This book I am reading has some interesting things in it. One of the issues it discusses is how to submit to the Lord, put our trust in him. It has some suggestions which are of varying difficulties for me. First is recognizing our need for God. I am reminded of this need nearly every day...I am faced with my own weakness and ineptitude.
Another suggestion is to kneel to pray. Most of us (and by most of us, I probably mean "I") think of kneeling as something we're supposed to do and we don't give it much thought if we do it. However, with the right attitude, this can have a transformative effect on both our prayers and relationship with God. We kneel before one who is greater than ourselves, and if we let our kneeling reflect our knowledge of being his child, of submitting to him, then our relationship with him (as well as our faith in him) will be more intimate and strong.
The next point is to pray to know the Lord's will. Our Father knows us better than we know ourselves. He is omnipotent and omniscient...he knows what it will take for us to reflect his image in our countenances. This one is hard for me. Often I come away from prayer with NO clue as to what his will is for me. Which makes room for the next suggestion, which is to pray throughout the day and be prepared to act spontaneously on whatever inspiration we receive...commit to act, and then do.
One of the reasons we have trouble putting our faith in God and submitting to him is that we think of God as far removed from us, perhaps as "Up in heaven." Maybe we do not see him as involved in our lives and loving us. This is why I love trying to see and acknowledge his hand in all things. When we recognize it, we should write it down (a gratitude journal?) or simply acknowledge it aloud. We also might have to pray to be able to see his hand more clearly. Once we witness and testify of his love and his hand in our life, he becomes more personal to us. Ever since my children were little, when they took delight in something around us, I would say, "God made that sunset just for you!" or, "Did you see how God worked that out? Help right when we needed it!" or, "Look at that beautiful flower that God put in your path!" I hoped that comments like that made the children feel closer to their Heavenly Father. The more we see his hand in our lives, the more we love and trust him.
We often judge ourselves by the world's standards, but in reality, we need to judge our successes by the Lord's standards. We can ask God to evaluate our progress instead of seeking success in terms of how the world gauges success. One of the ways we can do this is by learning to operate on a different timetable...the Lord's timetable. Don't be in a big hurry all the time. Don't rush your spiritual development. Let the Lord be in charge! To some of us control freaks (again, namely me) this can be scary. As a single mother, I have so much to do and I know I'm a terrible time manager (by the world's standards! see line 1 of this paragraph!), so to tell me to slow down seems nearly impossible. Nevertheless, I am going to try to implement this in my life.
Relinquishing control is one of the requirements for faith, and to be honest, the one I have the most trouble with. Letting go in little things first helps us practice letting go in big things, but even then, even with practice, some of the things we are asked to let go of (like when we lose our jobs, lose our spouse or go through divorce) can be kind of terrifying. Frankly, this is my area of biggest struggle right now. As previously mentioned, I am a bit of a control freak, especially about certain things. I've been forced to be independent most of my life, starting at a young age, and most of my life have felt the only person I could trust was me. When I finally did put my trust in certain people, they let me down in big ways. Intellectually I can recognize that God won't do that because he's perfect and has a perfect view of what it will take to help me grow in faith, but emotionally, this is a fear-provoking exercise. To overcome this, the book suggests recognizing our desires to submit to God when they occur, and building on this. Perhaps when I recognize that I want to do the Lord's will and let him be in charge, I can pray for that feeling to be magnified and for my fears to be relieved.
I am learning so much through this preparation for my talk. This week, I'm going to practice the things I've been learning as I continue to study. We'll see what happens!
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