Listening for God’s Instructions

May we always be open to hear God’s instructions and to then be obedient to His will.

Source: PInterest

When I wake up each day I have no idea what God has got planned for my day, what I will be doing, who I am going to meet or correspond with or indeed why I will be doing these things. The first thing I do each morning is read my Bible, then I pray and hand myself over to God and ask Him to use me as His vessel. Then the day begins and things start to unfold. Some days can be hectic and chaotic where I am rushing around trying to do many things, some days unexpected things happen that take me in different directions, some days appear to be routine and relatively mundane and some days are just joyous. It is only at the end of each day that I can reflect on what has happened and try to see what God has been using me for that day. One thing I know is that as a Child of God, He has planned everything, in fact each day was ordained before I was even in my mother’s womb; Psalm 139:16 ‘Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be’. Knowing that I am a Child of God and that I am used by God through the Holy Spirit to do His work is truly amazing. 

I can do nothing on my own, I have no special powers and there is nothing particularly special about me, I would say I am your normal, average type of person who you would walk past in the street without so much as a second glance. This however is not how God sees me. God’s Word tells me that He sees me as ‘the apple of His eye’ (Deuteronomy 32:10), it tells me that in Christ Jesus I am His Child (Galatians 3:26) and in fact to all those who know Jesus, in 1 Peter 2:9 we are told; ‘you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession’. Wow, we are chosen and we are God’s special possession, think about that for a moment..... If we know Jesus, God does not see us or judge us as the World does and conversely through the Power of the Holy Spirit He can use us so that the World can see Him in us. Therefore, every moment of our day is an opportunity for God to show Himself to the World through us and we need to be vigilant so that we do not miss these opportunities during our day.

Source: Me.me

I can think of one example of where God has used me over the last six months that demonstrates how amazing He really is. About six months ago my wife asked her cousins if there was anything we could do to help, as their elderly father (my wife’s uncle) had recently been admitted to hospital. The diagnosis was not good and a few months later we discovered that the family had been given a life expectancy of twelve months as a best-case scenario. The cousins asked my wife if she would mind visiting their father, initially in hospital and later in different care homes, as this would lighten the load for them and mean that they could have a day off from visiting each week. Although this was my wife’s uncle the relationship was very distant, as they had not had a great deal of interaction over the past 30 to 40 years apart from seeing each other and exchanging the usual pleasantries at the odd wedding, funeral of family event. My relationship with the uncle was even more distant as I wasn’t even a blood relative.

My wife and I started visiting her uncle, each week, usually on a Sunday evening. The first few visits were a little strange as it was clear that with his illness added to the distant relationship that he struggled to know who we actually were, however, slowly we noticed that he started to look forward to our visits. Communication was difficult as my wife’s uncle’s hearing wasn’t the best and I can remember numerous occasions when he turned around to me and shouted; ‘what did she say’, in response to something my wife had said.  When we arrived each visit, my wife’s uncle always got me to do something for him, which was to clean his teeth, give him a shave, feed him or take him to the toilet. I was always happy to help him, and I think that he always felt that he was doing me the favor by giving me something to do!

As the weeks went on my wife’s uncle’s condition started to deteriorate and he was in and out of hospital as well as having to go from a residential care home to a medical care home. One time we visited him in hospital after he had suffered a fall at one of his care homes. When we arrived, I did the usual round of jobs he asked me to do and then after a few moments he asked me to take him for a walk. I remember thinking to myself ‘how is this going to work?’, as by this point he was very immobile. I slowly managed to help him to the edge of his bed, put his slippers on him and then eased him up onto his walking frame. He then proceeded to shuffle down the ward with me at his side. I had no idea where he was going but he kept on walking. I think he was just glad to get out of bed for a few minutes and he was determined to make the most of it. Very slowly he kept on shuffling along and at one point it crossed my mind that he was trying to escape and that all of a sudden, I had been promoted to chairman of the escape committee! We eventually arrived at the nursing station which was at the front of the adjoining ward when one of the nurses noticed and said ‘hello Seamus’ in a loud voice. He slowly turned around to see the nurse smiling at him, he then put his thumb up and gave the most amazing smile. His eyes lit up when he smiled, and this is something that has stuck with me ever since. I have recently been reflecting on this and Matthew 6:22 came to mind ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light’. My wife’s uncle may have been coming to the end of his earthly life, his health was failing, and he was struggling to communicate, yet in this one instance his smile and his eyes illuminated the whole room. This was a clear example, that our bodies may fail but our spirits will never die and how God can make His Spirit visible in us, even in the latter days of our earthly life; Psalm 73:26 ‘My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever’. It was a real privilege to see God at work and all because my wife and I were obedient to His Will when started visiting her uncle in hospital.

Proverb 8:33 tells us ‘Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not disregard it’. May we always be open to hear God’s instructions and to then, crucially,  be obedient to His Will.  In the busy lives we lead it is easy for us to miss the opportunities that God puts in front of us. I am so pleased that I did not miss the opportunity to spend just a short amount of time with my wife’s uncle. It was clear looking back that God was asking us to be his arms and feet in this situation, and to bless this man in his latter days. Conversely, through our obedience we were also mightily blessed. We will never know what God has got planned for us if we don’t take time to be with Him and to find out what He wants.

One final observation; we also do not know how God will work in a wider context. What is awesome is that an Elder from our Fellowship serves as a hospital chaplain in the very hospital where my wife’s uncle was taken. He used to visit my wife’s uncle on a regular basis and he also spend time with members of the family as they visited. It was no coincidence that God placed this Elder in this hospital at this time to bring His Presence into this situation. The family members talk about the Elder with real adoration and who knows what God’s plans are for them in the future as a result of the Elder’s obedience to serve.

Who does God want to use you to bless today? How does God want to use you today? Take a little time to ponder these questions.

God bless.

Author: Anonymous

May God bless and enrich your life
 
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