Listening to God
Listening to God - 7 October 2012
Every so often I have a meaningful insight from my year-long walk through the Bible, which I'm recording on my other blog: http://onewomanswalkthroughthebible.blogspot.com One Woman's Walk Through the Bibleand I want to share it here as well.
Verses from Today's Reading:
Jeremiah 6:16-17
Stop at the crossroads and look around.
Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.
Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.
But you reply, 'No, that's not the road we want!'
I posted watchmen over you who said,
'Listen for the sound of the alarm.'
But you replied, 'No! We won't pay attention!'
Colossians 2:8-10
Don't let anyone capture you
with empty philosophies and
high-sounding nonsense that come from
human thinking and from the spiritual
power of this world, rather than from
Christ.
For in Christ lives all the fullness
of God in a human body. So you also are
complete though your union with Christ, who is the
head over every ruler and authority.
Reflection:
Lately, I've switched from the Daily Walk Bible to the One Year Bible (NLT) which includes readings from the Old and New Testament, along with a Psalm and Proverb. And what I've been struck by is that often there will be a reading in the New Testament that echoes a message that spoke to me first in the Old Testament.
That was the case with today's reading.
What practical advice I received in the passage from Jeremiah! It reminded me that so often I ask God for an answer to prayer, and then when I receive it, I say, 'No, no, that's not what I had in mind...I wanted a different answer.' As if answers from God were like slips of paper pulled from a fortune cookie. If you don't like the first answer, open the next cookie and see what that one says.
In this passage, God reminds me that if I walk in the Godly path he has shown me, everything will be okay.
The New Testament passage from Colossians expands on this lesson by reminding me that I shouldn't allow myself to get caught up in the latest fads in thought, in trying to find my own way, but that through Christ, we have all that we need and that he will guide me.
Jeremiah 6:16-17
Stop at the crossroads and look around.
Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it.
Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.
But you reply, 'No, that's not the road we want!'
I posted watchmen over you who said,
'Listen for the sound of the alarm.'
But you replied, 'No! We won't pay attention!'
Colossians 2:8-10
Don't let anyone capture you
with empty philosophies and
high-sounding nonsense that come from
human thinking and from the spiritual
power of this world, rather than from
Christ.
For in Christ lives all the fullness
of God in a human body. So you also are
complete though your union with Christ, who is the
head over every ruler and authority.
Reflection:
Lately, I've switched from the Daily Walk Bible to the One Year Bible (NLT) which includes readings from the Old and New Testament, along with a Psalm and Proverb. And what I've been struck by is that often there will be a reading in the New Testament that echoes a message that spoke to me first in the Old Testament.
That was the case with today's reading.
What practical advice I received in the passage from Jeremiah! It reminded me that so often I ask God for an answer to prayer, and then when I receive it, I say, 'No, no, that's not what I had in mind...I wanted a different answer.' As if answers from God were like slips of paper pulled from a fortune cookie. If you don't like the first answer, open the next cookie and see what that one says.
In this passage, God reminds me that if I walk in the Godly path he has shown me, everything will be okay.
The New Testament passage from Colossians expands on this lesson by reminding me that I shouldn't allow myself to get caught up in the latest fads in thought, in trying to find my own way, but that through Christ, we have all that we need and that he will guide me.
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