Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Wednesday 01/19/2011)

Are We Paying Close Attention?

Exodus 23:20-22 (Amplified Bible)

²⁰Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep and guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹Give heed to Him, listen to and obey His voice; be not rebellious before Him or provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgression; for My Name is in Him. ²²But if you will indeed listen to and obey His voice and all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

            Yesterday my daughter had a step show that she was participating in she had a particular pair of jeans on, that I thought maybe were not functional for her needs and I told her to take another pair, but she said, “mom these are fine.”  So being that she is eighteen, I said okay, and I left it at that.  I got home after dropping her off and I was not in the door five minutes before I was receiving a text message to please bring her another pair of jeans and some other sneakers.  I chuckled, I told my sister if she had only paid attention, I would not have to drag another pair of jeans down to the step show, both of us were shaking our heads.  I have a friend who is truly dear to me, I have had the opportunity to share various things with this individual, but for some reason, their mind is not in a place to be able to receive the magnitude in which God desires to move in their life…if only they would pay close attention to how He has been trying to get their attention,  move in their life and really look outside of their surroundings to see what God is doing they would be so much better off.

            How often is God moving and giving us direction, wooing us and trying to protect us, but we are under the assumption that we know better and can handle it?  We are so use to handling our business on the job, at home and in what we consider everyday life, it is hard for us to make room for God and really see what He is asking of us or telling us to do.  We give our attention to work, our favorite show, our families, friends, but when God speaks, our attention is divided, or we hear Him, but we are not fully listening.  The Bible says in Isaiah 55:6-9, “⁶Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near. ⁷Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have love, pity, and mercy for him, and to our God, for He will multiply to him His abundant pardon.  ⁸For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.  ⁹For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” God knows more about whom we are and what we need than we do, so when He speaks it would behoove us to pay close attention and listen, not just hearing Him, but obeying Him and following closely to His directions.  God promises that when we follow and obey that He will become an enemy to our enemies and an Adversary to our adversaries. He will fight our battles and place things in order for us. He will pave a way so all we have to do is walk in that way that has been paved for us.
            We do not always understand what God is doing in our lives, it is not always for us to question, but it is for us to pay close attention to what He is saying and where He is leading us.  He will never lead us astray, nor will He ever harm us, if we are His cherished people.  Just as a mother will give her child directions that will benefit and help them, God does the same for us.  It is not to insult our intelligence or to make us feel inferior, but it is to protect, instruct, lead, guide and teach us.  It is also because He love us so that He gives us the words that He does.  We need to understand the magnitude of the love that God has for us. He wants us to be in health and prosper, as our souls prosper.  I love the song from Sister Act 2, the lyrics say, “if you want to be somebody and you want to go somewhere you better wake up and pay attention!”