Finding God's Will

Today I was sitting in church and my dad was talking about finding God's will. He talked about John 17:3. It says that eternal life is to know God. It really got me thinking do I really know God. Is my relationship with my heavenly Father really that real? Is is just a one way street. I often wonder how you hear from God. If our relationship with Him is like any other relationship then shouldn't we be able to hear Him speak to us. I've really been learning lately that I need to just stop and be silent and listen to the Lord as much as I can.

I had a neat QT Thursday night after Bible study. I was just praying and asking God to speak to me. I heard Him so clearly, He said I'm right were He wants me to be right now. He told me to continue doing what I'm doing and that this is His will for me right now. It was good. I remember thinking to myself, "this is what peace is, I have peace in my heart right now". It was good to know that this is where God wants me right now.

It seems that God is really speaking to me or perhaps just showing more of how He works to me through His word. It's like every time I read my Bible it's a new sermon. I'm just ready to go out and preach or something. I've had a couple dreams the last few weeks in which I was preaching to crowds of young people. It has been interesting. I'm not sure what God is doing cause I don't really have any opportunity to preach right now. But maybe someday He'll open a door for me. I think I preach to my friends a lot. I mean I'm always sharing stuff with them about the Word and what God is showing or teaching me. It is really good for me I think to do that. I want to be an encouragement to those around me!

I guess the last thing I'll share is something interesting I read yesterday about Moses. In Exodus God told Moses that He was going to start testing the Israelites. I was like wow, I always think that hard times come from Satan or that I must have done something wrong. That is not true though. God specifically tested the Israelites and I think God is testing me right now. I don't know if God tests us all the time or if it's just something that happens sometimes. I guess the only way we know we've passed is if the test ends. I'm not really sure. So Lord help me through this time of testing and show me what you want me to know. Thank you.

Bible Study Update

So we had our weekly guys Bible study last night and it was amazing. God totally was speaking to me through it. We were talking about several things but the stuff that hit home for me was a guy sharing some C.S. Lewis writings from his book "Screwtape Letters" I think that was the name. He talked about how Satan gets us distracted from what we need to do today by making us think about the future. Really the only certain things in life is what we did in our past and what we are doing today. The key to living for Christ is living the life for today and not spending all this time worrying about what the future may bring. The fact is the future may never come and if that's the case we've wasted all that energy for nothing. That was good for me to hear. I don't want to waste the present by worrying about my future. I need to trust God that He'll take care of my future if I take care of today.

The other point that was good was about the fact that there is no formula for being a "good Christian". A lot of times people want to get free from sin and they think if they do a specific thing a certain way they'll be ok. The point that matters is when we fail it is because our focus is on us and not on Him. We need to keep our focus on Jesus and that will keep our focus off of us and our flesh. It was a good time and God really encouraged me. I was reading my Bible last night before bed and I just really got the sence of peace that I am in the right place in my life right now. This is what God wants me to do and I'm glad to do it.