The Lesson For Today

I believe God speaks in a lot of different ways.  

I believe He is that gentle nudge.  That feeling deep inside.  And that voice in your head.  

I believe He can speak to you through the words of a friend, the scripture He breathed, and the authors He has inspired.  

And any time I hear the same message or Bible verse from 3 different sources in a short of amount of time I start to pay attention, I  know God is speaking to me.  Unfortunately it sometimes takes that many times for me to hear him (huh, I wonder if that is where my children get that trait? but I digress!).

Today God has spoken to me the same message from 4 different sources - one of my Bible Study books that I am reading "for fun", one of my seminary books (not "for fun"), a post from Facebook (I think - I honestly can't remember where this one came from), and the scripture memory cards I have been reviewing one verse at a time day by day.  

Today God told me something that has lifted my spirits and freed me from my burdens in ways you can't imagine.  And I hope it does the same for you.

It started this morning in a book by Sheila Walsh.  She said, and I paraphrase, when God looks at you, He doesn't see the person you are, but the person you are going to be in Him. 

WOW!!  

So God doesn't see all the ways I still get it wrong EVERY SINGLE DAY, He just sees the me I am going to be someday.  The me He is slowly (and I mean S-L-O-W-L-Y) refining me to be.  

Well, that filled me with such immense joy I flipped in my scripture card to the verse I knew I wanted to focus on today Phil 1:6 "...being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion, until the day of Christ Jesus."  

God is not done with me yet.  The person I am right now is stronger and more confident than the person I used to be, but she is nothing compared to the person I am yet to become!  I can't wait to be that person.  

Of course then I began to wonder why I wasn't that person yet.   I mean, what was I doing wrong that I wasn't yet the person God wanted me to be?

And that is when the next lesson came.  I honestly don't remember where this one came from.  My guess is Facebook, but perhaps God just wrote it on my heart.  Perhaps I read it in one of the several books I was flipping through today and I just couldn't put my finger on it when I went back to review.  Either way,  I then realized... I can't yet be today who I am going to be tomorrow because I haven't learned those lessons yet.  

I know this may seems so elementary to you (or perhaps way too theological-depending on how deep you want to read it), but essentially this is God's way of saying, "Don't rush me.  I'm making something really great here, but it's going to take time."  Crock pot meals always taste way better than something thrown in the microwave. I don't want God to rush through making me the person He wants me to be.  Good things take time, and if He is in no hurry, than neither am I.  

The last part of my lesson came tonight as I was looking through one of my books for seminary.  The book is about Self-Awareness, recognizing your strengths and understanding your weaknesses.  To do this accurately one must balance two truths, "the knowledge of ourselves as we would be but for the grace of God with the knowledge of who we are and will be because of the grace of God."

The whole point of today is this...  I am not the person I was, I am not yet the person I am going to be.  And the only difference between those two people is God.  Who do I want to be?... the person I am on my own or the person I am with God?  I tell you what, I will chose God...EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.