Have you ever prayed about something, got a clear direction to take, and when you take it, it leads to pain and disappointment? I don’t know about you, but when that happens to me, my first instinct is to doubt my ability to receive revelation. That’s a scary feeling not to trust that you heard from God when you really felt certain you did.
It’s becoming clear to me that I need to stop second guessing inspiration and stop losing confidence in my spiritual gifts just because pain follows.
I am coming to understand that pathways we feel inspired to travel, that look like failures, are there to mold us into the people our Father knows we can become.
These detours of pain shape us into more compassionate, empathetic people. We learn important lessons that go with us into the future.
Here I stand, facing yet another challenging road that I felt inspired to travel — one that held such promise, but now is racked with pain.
Today, I sat in church praying and felt like the words were given me to pray, “Father let this make me purer, more holy, more wise, more refined. Let it make me more like my Savior.”
Immediately this hymn came to mind and I turned to it in the hymnal “More Holiness Give Me”
More holiness give me,
More strivings within,
More patience in suff’ring,
More sorrow for sin,
More faith in my Savior,
More sense of his care,
More joy in his service,
More purpose in prayer.
2. More gratitude give me,
More trust in the Lord,
More pride in his glory,
More hope in his word,
More tears for his sorrows,
More pain at his grief,
More meekness in trial,
More praise for relief.
3. More purity give me,
More strength to o’ercome,
More freedom from earth-stains,
More longing for home.
More fit for the kingdom,
More used would I be,
More blessed and holy–
More, Savior, like thee
Thank you, Father, for the paths that hold both joy and pain. Thank you for loving me enough to let me grow and enough to stand by me with Your peace that passes all understanding as I do.
“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Revelations 7:13-17)
(((Hugs))) to you! I’ve felt that way a few times. I felt strongly that God wants me to share about grace and effective communication, especially now that society values communication technology over communication skill.
However, my company I felt God helped me create has never cost me so much and produced so little as people cry offense, but have little interest in taking steps not to offend others. Even through my dh’S two yrs of lost income from a job loss and financial struggles the likes of which we hadn’t seen in almost thirty years of marriage. And that’s saying something because we’ve been through those struggles many times and to many depths.
I fel that way when we felt drawn to two ther businesses during those two years after seeing them fail to provide a decent income despite massive work.
I feel that way from time to time now that I strongly feel called to share my heart for those who, like me, struggle with life long chronic illness as I spend hours to write and promote my ministry blog only to find it reaches few and doesn’t receive much response.
I struggle daily to keep going with what I strongly feel called to do though I see little fruit of my labor, but then, there is someone who tells me that what I wrote touched them. Someone struggling felt a bit more optimistic because of something I said because I’ve been there and it’s just enough to keep me going until God feels I need a little more encouragement.
Those little bursts of encouragement help so much, don’t they? You do a world of good. There are many more people touched by your efforts than you will ever know. I have a feeling one day, when we go home to our Father, He will show us the rippling impact of the good we do in our lives… It will be a fun thing to see.