Confirmation

For several reasons, I (Aimee) have been home most of this week rather than out working. I’ve spent the time working on my writing and doing different projects for my church. Perhaps nothing terribly exciting for anyone but me. And that’s ok. Cause what it’s meant is that I’ve been able to spend a lot of time with the Lord this week. 

Reading my Bible at my leisure.

Taking time to stop and pray.

Praising Him with music.

It’s been pretty powerful. One of the neatest things that has come out of all of this has been that I’ve been able to encourage Sherann. 

As I’ve been going about my different activities I kept coming across things that made me think of Sherann. So I would send her a quick text message or a note on Facebook. The confirmation that she needed was being revealed to me so that I could share it with her, so that she could know that it was from God and not just her imagination.

Have you ever had that happen to you? Either you discovered that you were confirming something for someone else? Or God was confirming things directly to you?

What was it like? How did it make you feel?

Or are you ignoring His communications? Many of us are guilty of that from time to time, if not often.

If you’ve been looking for confirmation from God, but haven’t been getting it, then let me offer you a story. 

Once, there was a flood. Authorities told people to evacuate while they still had time. A man refused to leave his home. And he went inside and prayed for God to save him. “It’s ok,” he told his neighbors. “God will save me.”

The flood waters rose and the man went to the second floor of his home to escape the water. He sat by his window and prayed for God to save him. Just then, a rescue boat came by and offered to take the man away to safety. “No thanks,” he said to his would-be-rescuers. “God will save me.”

The flood waters continued to rise and the man was forced to his roof in order to avoid being swept away. He kneeled on his roof and prayed for God to save him. Just then, a rescue helicopter came by and offered to take the man away to safety. “No thanks,” he said to his would-be-rescuers. “God will save me.”

Then, the flood waters rose, the man was swept away and he died. The man went to Heaven. He approached the Lord and asked, “Lord, I prayed and prayed. Why didn’t you save me?”

The Lord answered him, “I told you to evacuate. I sent you a boat. AND I sent you a helicopter. You didn’t get the message!”

Are you getting His messages? Are you open to hearing from Him? Are you paying attention? He’s talking to you, I have no doubt. You just need to listen.

Sacrifice

As you might have noticed by now, Sherann and I haven’t posted anything in a while. We haven’t given up. We’ve just been … busy.

As for me, I’ve been consumed with thinking about sacrifice. What does it mean to sacrifice? How can I best honor God’s sacrifice for me? Knowing that God made a HUGE sacrifice on my behalf that I in no way deserve, what does that tell me about God?

Do you ever think about things like that? Do you ever stop to think about how much God loves you? How undeserving we all are of His love and His mercy, and yet He gives it to us willingly?

This year, World Vision offered a new series for Lent that dealt with sacrifice (www.worldvisionacts.org/lent2012). There were challenges and videos and art work and so much more than I want to take the time to list right now. For example, with a small group from my church we considered the definition of sacrifice. We thought about what in our lives could be sacrificed to bring us closer to God. What could we sacrifice to further the Kingdom of God.

Personally, I decided that sacrifice is tied to love. We don’t sacrifice for people or causes that we don’t love. I also realized that it’s generally connected to mercy and compassion. We sacrifice because we feel these things and want to make a difference for the people and/or the causes that we love. Also, sacrifice has to be voluntary, and it has to hurt. If someone makes you give, it’s not a sacrifice. If you give something that it doesn’t hurt you to lose, it isn’t sacrifice.

I’ve been struggling with this as I consider how much to sacrifice. All of me! Of course. But that’s not exactly what I mean. I definitely don’t need as much stuff as I have. And I’ve been working on get rid of stuff. But what about my clothes (of which I don’t have tons excess) or my books (which I use to draw closer to Him). It can be confusing. Especially when I consider how much more I have than so many others. And that some of my stuff holds me back because I fear losing it. The way I see it, that last one is a pretty good indication that I should get rid of things.

Do you ever struggle with materialism? Do you struggle with whether God would be pleased or disappointed with a purchase?

There are so many aspects to sacrifice: sacrifice of things, of time, of money, of me … All I know for sure is that I can never repay God for the sacrifice that He made for me. But I also know that I want to show Him how grateful I am every single day.