“A true prayer is an inventory of needs, a catalog of necessities, an exposure of secret wounds, a revelation of hidden poverty.”  Charles Spurgeon

Will it draw me closer to God?

Any course of action we take should draw us closer to God. That does not mean, of course, that God won’t lead us into situations that might tax our abilities and even make us feel unsettled. I’m quite sure the great Patriarchs of old felt pretty unsettled when they ventured out into unknown territories.

I can painfully remember when I started this blog. I had prayed about it and knew that God was leading me to do this. It fit in with all the other circumstances of my life and how and where God had led me in the past. But the frustration I encountered setting it up was akin to a root canal.

Nothing taxed my brain as much as that first year. Honestly, I liked geometry a whole lot better.

But I always knew I was on the right track. And as far as blogging drawing me closer to God, it still does today. When I realize the importance of what I’m trying to say, the people whose lives I might impact, and the responsibility to God, I am humbled. I have to read more and study more. I have to pray more so I get it right. This most definitely makes me depend on God.

But there were times I doubted whether I had heard him right. Especially when no one was reading what I wrote. (Picture my sad face here.) But I trusted God enough to know that if I had it wrong, He would give me a “heads up”.

But I never considered my lack of technical skills as a “heads up.” Maybe I should have. Too many times Christians give up because God’s direction proves difficult so they assume they got it wrong. What if Abraham, Moses, Daniel, and of course, Jesus, had given up when it got tough?

A dear pastor once told me, “Never doubt in the dark, what God has revealed in the light.” I forget that now and then.

When God leads me into unknown water, I get a little scared and my faith gets a little shaky.  But when I look back I see his hand leading me. In fact, just a few weeks ago I was getting discouraged with blogging.

It’s a lot of work. I questioned whether God was now directing me away from blogging and on to something else. So I prayed very specifically for a sign. I received it within a few days. A blogger who has never posted a comment made it a point to let me know that her depression had almost been eradicated because of the encouragement she felt when she read my posts.  My heart leaped. That’s all I needed.

Another way to ask the question I posed at the beginning of this post is this:

Will this decision impinge in any way on my relationship with God?

God will never direct us to any action that will interfere in our relationship with Him. That doesn’t mean that sometimes He won’t direct us to do things that require us to re-arrange and re-prioritize other areas in our lives but never to the point of hurting our connection with Him. After all, God certainly understands a crisis. He’s had a few of His own.

God bless and I hope you have a good day.

(The post “How to be absolutely sure God is leading us, (part three)” appeared first here.)