God Will Carry On

God works in the most hilarious ways.

Seriously.

Isn't it funny how you can be learning something about Him, and then you open a book, or the Bible, and that exact chapter or passage is exactly what you've been trying to get through your thick skull?
And then you talk to other people, and they're all, "What?! I've been learning that too!"

Small world, eh?

Anyways, I've been trying harder than ever to really put God first and read the Bible everyday. It's a slow process, but slow is better than nothing.

I'm finding that it's OK to stick to one passage at a time, one little section. I went through Ephesians, now I'm in Philippians. I wasn't sure where to start, so I kind of skipped around. I found nice verses that applied to my life, but there wasn't much of a direction. Even after I asked God to reveal where He wants me to start, it kind of felt like He wasn't.

But let's face it: the Bible isn't going to magically open itself to a glowing passage.
That's too easy.
And God doesn't necessarily do "easy". 'Cause then we'd never learn anything.

So I finally buckled down and just started at the beginning. Like Galinda says in The Wizard of Oz: "It's always best to start at the beginning...."
The little section title over verses 3-11 in Philippians 1 is "Thanksgiving and Prayer". (Because I just can't seem to get away from those kind of things. See? God is hilarious.)

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God.

I know I'm not the only one out there who has a hard time really knowing what God wants me to do with my life. My biggest fear is missing His call and wasting my time and money doing other things, when all that time I could have been doing stuff for Him.

And there's also that fear of once I get there and answer His call, not knowing where to go or what happens next. But God doesn't call us, get us to that place once we answer, and then dump us.
Even when we don't answer the call, He's there, opening doors.

It's kind of like a quote I read in a book series I read in middle school:
"Child, God ain't waiting at no finish line. No, Jesus is running with you, caring more about the steps on the way than the big finish. Can't nobody impress God. Just look at what he created out there!" ~ Dandi Mackall, Winnie the Horse Gentler: Eager Star
I think that says it all right there.

When God starts something in our lives, He doesn't abandon it - or us. He will "carry it on to completion". Even when we think He's gone and deserted us because things are tough, we need to be confident that He never forsakes us or His call on us. I think it's important that when we feel like He's given up on us, we need to thank Him for what He's done. Sometimes, when we reflect on the good that He's gotten us through before, we realize that He will continue.

Paul's prayer for them is kind of awesome. I don't know how else to describe it. But I think it totally ties in with his statement about being confident that God will keep on keepin' on. When it seems as though we've answered the call, but He's gone off to do other things, we need to pray that we'll be filled with His love, that we will be filled with "knowledge and depth of insight", to be able to "discern what is best", by God's standards.

I guess, ultimately, that is God's will: for us to know Him, to pray with thanksgiving, to be confident that when we hear and answer His call, He will give us knowledge and clarity when we ask, because ultimately, what His call is will be for His praise and glory.

(I really hope that made sense and wasn't taken out of context.)

I think it also could be said, in addition to all this, that we should pray also for our hearts, eyes, and ears to be open to God's Word, and to all He has to show and teach us through it all.