© 2018 Christy K Robinson
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| Credit: Peter Schreiber |
On my way home from a medical appointment, I heard a song on the Christian radio station I listen to on a regular basis. The lyricist was asking God to radically and suddenly change him, to be a different man, submitted to any command of God. The lyrics almost sounded militant to me.
What a contrast to my prayers, which God has answered every time. Many years ago, I asked the Lord for wisdom to understand when he was teaching me or writing on my heart and mind (as the New Covenant says in Hebrews 8:10-13). I asked that God would be gentle with me, and he has honored that. Sometimes he even uses humor.
For instance, I'm self-employed since the Great Depression of 2007-2011, to current times. (No, I intended to write Depression and not Recession.) After I lost my job at age 50, there was no employer who would take me, so I was forced to freelance and be an entrepreneur. There are no safety nets or family members to help me if I can't earn enough to pay my air conditioning bill over the Phoenix summer. But with juggling, being a total miser, and taking any job God sends my way, I've survived. Somehow, God stretches the money, or tells some lovely person to send me a check in the mail. It is truly miraculous. Part of my gratitude for those gifts is that I didn't ask or hint, and God moved that person, and the giver gets the joy of having been used by God.
Recently, I went in for a routine medical test, and the radiologist pinpointed two irregularities that required a needle biopsy to determine if they were malignant or benign. Two holes, two long needles with harpoons inside them, to tear out a piece of flesh. And the needle has to be inserted four times at each site: three for samples and one to place a titanium marker. Sheesh!! I usually drive myself to everything, because I hate to take a chunk out of someone else's day. But God moved a friend to go with me for support and encouragement. And I got the report about 28 hours later: benign. That meant I could go ahead with another very large project, near to my heart, that I've been planning and working for, for a long time.
If you're afraid that God will do a crisis on you if you submit to his will, remember that he is a Father who loves us more than any earthly father. He loves us with an everlasting love. And I will tell you from experience, if you ask him to be gentle and take it slow, or melt your snowflake an atom at a time, he will!
So go ahead and ask. He wants you to ask. Tell him you've had a hard run on your own, and now you need gentle treatment. He knows. Even when Jesus was dying on the cross and cried, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" God did not leave the Son alone. Jesus' mother and the loving disciple John were still there, at the foot of the cross.
He'll be just as careful with you and your needs.
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Christy K Robinson is author of these sites:
· Discovering Love (inspiration)
· Rooting for Ancestors (history and genealogy)
· William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th
century culture and history of England and New England)
and of
these books:
Beautiful! I resonate with it very much. While at TA I remember reading Ecclesiastics and Proverbs and saying, "OK, you've said ask for wisdom and it will ALWAYS be granted. I'll take you up on it." Now I have not always acted wisely, God knows. But I think that whatever else one can say, God has given me a measure of wisdom. And I think it has a lot to do with simply asking for it long long ago.
ReplyDeleteMark AKA MrBadger :)
It's wise to ask for gentle, reasonable teaching, and not a lightning strike or thump on the head. That means that you have to have a heart soft enough not to repel the teachings. Every time I hear someone say "I want to learn by making my own mistakes," I shake my head at the ego, and the time and heartache lost to that foolishness.
ReplyDelete