I was reminded this past weekend of the need to follow God’s
nudges and prompts. I have posted before that I try to pray and live out
Ephesians 2:10 every day. I ask God to fill my agenda and try to listen to Him
when He adds things to it. I often get the feeling I need to stop some
place or call someone. People around me think oh here goes Chad following a
whim. I know that it’s not a whim but an Ephesians 2:10 moment. I love when God’s
Spirit moves and I follow what He is nudging me to do. It brings great joy to
me and often I just stand their shaking my head and thanking God for the
miracle he just made happen.
I have Ephesian 2:10 moments everyday most of us do we just
don’t realize how God is orchestrating those moments. This past Friday I was
sitting in my office and God was putting someone on my mind. I had the thought
I need to call. This is the point where we make or break God’s plan. Do I
continue what I was doing or do I follow God’s nudge? This day I followed God’s
nudge. I prayed for the person He laid on my mind and followed it up with a
call. I got voicemail and left this message. “Hello________ just wanted to call
and check in. God put you on my heart today and I just wanted to let you know I
was thinking of you and prayed for you. No need to call back.” Back to the
project I was working on and continued prayers. Fast forward to Saturday morning. I had taken a
break from serving groups and came to the office to check messages. I no more
than sat down and the phone rang. It was the person returning my call. They said
this is going to be hard for me to share with out crying. So I listened and
they shared that when my call came to them that they were sitting with their
family dealing with a serious matter. They said that my call was just what they
needed at that time. They felt peace come over them as they listened to the
message and they were able to look at the situation knowing that God was in
control. After hearing the story and how God needed me to be a part of His plan
I prayed with this person and went back to fix lunch for our group. I stood
amazed and satisfied knowing I just had an Ephesians 2:10 moment.
Every time this happens God reminds me that I need to follow
nudges that He gives me. We never know what we are needed to do. Knowing that
God has things for us to do, that He has planned in advance we should be ready
and willing to follow through. Follow his nudges and complete the to-do list
God has for you.
Chad - I respect you and think that you truly walk your talk - not an "obnoxious" Christian who says one thing but does another. But I read things like this and I really do believe that you believe this, but I wonder how you can. How can it be that God would intervene on such a minor detail in someone's life - why would he know a family needed a pep talk and tell you to call them, but say, not intervene in something horrific, like the Sandy Hook situation. Why didn't God nudge some of those people to keep their kids home from school? What if a gunman was holding 30 kids hostage and all 30 parents pray and the guy shoots 2 of them - how do you resolve that? How do you thank god for the ones he "saved" and not blame him for the ones he didn't? Why would God care about someone needing a phone call, but not nudge anyone to help thousands of children who go without breakfast every day. How can you think that God would intervene in such trivial minutiae but not in more serious matters? These are things I really want to know.
ReplyDelete--Lisa
Lisa,
DeleteI appreciate your respect and am honored that you think that of me. Let me start by asking for your forgiveness for the way I lived my life when we first met. I claimed to be a Christian but did not always walk my talk. I have grown incredibly in my faith. So I am truly sorry for my actions from years ago.
You pose many great questions here. I can honestly say that I don’t have all the answers figured out. But I know I have a loving Father in heaven that truly desires a daily relationship with me. I know that it must be difficult to believe that God cares about little things like a phone call. I can believe this because I have seen it happen over and over and I know that they are not chance happenings. A couple of years ago we were on a car ride with a couple we work with. We went by a farm that had a sign that said “horses for sale”. I felt a need to stop and check it out. Everyone in our car said don’t stop there can’t be any horses we could use there. I had already turned around and pulled in the drive. The owner of the horses came to my Van window and we began a conversation. Michella was behind me and could not see the person but she recognized the voice. I continued the conversation and recognized the person as Kathy Glenn. We then got out of the car and had a great conversation and got to meet her son and husband and catch up on 20 years. I know that this was planned by God. There was no other reason to stop. Our ranch manager who is always looking for horses drove by this sign many times. We stopped because of a nudge from God and I am glad I obeyed. I have prayed with people over the phone or in person after being nudged by God and have had them send notes or call later saying “you don’t know how much that meant” or “ that was what I needed to hear”. There are times I have felt nudged and I have not made a call or prayed with someone and I know to this day that I missed out on something God had planned for me. Several times over the last few years we have felt the need to call you and talk we have not followed that nudge and I am sorry. Those are some of the ways I can believe God has a plan and a to-do list for me and each of us.
Cont...
Part2...
DeleteSandy Hook is very difficult situation and I mourn for those families that have lost loved ones. I don’t know that God did not try to intervene. Maybe he nudged people to talk to the young man that did the shooting. Maybe he nudged the mom to get rid of the guns. Maybe he nudged parents to keep their kids home. Maybe there were lots of nudges and people did not follow them. I know for me I have to be thinking of God and having conversations with him on a daily basis to really be ready to hear and follow his nudges. I can get so focused on me and what I need to get done that I am not focused on things of God. I believe God is grieved by the loss of lives at Sandy Hook. His word says that the world will become more evil. That what is right will be wrong and what is wrong will be right. The morals of this world will continue to decay and we will see more tragedies. This comes from the beginning of creation when Adam and Eve sinned and went against God’s plan. Satan rules this world. God gave us free choice and allows us to make choice good or bad. I think what happens is that we want to build our own kingdoms. We want to rule our kingdom and we seek things that are bad for us we make poor choices and feel lost and frustrated or never feel contentment. I really believe this happens in the church and we spend all kinds of money to build a temple when people are missing breakfast next door. I do what I do because I truly believe that we need to raise up a generation that is Kingdom focused, God’s Kingdom. We need to put our own desires and wants to the side and focus on what God wants for us to do.
Though I don’t believe God cause these tragedies I do believe he uses them to draw people on to Him. That people seek answers and truth and turn to the Bible which is absolute truth and find what they have been missing.
I think there are things we won’t resolve. There are times we pray for things and God does not answer the way would like. I think back to when we got Cara. We prayed that we would adopt her and rescue her from the life she was headed toward. God did not answer our prayer in our timing. He answered it 12 years later. But we never got angry at God. We praised Him for the time we had with her and providing her safety and nurturing at the most important time of her life. God had another plan and as its unfolding I can’t wait to see how He will use her and us and His great miracle story to build His Kingdom. As far as the 30 hostages I think you do praise God for the spared lives and you pray for and hug and pour your lives into those that lost their kids. I think you encourage those parents to hold on to God, because He is the only thing to hold on to and bring you through such a great tragedy.
I know this does not answer everything. I don’t have all the answers. But I am willing to continue to dialogue with you to help find them. Thanks for asking and thanks for listening.
I am ok with most of what you've said here, in that I really do believe that you believe it, although I consider most of these things coincidences or happenstance. I have connected with both Glen's on Facebook and have had lots of good talks with them since. I don't think God nudged any of that, I think they looked for me on a social network. But I do respect that you believe those things and if they lead you to do good, or to reach out to others in need, then that's terrific.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't buy and never will is this, "As far as the 30 hostages I think you do praise God for the spared lives and you pray for and hug and pour your lives into those that lost their kids. I think you encourage those parents to hold on to God, because He is the only thing to hold on to and bring you through such a great tragedy."
I do not believe you can praise God for choosing to save some kids, but not others. Either he can and does intervene or he does not. Believing that God saved a couple of kids and let others die only makes God look evil. How could you be ok thinking that God would choose to only save a couple of kids or look to God for comfort after he chose not to save your kid? If you believe he gave us free will, then you have to believe what happens, happens - to think he intervenes for only a few pushes me even further away. And the explanation that "its god's will" and "we just don't understand his plan" I think is naive and simplistic. Anyway, like I said, i think its great that your faith leads you to reach out to others and do good - but I do that very same thing without faith.
Finally - I always thought you were a pretty good Christian who walked your talk - I don't remember you ever doing something that would make me think you weren't!