I'm still learning how to be guided. My personality is one of a country woman living out in the country with good dogs and some cats in a private country house surrounded by trees and flowers. Being able to go outside in the yard and mow the lawn etc... I've had different kind of homes since 2007 that were not living in the country and learned to be thankful for each one. But it took me some time to learn where I was really going to live and thrive.
God allowed me to make mistakes along the way because I was bound and determined to do so. The Bible told me otherwise many times in verses like "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding... In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths"
But I thought finding the right house and the right job and the right husband and relationships were going to make me happy because the Bible also says those things are good. I didn't understand properly how to have those things. Those things are good in and of themselves but not when I depend on them to be secure and safe here on earth.
That was a learning process I need not have gone through had I simply trusted first in Jesus love and provision for me. But I had learned God was not like that by my parents and by the world. I had a lot that needed to be unlearned. That it is Jesus who can be trusted to lead and guide me through my mixed up emotions of what life should or should not be.
That He would be the ONE to get those things I needed in life and desired because He loved me and would take care of me better than I or anyone else could. People can die or leave., houses can catch fire and burn down., health can change to sickness..., Only Jesus can keep and uphold us. Only Jesus can allow me to keep any of those things of security from the harshness of the world represented in my life. Only He can maintain my life well HERE as well as in eternity.
I used to believe the philosophy that God helps those who help themselves. But today I know Jesus is the Good Shepherd who provides for the sheep. Leads the sheep and guides the sheep. The same way He saved us and gave us all things pertaining to life and godliness I've learned that ALSO includes the living out of our lives here. He also shows so much mercy and grace on and for the sheep WHILE we are learning here on earth how to follow Him and be like Him. The (process) is only hard when we want to go our way and not allow Him to lead and bring us into truth.
Why should we believe the very opposite of that? Why should we accept that Jesus wants to call good the things and times we are confused and disillusioned in Him? Why should we still call "good" the things we once thought and believed and walked in that in fact were very bad? Even though we learned that the wolf was bad because he bit us and wounded us and killed our family we should call him good? No.., We have been given "grace" for those times of not knowing or believing. Where sin abounds grace does much more abound Romans 5:20
Should we sin that grace should abound? God forbid. So we should not say that our sin that causes us to fall is good. It's covered by His grace., but it's not good nor is it good to fall. Falling is bad., being bit by the wolf is bad., divorce is not good., losing family is not good., being homeless and helpless is not good. Being sick is not good., dying is not good. etc.... But they can be used by God for our good. He doesn't cause them., He will use them for our good because for sure we will get mixed up in them while here on earth. He will show out His grace and goodness in spite of them.
Romans 5:20-21 And the Law came that the transgression might increase but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
That as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it.
He guides my every step. He would not allow satan to sift me unless it was for my most blessed good. However, it took some growing in trust for me to truly believe that He was ALWAYS only going to give me or allow for me what would be the very best for me.
Christ learned obedience through the things He suffered. The same happens with me. The obedience and steadfastness of faith is learned through the things He gives us or allows for us. All that I have faced that was distasteful to me, has made my faith in Him more steadfast, as James says. But I didn't start out rejoicing when I met with trials of my faith. I learned to rejoice for the good I saw many times come to me as a result of the trials. But I many times told God that He had come to seem so cruel to me and that He had hedged me in and never seemed to let me catch my breath.
He gives us what we are ready to bear. And He can be trusted!
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