One of my favorite comedians of all time is Steven Wright. He is very unique both in his delivery and material . His basic delivery used to be very dry and monotone and his content consisted of little one or two line questions that make you think – often playing on double meanings. I was reminded this morning of one of his jokes. He said he was headed into a store as the employee was locking the door. He asked the employee, “Hey, wait a minute, the sign says 24 hours – why are you closing!” The employee replied, “Yes we’re open 24 hours, but not in a row!”
Ok, maybe I am revealing more about my sense of humor than I should, but this got me thinking about being open. God is always with us, guiding us, helping us. But are we open to what God is trying to do in our lives all the time. Or do we pick and choose when we will be open or how open we will be? Hebrews 3 talks about the fact that we should not become so hardened by wanting things our way that we are no longer open and receptive to God’s leadership. God led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and straight to a new land. But when they got there, they were unwilling because of the fear of the unknown, to follow through with God’s plan. So God let them wander around in the desert for 40 years before bringing them back to the same land as before.
What is God leading you to do today? Are you open to that leading? Let me encourage you to have faith and be open to God’s leadership – don’t be afraid, God’s got this!
The sign said “eight items or less”. So I changed my name to Les. — Steven Wright (I confess I’m just as warped)
Are we any different from the Israelites? They questioned change so severly that they questioned if being dead would be better (Numbers 20:3 and 14:2). I’m pretty sure if we don’t follow where God is leading our results will suffer.
This thought often comes to mind – Unless we are perfect, then shouldn’t we be constantly changing towards the image of Christ? Knowing what to change is the problem I face, and maybe that is part of the fear.
Would the way I treated people change if Jesus was physically sitting by me at the football game (see top 5 list), would I treat people different – would the things I think matter really matter if I had the faith to follow the greatest command and specifically the 2nd greatest command(Mark 12:29-31).
I was led to this blog and I’m really glad, it has opened the door to Christians that I was not previously utilizing in my walk. I’m still afraid, but I know when I choose to listen, it’s always the highlight of my day.
After reading your your comment I looked up Hebrews 3 in “THE MESSAGE” which is not my normal study, but for some reason I was drawn there. The last verse states “They never got there because they never listened, never believed.”
That really jumped out at me. Why do we have such a difficult time just being still and listening? Just like you said, “Gods got this!” Why do we want to continue to want to try to handle all things on our own? I don’t know how many times I will give something over to God and then catch myself a couple of days picking it back up and fretting over it again.
I need to work harder at listening and then not being afraid to trust His lead and follow when He does direct me! “Gods got this!”