God has been doing tremendous things in my heart recently. I have been seeing and feeling Him more clearly over the past week, and I have been greatly encouraged. I am seeing so clearly the relationship of seeking and surrendering to receiving more of God and truly drawing nearer to Him.
There seems to be this understanding in the Christian realm that when we pray for something (patience, grace, self-control, etc.), God does not simply gift us with that thing with a snap of a finger. Rather, it seems that He delights in giving us opportunities to learn these qualities. This is a beautiful reminder of the interactive, cooperative, relationship that we have with God. It is not one-sided. Although He has the power and the ability, He gives us a chance to partake in these things with Him. He is not a puppeteer. We are more than puppets.
This brings me to another thing that has been on my mind recently: the weight of our choices. I believe we have been given free will. God does not force us to think or do anything that we do not ourselves choose to think or do. So when we pray for more of certain qualities and are presented with opportunities to learn and strengthen these qualities, we have a choice. We can choose life, choose God, choose the action that will teach us more of that desired quality, choose death to ourselves. Or we can choose real death. We can choose to walk away from the opportunity that we prayed for, to walk away from a chance to learn and be changed. I am convicted by this thought this week. I know that I have been praying for certain things, and when presented with opportunities to learn and grow in these qualities, I sometimes shy away. I am grateful for the Lord's faithfulness and patience, and my prayers will continue. I'm praying for second chances, for more opportunities to learn from my mistakes and slowly become more like Him. I trust in His grace to rescue me from myself. I pray for boldness to make the right choices in these opportunities.
:)
ReplyDelete