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Glory Seed Devotionals, 2015: Year of Promise
Detours, God, and you…
I know I don’t need to tell you this but today there is a good chance life will try to detour you down the road of Worry and Fret. Even though you’ll see the signs and feel the pull as the detour tries to take you in a different direction away from God you don’t have to follow you can pray. The apostle Paul writes, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6–7, NLT)
So far this morning I have read Paul’s assignment/challenge 6 or 7 times trying to read something Paul didn’t put in, something I desperately need to read. “Tell God what you need, then after he removes the reasons for the detour thank him for all he has done.” As you’ve already observed that is not what Paul says. However, Paul does say is this, “Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.”
In all honesty there are times when I don’t understand why in some situations God does not remove the “detour reasons” and I begin to question myself. Is my faith weak? Paul writes, “…as you live in Christ Jesus,” does that mean I am living apart from Jesus, that I do not live in Jesus’ heart? Does it mean that God selects which of my prayers he wants to listen to? Does it mean that in God’s eyes I am an enemy? And the questions go on and on as I unwittingly and unknowingly travel down the road of Worry and Fret.
I hope from my experience you can see how easy it is to be persuaded to follow life’s detours. The greatest gift/answer to a prayer is God’s presence not God’s presents. There are times when God intervenes in the history of our lives and his “presents” are immediate but there are other times when God allows the normal process to take place and simply accompanies us every step of the way providing us with the peace and security of the Holy Spirit. If you have followed my writings you know I’ve had 12 hip operations while it is true God could have prevented the deterioration of my “original equipment” and prevented even one operation but he didn’t and now 12 operations later I am living a normal life. Yet it is because of my dependency not only on the medical profession but especially on God I have much deeper relationship with Jesus.
God does not expect us to understand all that he does he expects us to trust in his presence.
Anticipate! Experience! Believe! Be transformed!
Grace and PEACE, Amen!
Gary
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Glory Seed Devotionals: Encouraging Words of God’s Presence in our World!
Glory Seed Devotionals: Encouraging Words of God’s Presence in our World!
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“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”