What You Do Next

To quote someone whom I deeply admire--what you do next says what you really believe about God.
I remember years ago my ladies Bible study at church started a new book.  It was Henry Blackaby's study called Experiencing God.  I thought it sounded pretty interesting.  Experiencing God--sounds good, right?  I was anxious to see what this Bible study was all about.  Very long story short, it changed my life.

I'll be honest with you here--at first, I didn't care for it at all.  Not at all.  It was a little too basic for me.  It was the 1 2 3's and the A B C's of Christianity, and after all, I had been a Christian for years!  I thought to myself--I am beyond this--I need something deeper, something meatier, something that I can really sink my teeth into.  However, even though I was a little more than delusional about my walk with God, I was a good little girl, I went with the flow, and with eyes rolled up to the sky, I endured.  I began the study with a closed heart and closed ears.  But, at least I went, right?  I didn't complain, I didn't say anything to anyone, I just did my first lesson and showed up to class.

It's so funny and interesting to me how God works in our lives.  We see ourselves one way, and yet He sees us in quite another.  By week 3--I was a complete mess.  For although this was a basic study--in the sense that it began at the beginning of how God wants us to live for Him, it was also one of the most challenging studies I've ever endured.  Notice I've said I--maybe not everyone who has ever gone through this study was impacted the way I was.  I just realized while writing this that I'm using words like--endure, challenge and impacted.  Yes, it was all those things for me and more.  And when I had finished with that book, that study, that basic body of work--God had changed my heart forever.  He took me back to the basics that I somehow had missed.

I wonder now all these years later what my life in Christ would be like had I not gone through that study.  I think that God would have worked it into my life somehow, someway, at some other time.  I needed it.  I needed a different perspective on who God really is and how God really works.  There were many quotes that stood out to me during that study.  Many of which I have drawn upon throughout these last couple of decades.  I have at times been stopped dead in my tracks because God will bring to my mind one of these life changing one-liners that Blackaby is so famous for.  One being--what you do next says what you really believe about God.  

So, what do I really believe about God?  I guess that depends on what I do next!  Do I listen to God?  Do I pray?  Do I trust Him?  Do I serve Him with my whole heart?  Do I have faith in Him?   Do I walk with Him daily?  Is He my everything?  Or, do I waver in my faith, and walk in fear?  Do I put prayer off for a more convenient time?  And after praying, do I get up and take those burdens with me rather than leave them at His feet for Him to deal with?

During that study, God illuminated areas in my life that he wanted to clean up.  Yes, that's exactly what He wanted from me, He wanted me, with His help, to clean up my act.  He wanted me to actually walk with Him rather than just say I did.  He has taught me over these last decades to trust Him completely, to spend hours praying, to get up trusting, to lean into Him, to hang onto Him, and to never ever stop.  For me--it was all about faith, all about prayer, all about service, all about worship.  It's all about taking life one day at a time, and sometimes 1 hour at a time.  It's all about keeping my eyes fixed on Him, it's all about knowing--knowing that He is the great I AM, He is my Father, He loves me, He walks with me!  And, I will never be alone.  Whatever comes my way, I will have my God by my side.  He is mine and I am His and what I do next in this sweet life of mine--says what I really believe about Him.