As a new Believer, I struggled with letting God control all aspects of my life. Honestly, I’ll likely be spending many years trying to achieve success with this aspect of Christian living. It takes lots of discipline to be mindful of my thoughts and actions to live out my belief in God as the One I should depend upon. Our Christian faith will only mature if we realize and accept the process will never be quick, easy, or happen overnight, but a lifetime.
Trust and faith are important basic foundational concepts in our Christian beliefs. God wants us to know no detail of our life goes unnoticed because He desires to be a part of our daily lives. Everything about us is interesting to Our Creator. Every decision, worry, question, and need is never trivialized, it’s always on His radar screen. Early in my Christian walk, I didn’t hold this belief, I assumed God’s agenda was to deal with more important issues facing the world at large; like war, poverty, illness, etc… over my everyday day-to-day struggles. God has a way of changing our perspective. My mundane daily activities were about to take on a new significance. I was about to learn that God is Holy, and just like He doesn’t rate one sin worse than others, neither is any one situation less important than another. If it is important to us, then it’s important to God.
My lesson started while on a routine grocery trip. God was about to reveal a side of His character I hadn’t completely understood or trusted. He wanted to prove to me His faithfulness in all things. So, this thought was placed in my heart, I was to pray and ask about every decision on my grocery trip. Yes, I’m not exaggerating, I mean everything. I began by asking God, “Okay which cheese should I buy?” I felt silly doing this, but I strongly sensed this was an important part of this lesson. Then I would pick up several varieties of cheese packages and wait until I discerned the item, I believed God was leading me to purchase. Now let me clarify, I do not think God has a particular preference for cheese. His agenda was much bigger. So, I let go of my reservations and continued with this process for the remainder of the shopping trip.
God was developing in me the ability to trust His voice, that still, small whisper as mentioned in 1 Kings 19:12-13. The Bible portrays God’s voice as sounding ordinary and meek rather than booming and thunderous. Now understand it’s not that I will never again question what God is trying to communicate to me. I am learning with patience and practice my faith and trust will mature. As the Scripture says, he was trying to ween me off milk. “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.” 1 Corinthians 3:2 (NIV)
Every spiritual lesson, no matter how small, has the purpose of seeing to completion in my life what God began at the Cross. He wants to advance me to live more in the Spirit rather than give in to my fleshly desires. I mostly see these lessons when significant changes are about to occur in my life. God will take me out of my comfort zone where I can’t rely on my skills, talents, knowledge, etc.… Sometimes, these lessons are easier to understand, and others are much harder to grasp the concept to make an application in my life. When failing to make progress I most identify with the Israelites in the Wilderness. They too struggled to submit, trust, and obey God’s commandments. That’s why they walked in circles for 40 years instead of taking a more direct route lasting 3 days. God then waited until the older generation died. Their stubbornness and sin prevented this older generation’s entrance into Canaan. Joshua was only allowed to lead the younger generation into the promised land. I sometimes feel like I will never graduate from my Spiritual kindergarten class. I remind myself, to endure, and persevere, eventually arriving victorious at the finish line.
As babies, most of us have had to learn to crawl before walking and then running. In the Bible Gideon unsure of what God was asking of him used the Sign of the Fleece. In Judges 6:36-40. Gideon asked the Lord to use the fleece to confirm Israel would be saved by his hand. “Then Gideon said to God. ‘Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” I like Gideon would ask the Holy Spirit to clarify God’s Will that He not be angry with me or my request, but instead be long-suffering and patient as I learn to trust and obey Him. To remember I am but dust and am prone to misunderstanding.
The whole point of this story and the most important part of any life lesson is that if you are making any forward advancement in your faith, you are going in the right direction, no step is too small because they all add up. God is more interested in our commitment and intention than how quickly we advance.