Thursday, January 10, 2008
does God 'nudge' people - part 2
your earlier comment makes sense. i, too, keep my announcements about God's activity to myself. yet, i still cannot say with certainty what comes from God and what does not. i absolutely do not trust myself when i dig around in my soul for messages from God. i have no way to determine what is from God and what is my own wishful thinking. i can say that if i find myself saying that God wants me to have a new car, that indeed is NOT coming from God. i believe God could care less about that, other than being displeased that i would be so selfish. but, i still question where to draw the line when taking requests to God. my life history indicates that i am pretty crappy at boot-strapping my way through life. my past is littered with poor choices that just did not work out like i thought they would. they were choices i presented to God in the hope that i would receive some divine direction. and who is to say that the divine direction actually was 'you are going to make a lot of crappy decisions, good luck.' to me, career choices, resolving marriage problems, help with parenting are sufficiently big enough issues to take to God and expect some reply. what do i do with that?
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Is it possible that we, at age 55, are so accustomed to hearing messages from God that we don't even recognize them any more?
I accept the following as true:
1. I am a Christian.
2. God has given me his spirit to dwell in me.
3. In a real sense, God himself dwells with me.
4. "He is there, and he is not silent."
The challenge then becomes my own cognitive abilities to recognize those messages. Since you and I are people who need to see clear "evidence that demands a verdict," we tend to stumble all over ourselves questioning everything that happens.
I am not likely to change my skeptical nature; it has served me extremely well in the past. But I must recognized that my innate skepticism has a downside.
if connecting with God's answers to prayer requires a certainn level of cognitive skills on my part, there is no hope for me. that assumes i know what those skills are (i don't), that i know how to develop and maintain them (i don't), that i know how much skill is enough (i don't).
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