In His Presence

Trust and obey. Sometimes easier said than done. The Lord has recently shown me how truly important it is to trust and obey Him. It is something I know and have always known since I have been a Christian, but certain circumstances lately have shown light to how important trusting and obeying my God really is.

So, for example the Lord puts desires in my heart and sometimes I put desires in my heart. You know how you have all these great desires that do not seem harmful? Well, I know all too clearly and they can be harmful if they are not in God's will. I have all these desires in my heart and one would assume by listening to what my desires are that they are from the Lord. Well, just because they sound good doesn't give me the excuse to say that they are from the Lord. It all depends on where my heart is. I am so glad I have trusted the Lord and have asked Him to search my heart, to search my inmost being, to find any wrong in me. This doesn't necessarily mean sin, but it could. I am specifically talking about sorting out which desires are from my flesh and which desires are from Him. My Daddy is so faithful! He snatches my fleshly desires out of my system all the time. He did it within this past week and He did it last night. He wants our hearts to be pure. He wants us to be obediant to His will. He wants us to follow the desires that He gave us.

I know there has been two desires I have had here recently. They are very similar, but at the sametime contradicting. I wish I could explain, but for the purpose of the blog and for my own confidentiality, I will have to be pretty vague on this one. So, I had to ask God which desire was from Him. Within five minutes He showed me. I suppose the reason they were contradicting was because of my heart and my mind. My flesh wanted to hold on to one because it seemed as appealing to the desire the Lord placed in me--even though I knew before asking God which desire was from Him. It's funny how much we (I) try to lean on our (my) own understanding. For about a week, I was fired up about knowing my Lord's desire. All the sudden, my thoughts were not consumed by the other desire. I was able to focus on my Jesus, my Savior. I had less headaches and lost the tension in my neck. Who would of thought that something as simple as a desire could give you a headache and tension in the neck?? Hmm.... Well, anyway, something happened where I doubted the desire the Lord placed in my heart. The old desire started haunting me again. I just wanted to give up and forget about both of those desires but at the sametime I wanted that joy back again of knowing what God had placed in my heart. Again, He is so faithful! He took away my distraction and put me back on focus and then confirmed it through scripture. Even though desires seem so small, our Friend loves us so very much that He wants us to have clarity in our lives.

Going through this experience has shown me that He is leading the way. He wants me to understand His will. That is why we must trust Him...That is why I must trust the desires He has placed in my heart. I also must obey His Word and obey what He calls me to do, no matter the circumstance. I pray that I will always begin my days trusting and obeying my Lord with a joyful heart. Life is so much clearer with Him as our mind, eyes, heart, feet, and hands. I also pray I believe in the desires He has placed in my heart. If I don't believe, then how will I receive? May my mind be on Jesus and Him alone. May your mind be focused on Jesus and Him alone. Make it a priority to trust and obey--He will show you the way.