maybe helpful?
LET GO, LET GOD
We have to learn to "let go, let God".
That produces great peace.
Let go, let God.
That does not come naturally to anyone. And the more inclined one is toward "control-freakery", the harder it is to learn, and perhaps the longer it may take. It is a lesson to learn even if one is not a natural "control-freak", and regardless of one's age, experiences, temparament, or of the time since making the decision to be born-again (one's "age in the Lord").
i am reminded of a time when i was very confused about a practical problem (i.e. how i should respond to someone else's self-created difficulty in dealing with those who were making problems for all concerned - details are not relevant here, but the problems were complex, that much is relevant). i remember praying about this, feeling great distress, calling out to God "just what is the answer?" in frustration at not knowing what to do. I was at home, on a weekday afternoon, i worked shifts and it was a day off. I never hear voices, but i do believe the Holy Spirit plants ideas in my heart from time to time, and i got the idea that: my question was not the most important one, and that God's answer was another question, which was "do you know how much you have been forgiven?", that was the most important question that i should think about at that time.
So i did not get a direct answer to my question at that time, but to realise that i could only reply to the other Q with "probably not, i wonder if i will ever know how much i have been forgiven", to think about that gave me great peace, and a sense of perspective.
Then at church the following sunday, i found out that a sister-in-the-Lord had been prayerwalking along my road that afternoon, we did not know each other well, she did not know i lived there nor that i was at home off duty, nor that i was so distressed about the problems, she just felt moved by the idea that she should pray for the residents of that road, so off she went and did so. (She was self-employed so able to do that on a weekday afternoon, she may have found it sacrificial, but it was not irresponsible, which it might have been for an employed person who could have got the sack. She would prayerwalk "when the spirit moved her" from time to time, and later i went on one with her, we just prayed for people living around the church without having specific reasons or information, we just had a simple desire to intercede, for whoever needed it for whatever reason, because they were neighbours).
Sometimes we can get so focused on details (e.g. specific problems) that we need to "let go, let God", we need that space and detatchment and change of focus, to remind ourselves of God's great & eternal love, to remind ourselves of the basis of our relationship with him (his much forgiveness, his amazing grace), that whatever happens on earth we have an eternal home to look forward to, that we are secure in his abiding love (cast all your care on him who cares for you 1Peter 5:7)
This gives great peace (Philippians 4:13), a sense of perspective, and i believe that refreshes our minds, so when we return to thinking about problems, we can do so more effectively. If we obsess about a problem (which i would do, especially about the one referred to at the time), science teaches that obsessive circular thinking is counter-productive. But more importantly, there is a spiritual element - if we get obsessed about a problem, (Jesus told us to not even worry, Luke 12:29 John 14:1), we are in danger of making that problem an idol (an idol being "anything that takes the place of God in one's life"), or of making "one's own ability to deal with the problem" an idol. So "Let go, let God", for a time, at least, if something really matters, the Lord is quite capable of reminding one of it at an appropriate time. It is not "negligence" nor "a lack of care" if we let go of obsessions in order to renew our relationship with God in a time of prayer. It is "sensible" and "humility" to tell God "i can't cope with this on my own. help me please....etc....". That isn't telling God anything he does not already know. But if we have a time with him in prayer, he will probably tell us something we don't already know (or remind us of a scripture we didn't get, the last time we read it, but this time we may understand it. He knows we are frail, humans make mistakes, we mortal people forget, we misunderstand. He also knows those who love him have also been doing their best, have not been using "human nature isn't perfect" as an excuse for sin, so we are allowed to fail - i know of one example when God made good use of a person's sincere failure - a simple mistake, no malice greed envy pride nor other vice involved - and God used that sincere failure for good).
More importantly, I know of a biblical example of God answering one person's distressed question with a question from God - it occurrs at the end of the Book of Job.
Reading Job 38:1-42:17 all in one go may seem like a lot, but it is well worth it, a real investment that will produce a reward (and i can claim that honestly, because it is scripture, and "God rewards those who earnestly seek him").
If you have time (if you can make time, it's worth it) read also Job 36:1-37:24 (along with ch.38-42) and read both portions along with 2 notes i discovered "by accident" (while looking for something else, vs15 accidentally got highlighted and i tried & tried to remove the highlight but wasn't able to, so wondered "is that for a reason, maybe i should look up the community notes" so i did, and found some helpful ones...... is there really such a thing as "by accident" in our walks with God, i have heard said & wondered about, before now). I am grateful for other people's notes which i can recommed as helpful (so have saved those to my "Likes" section on 20130107 & 20130108, for easy retrieval), these recommended notes are: "Job 36:7-15 Does god ...(etc)..." by "Pastorross", and "judge not" by "iobetes" and they explain the background story of Job (and the shedload of well-intentioned but counter-productive answers Job got from his friends, during chapters 1 to 37) up to that point.
Well, i wonder if Job got the answer he least expected? Still, it is the answer (Job got God's answer, which is frequently different from human answers - so if this note isn't helpful, it's by a human, so you can take or leave it, it's fine to leave it, someone else may post a more appropriate one, but this may help someone else at an unspecified time. And things go around and come around and we pool resources. I wonder, did Pastorross and iobetes know back in September when they posted that i would recommend their notes in January because i benefited from them 5 months later? But we all have our limitations, us lot who post on this forum, being human. I hope i have pointed someone towards a few really helpful SCRIPTURES, during the course of this note, because unlike people's opinions & experiences, scriptures do not have limitations nor error).
Still, this way in which our sharing (of questions & answers, of cries for help & fingers pointing not in blame but lovingly towards scriptures we found helpful when we felt the same, of things we give thanks for & recommend) shows the "corporate" nature of the church ("called together in 1 body"). And the diversity of so many believers working together (out of faith in Christ our head) is a great strength and something amazing to be thankful for. Together the body grows, in love.
I came to this app today feeling quite depressed about living in a dark place. I read a posting where i thought "maybe i can post something which (...... the person who had posted.....) might find useful" and in doing so, i have been encouraged too - by the memory of the sister's prayerwalk, how the problem years ago was worked out (which involved a number of other christians working together), by the marvellous scripture at the conclusion of the book of Job, plus others (e.g Matthew 6:25-6:34, Matthew 10:24-10:33, Philippians 4:6-4:7 and 4:19) - and although helping myself wasn't the original motive for posting/doing the research, it's been a nice by-product that i feel a lot more positive (including an awareness that other believers struggle, overcome, help each other, and share what we discovered about God in the process).
Created 5 months ago
