Make me know Your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation. For You I wait all the day long.....Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right. He teaches the humble His way. (vs 4-5; 8-9)
The word for "know Your ways" is yada. To know by seeing. To know relationally and experientially. In my words..."I want to know who You are by being with You and watching what You do. I want You to be my Father. I want to be Your humble child."
His ways. Derek. The path that is traveled. Oh, I really want to know this. How He rolls....Not just the why of what is going on, but the deep peace that what is happening is in keeping with the way He does things - His character. That my life is ruled by a God Who is good and upright. Not out to hurt me. He doesn't want to do me in. My Father absolutely knows what is best for me.
Interestingly, when David asks the Lord to "teach" him His paths, the word is goad. Prod me along, Lord. Don't just tell me why or how, make me learn to "do" the thing. Ever had a thought just keep going over and over in your head so often that you must finally do it? Bill's favorite goading story is hilarious. We were newly involved in a charismatic Baptist church in the mid-70's and all the hoop-la was a bit more unsettling to Bill than it was to me. His introverted personality was assaulted with raised hands, loud trumpets, a blues piano and some speaking in other tongues. Add to this his wife sitting next to him getting a word from God for him, not her. All through praise and worship I kept hearing a voice prodding me to tell Bill that he needed to go hug a young man who was sitting nearby. The young man and his wife were people we knew, not random strangers, to be fair to my heavenly request of Bill. We did not know the extent of their needs, but the voice of the Lord kept piercing my heart.
"Bill, I think the Lord wants you to go hug Warren."
"Uh....no." Bill's reply above the din.
We sing another stanza before I again touch my sweet husband's arm to ask again. "Are you sure you won't? God keeps telling me you should."
"He didn't tell me that."
Okay. Singing still, my heart pounding with the realization that this is not just something I am thinking.
Tapping Bill on the shoulder once more. "I really think you are supposed to go hug Warren."
Like a kid jumping into a cold swimming pool just to get the thing over with, Bill stepped out of the aisle and hesitantly tapped the young man on the shoulder. He literally fell into Bill's arms. They became the arms of Jesus to this man we knew and loved. Whew! Prodded to perform what God wanted.
I was sitting in my front yard digging in a flower bed when God prodded me to a task I absolutely did not want to do. A young man was sitting in his truck parked across the street from my house. The reason he was in the truck was because his mother-in-law had kicked him out of her home. Covered in tattoos, long dark hair sticking in every direction out of his baseball cap, and listening to some loud heavy metal music on the radio, the neighbor's anathema became my heavenly appointment.
"Go over to him and tell him that I love him." Wha...? No!
Dig some more. Humming a hymn so as to drown out the prodding voice of my God.
"Go over to him and tell him that I love him." I can't do that. He looks scary. He's from California, for Pete's sake.
The Texas sun was beating down on my head, making me sweat. Or not. Maybe the tension of hearing the goading of the Lord to step out of paradigm and do something daring was my issue.
"Go over to him and tell him that I love him." The third time was not the charm. It took me probably thirty minutes to just give up and go right over to that truck, tap the young man on the arm and scare him to death! He jumped and so did I.
"Um..God told me..um.. to come over here and tell you that...um.... He loves you."
"Really, man? Wow! I was just thinking about Him! Wondering about the end of the world and all..."
We talked about Him for several minutes. Then I went into our home to get him a Bible. Bill had just purchased a new one. (Bill is always purchasing new Bibles....) Wanted to give it to the guy.
"God didn't tell me to give him my new Bible." He was right. But he relented.
The young man came to dinner the next night at our home where we shared the love of Christ and had an extended conversation with him about the end times. He did not leave having asked Christ into his life, but he did know how. Several weeks later he moved back to California and was killed in a gang related shooting.
You just never know.
David asked God to lead him in the truth...God's holy standards. We cannot be perfect. But we can be perfected. The Holy Spirit within us lets us know when He is grieved. Pricks out hearts and bends our conscience. When I read the Bible it often slices right through to my marrow, convicting me that what I am doing or thinking is not what God is doing and thinking. We are all different and God nuances His rearing of us into His precious children according to our way. (Raise up a child in her way and when she is old she will not veer from it.) So I am not your judge concerning what God is telling you, but I am responsible for what this daughter of His is all about doing.
God is faithful to complete what He has begun in us. Plan A. He is not interested in any other scenario. He is looking for a humble child willing to listen and learn, even if He has to prod us into righteousness! I want to be like Him when I grow up.
The word for "know Your ways" is yada. To know by seeing. To know relationally and experientially. In my words..."I want to know who You are by being with You and watching what You do. I want You to be my Father. I want to be Your humble child."
His ways. Derek. The path that is traveled. Oh, I really want to know this. How He rolls....Not just the why of what is going on, but the deep peace that what is happening is in keeping with the way He does things - His character. That my life is ruled by a God Who is good and upright. Not out to hurt me. He doesn't want to do me in. My Father absolutely knows what is best for me.
Interestingly, when David asks the Lord to "teach" him His paths, the word is goad. Prod me along, Lord. Don't just tell me why or how, make me learn to "do" the thing. Ever had a thought just keep going over and over in your head so often that you must finally do it? Bill's favorite goading story is hilarious. We were newly involved in a charismatic Baptist church in the mid-70's and all the hoop-la was a bit more unsettling to Bill than it was to me. His introverted personality was assaulted with raised hands, loud trumpets, a blues piano and some speaking in other tongues. Add to this his wife sitting next to him getting a word from God for him, not her. All through praise and worship I kept hearing a voice prodding me to tell Bill that he needed to go hug a young man who was sitting nearby. The young man and his wife were people we knew, not random strangers, to be fair to my heavenly request of Bill. We did not know the extent of their needs, but the voice of the Lord kept piercing my heart.
"Bill, I think the Lord wants you to go hug Warren."
"Uh....no." Bill's reply above the din.
We sing another stanza before I again touch my sweet husband's arm to ask again. "Are you sure you won't? God keeps telling me you should."
"He didn't tell me that."
Okay. Singing still, my heart pounding with the realization that this is not just something I am thinking.
Tapping Bill on the shoulder once more. "I really think you are supposed to go hug Warren."
Like a kid jumping into a cold swimming pool just to get the thing over with, Bill stepped out of the aisle and hesitantly tapped the young man on the shoulder. He literally fell into Bill's arms. They became the arms of Jesus to this man we knew and loved. Whew! Prodded to perform what God wanted.
I was sitting in my front yard digging in a flower bed when God prodded me to a task I absolutely did not want to do. A young man was sitting in his truck parked across the street from my house. The reason he was in the truck was because his mother-in-law had kicked him out of her home. Covered in tattoos, long dark hair sticking in every direction out of his baseball cap, and listening to some loud heavy metal music on the radio, the neighbor's anathema became my heavenly appointment.
"Go over to him and tell him that I love him." Wha...? No!
Dig some more. Humming a hymn so as to drown out the prodding voice of my God.
"Go over to him and tell him that I love him." I can't do that. He looks scary. He's from California, for Pete's sake.
The Texas sun was beating down on my head, making me sweat. Or not. Maybe the tension of hearing the goading of the Lord to step out of paradigm and do something daring was my issue.
"Go over to him and tell him that I love him." The third time was not the charm. It took me probably thirty minutes to just give up and go right over to that truck, tap the young man on the arm and scare him to death! He jumped and so did I.
"Um..God told me..um.. to come over here and tell you that...um.... He loves you."
"Really, man? Wow! I was just thinking about Him! Wondering about the end of the world and all..."
We talked about Him for several minutes. Then I went into our home to get him a Bible. Bill had just purchased a new one. (Bill is always purchasing new Bibles....) Wanted to give it to the guy.
"God didn't tell me to give him my new Bible." He was right. But he relented.
The young man came to dinner the next night at our home where we shared the love of Christ and had an extended conversation with him about the end times. He did not leave having asked Christ into his life, but he did know how. Several weeks later he moved back to California and was killed in a gang related shooting.
You just never know.
David asked God to lead him in the truth...God's holy standards. We cannot be perfect. But we can be perfected. The Holy Spirit within us lets us know when He is grieved. Pricks out hearts and bends our conscience. When I read the Bible it often slices right through to my marrow, convicting me that what I am doing or thinking is not what God is doing and thinking. We are all different and God nuances His rearing of us into His precious children according to our way. (Raise up a child in her way and when she is old she will not veer from it.) So I am not your judge concerning what God is telling you, but I am responsible for what this daughter of His is all about doing.
God is faithful to complete what He has begun in us. Plan A. He is not interested in any other scenario. He is looking for a humble child willing to listen and learn, even if He has to prod us into righteousness! I want to be like Him when I grow up.
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