I would like to share some spiritual thoughts. To throw out some ideas for you to ponder or to chew on and to do with as you will.
For this exercise to work properly you should know where I stand, what I believe. I believe in personal revelation from God. I believe that He speaks to each of us. In our hearts. In our minds. Through a feeling of peace when we hear truth spoken by others. I believe that He speaks to each of us differently, knowing us as He does, in a way we will understand.
And I believe that many of us choose not to listen.
We turn to Him when we have a question or concern. Sometimes we even remember to turn to Him in gratitude, just because we feel blessed. I wonder how often we turn to Him as a servant, a disciple.
We ask what we should do at this particular time, within the framework of our current life and situation. We ask what direction we should go or path we should take to meet our goals. We read His words in the holy scriptures or hear it from His servants and look at our life. We interpret what He would have us do and ask how we should do that.
These are good things. These are honorable questions and choices.
But I wonder how often we lay it all on the table. How often we say "Thy will be done" and mean it with our whole heart and life. We mean it in this instance. With this situation. Do we mean it with all that we have and all that we are?
And so I would ask (rhetorically) what are you willing to sacrifice to do the will of God? Do you ask what He would choose to make of your life if you offered it freely to Him? And if you ask, do you sincerely listen to the answer and follow through on your offer?
Imagine you are young, say 25, and you ask this of God. And He communicates to you that He has a very important work for you, but that in order to do this work you will have to be blind. If you accept this assignment your eyesight will begin to fail and you will be blind before you are 30. Then you will be ready to do His work. Would you accept?
Or you are newly married and eager to begin your family. You ask God how He would use your life and your talents. He tells you that you will be a leader among women and touch many hearts. But to qualify you for this role you will be asked to do hard things. You will get pregnant many times but will not carry a child to term. You will never hold your living child in your arms. Would you be willing to carry this burden to serve Him?
What if you are well established in your profession, a giant in your community, and He asks you to give away everything you have and start a new life of simplicity? Having little materially and working hard to serve others? Could you let all that go if you knew it was what He wanted?
I ask these questions and put forth these possibilities because I think this is what prevents us from asking. I believe most of us do not ask, do not offer our whole lives, because we are afraid of the answer. We have a plan for our life. Our goals are righteous. Our hearts are pure. We will ask His direction as we work toward our goals, but we know what we want to do with our life.
Do we know what He wants to do with it?