Questions...
Some things have happened over the course of the last week that have me quite confused and asking 3 main questions:
1. How do you really know when you've heard from the Lord? This question has followed me for a long time...long before this past week. I know some things, like, God will not say anything that does not line up with his Word, and other stuff of the like. I've been trying to dig deeper in His Word in an attempt to varify what I think He's trying to tell me, but I've let other "stuff", like school, get in the way of that. I need to change that. As unsure as I am about when and if I have truly heard from the Lord most of the time, I know for sure that I heard Him loud and clear through message I heard at church on Sunday. If you're interested in hearing it for yourself (this is one of maybe 3 times that I can remember, where I felt like God smacked me upside my stubborn head and gave me his very best "Verizon" commercial impression: "Can you hear me now? GOOD!) you can read the message notes and download the audio here. I can't explain how I know for sure that He was speaking to me through that message, but I just did...Then there are times when I can't really decipher (despite constant prayer) what is His will and what I want His will to be for the situations I'm facing. Does that make sense?
2. Can you trust God and still have some trepidations? My initial thought would be "no", but then I wonder if it comes down to what do rather than what you feel. For instance, I'm going through what I feel is the biggest test in my Christian life to date. Granted, I have really only been re-committed to the Lord for a year this month, but I have never felt before like God was seemingly stripping everything away from me, so that my only option is to trust Him. And I do...I think. Basically, what I need to know is, does complete trust God mean that I keep moving towards what I believe He wants me to do, or does complete trust mean that fear does not even factor into the equation?
3. What is the appropriate way to confront someone that you believe is headed towards something that could hurt them without sounding judgmental? Is it even apporopriate at all? Judgmental. An adjective that has been used to describe me this week, and quite a few times in recent past by people who care about me. It leaves me no choice but to evaluate my words and my methods of dealing with people in general. My heart may be in the right palce, but I just seem to end up driving a wedge between myself and those I care about. I was referred to that way again this week, by someone that I truly care about, which hurt me a lot more than I was ready for. All my life, there has been 3 words that make me cringe because I so despise their connotoations: 1. Handicapped. (that is a term to describe a somebody's golf game, not their disability). 2. Crippled, (this is a 1950's word that I feel makes people with disabilities sound like invalids). 3. Retard(ed) ( I truly HATE this word. As far as I'm concerned, there is no better way to demean someone with a disability and/or those with intellectual delays). I guess now I should add 4. Judgmental to the list. (To me it seems like people use this word against Chistians--and I discovered this week that there are times when Christians use it on each other--as a way of perhaps putting someone in their place). Granted, I see where the person was coming from, and maybe the way I worded some things was wrong, but I certainly was not judging...I wasn't trying to anyway.
I need to change my methods before I end up completely alienating myself from those I care about.
1. How do you really know when you've heard from the Lord? This question has followed me for a long time...long before this past week. I know some things, like, God will not say anything that does not line up with his Word, and other stuff of the like. I've been trying to dig deeper in His Word in an attempt to varify what I think He's trying to tell me, but I've let other "stuff", like school, get in the way of that. I need to change that. As unsure as I am about when and if I have truly heard from the Lord most of the time, I know for sure that I heard Him loud and clear through message I heard at church on Sunday. If you're interested in hearing it for yourself (this is one of maybe 3 times that I can remember, where I felt like God smacked me upside my stubborn head and gave me his very best "Verizon" commercial impression: "Can you hear me now? GOOD!) you can read the message notes and download the audio here. I can't explain how I know for sure that He was speaking to me through that message, but I just did...Then there are times when I can't really decipher (despite constant prayer) what is His will and what I want His will to be for the situations I'm facing. Does that make sense?
2. Can you trust God and still have some trepidations? My initial thought would be "no", but then I wonder if it comes down to what do rather than what you feel. For instance, I'm going through what I feel is the biggest test in my Christian life to date. Granted, I have really only been re-committed to the Lord for a year this month, but I have never felt before like God was seemingly stripping everything away from me, so that my only option is to trust Him. And I do...I think. Basically, what I need to know is, does complete trust God mean that I keep moving towards what I believe He wants me to do, or does complete trust mean that fear does not even factor into the equation?
3. What is the appropriate way to confront someone that you believe is headed towards something that could hurt them without sounding judgmental? Is it even apporopriate at all? Judgmental. An adjective that has been used to describe me this week, and quite a few times in recent past by people who care about me. It leaves me no choice but to evaluate my words and my methods of dealing with people in general. My heart may be in the right palce, but I just seem to end up driving a wedge between myself and those I care about. I was referred to that way again this week, by someone that I truly care about, which hurt me a lot more than I was ready for. All my life, there has been 3 words that make me cringe because I so despise their connotoations: 1. Handicapped. (that is a term to describe a somebody's golf game, not their disability). 2. Crippled, (this is a 1950's word that I feel makes people with disabilities sound like invalids). 3. Retard(ed) ( I truly HATE this word. As far as I'm concerned, there is no better way to demean someone with a disability and/or those with intellectual delays). I guess now I should add 4. Judgmental to the list. (To me it seems like people use this word against Chistians--and I discovered this week that there are times when Christians use it on each other--as a way of perhaps putting someone in their place). Granted, I see where the person was coming from, and maybe the way I worded some things was wrong, but I certainly was not judging...I wasn't trying to anyway.
I need to change my methods before I end up completely alienating myself from those I care about.
posted by Ashleigh @ 8:28 PM
2 Comments:
At Friday, February 9, 2007 at 9:49:00 AM EST,
Jamie A. Grant said…
Wow. I've had discussions with two different people this week about those exact questions. Last night, in particular, I was struggling with #2. Well written, well expressed. Thanks.
At Sunday, February 11, 2007 at 3:27:00 PM EST,
Anonymous said…
You've lost a lot lately. His words didn't help matters. I still don't get how a man with such an excellent command of language chose those words. I hate that,for the first time, I can't share his wisdom with my daughter. She admires him so much. I hope we're over-reacting to this. Judgmental of him -- I hope we're not being judgmental. I just he had stated the sames things and reached into that rich vocabluary of his to express his ideas.
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