. Our biggest problem is reflexive unbelief. The antidote is not some mental exercise, some commanding force of will or anything like that. It’s grace all the way through the whole existence.
Even if we discover much later something we asked from God was not appropriate for whatever reason, the investment in prayer was not wasted. Sometimes we get that thing and realize it’s not what we thought it would be. Sometimes the desire for it dies and we quit asking; something inside us simply moves on and we would rather forget. Other times it simply takes a long time, or comes in some fashion totally unexpected. What really matters is the struggle to quiet the mind and emotions so you can begin filtering it all through the convictions carved into our wills by the finger of God Almighty. The investment returns a change in us, at the very minimum a greater sense of clarity.
It’s not important to list all the goodies. Nor is it important how, but several things for which I’ve been seeking God’s face were granted today. All the specific prayer requests I posted here in the past few months have been answered, at least the material items. Turns out God agreed with me that I should have them.
Of course, you know the more correct statement is I happened to agree with God about His plans.
The biggest problem moving yourself in that direction is getting a handle on your mission, being taken by a sense of calling. Of course, we can’t get hold of that until we have done the work of washing from our minds all the lies about reality, but that’s been the subject of lots of posts here. Assuming you get a grip on the reality hidden in plain sight, your first priority is knowing who you are and what you should be doing in terms of that driving commitment to something which occupies your soul. It fills you with an identity in God’s Kingdom service and everything else tends to fall into place. You start praying for stuff you want, but somehow the importance of this or that item is corrected by the drive to answer the call.
It’s only incidental some of this hit about the same time as the change in the calendar year. It’s not as if every desire of my heart has been answered, but a few material items I felt I needed for my calling arrived today. The things not so easily answered would be less tangible and are still ill-defined:
- a desire to travel outside the US again
- the burning desire to work around military people again
- participation in a very mature and graceful worship community again, as we had in Europe
- a chance to teach a live audience again…
I just imagine those things won’t be so easily answered. But today I got some of the easy stuff out of the way.
