I was sleeping well, but in the night, started thinking about which church service I wanted to go to in the morning. Somehow my thoughts went to wondering if God really wanted me going back to the church I had left in January, and have now been going back to since August. I'm having trouble now remembering exactly what I was thinking, but it was not worry.
The reason I got up to write is so I would remember the chain of thoughts, and then go back to sleep not trying to remember. I'm not remembering now, though, but the one of the main things I got out of this is that in my experience, even when I pray for God to reveal his will to me for my life, I'm not always given clear direction. I think that whatever I do, mistakes, sins, and all, God uses it for good. (Hey, there's a Bible verse for that!)
The other thing, is that God's will for me is to love him first, and then love others. In my daily interactions with people, He wants me to love others with his love. That means turning off the crabbiness and turning on care and respect. Sometimes it also means setting boundaries. I can enjoy my gardening, spending time with family, and blogging. God provides other areas of service, such as cooking meals 4 times a year at our local outreach center for low income people. These last few sentences were added by me as I was writing, and were not part of the thinking. The thought was that whatever I do, God blesses it as I go. He doesn't direct me like I'm a puppet. I have choices, and God uses those choices to work in my life.
I don't think God cares so much which church I go to as long as it is one that believes in grace alone, through faith alone for salvation. I am so thankful I don't have to earn salvation! Figuring out how to love God first is sometimes hard, but it's such a blessing to experience his love for me.
Well, I better get back to sleep so I can go to the early service. ,o) I hope you are having peaceful rest. (The photo of my grandson and me was taken Saturday.)
Hey Sue...I've popped over every once in a while and always forget about your other blog...love all the garden stuff. LOVE the picture of you with your grandson...WONDERFUL. Good post...you know I keep telling myself that I don't have to trust in myself to "read" God right or to know I've heard correctly. I tell Him that to the best of my ability I want His will and that I will trust in Him to direct me...even when I don't really know it's Him....
ReplyDeleteYes, I like the way you worded it, Pam.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your posting..... over my lifetime I too have learned that God's will for us is not so much the day by day decisions of what we should do or where we should go or work, but whether we always choose to walk in Love.
ReplyDeleteI remember a saying that I believe is attributed to St. Augustine of old..... Love God and do what you want.
The more I think of that, the more I realize it's true. When Love is the guiding light for every decision, the light for our every day walking gets clearer.
BTW, this is my first time visit here.... I believe I was on Dimple's site when I noticed your link. I was attracted to your blog name "Keeping My Branch Connected..."
Wishing you a happy, joy-filled day!
Brenda L.
I really enjoyed this post. Some how I lost some of the blogs that I was following, and yours was one of them. I hope that you don't mind if I re-follow your blog, it could have been blogger or me doing something and lost it. God is so good all the time. May God bless you
ReplyDeleteThanks Brenda and Steve,
ReplyDeleteI love what Brenda said, and asked if I could reprint it in a post.
Steve, I remember you. I've been to your site, too, I'm thinking. I need to get off the computer now, but plan to read the post about you and your wife with the photo of the lighthouse. My husband and I saw that one on our vacation to the Outer Banks in 2007.
When the number of followers changes, I'm not always sure who it was that quit following, but I have figured it out before, and then later, they either started following again, or Blogger put them back. I'm glad you're back, Steve. Brenda, I hope we talk again.