THE LORD TOLD ME! -- Devotional for September 27, from "Good Seeds"

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your family, to the land which I will show you, and I will make you a great nation.” (Genesis 12:1,2)

How often do we hear people so glibly and confidently say, “The Lord told me to do this, to go there, to speak thus…”? Have you said it? Have I? I wonder how God feels about people making Him responsible for directing their words or actions when He really had nothing to do with it? How do I know He didn’t? I don’t, but how does anyone know God did?” I have a strong feeling many Christians live in a dream world concerning the will of God. They want something so badly they contrive the confirmation that God wants them to have it, too. After all, doesn’t Psalm 37:4 make this promise, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart”? Yes, but the promise comes with a condition: the blessing from the Lord is given only to those who "delight themselves in Him". Does this just mean we enjoy singing His praises and studying His Word, or is it something more? The Bible tells us that if we would gain from God we must give in, and give up, to God. To delight in Him means to cease delighting in self, erasing any personal delight that may lead us away from putting Him first. The verse mentions “desires of your heart,” but it is our own selfish desires that we must die to. “More than that,” Paul wrote, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). It is only when we have consecrated our all to God that He will place within us the desires He wants us to have. This verse is not saying God will give us whatever we want, but rather put within us the desires of His own choosing. Once we deny our desires, there is room to receive much better ones from Him, that will bring joy to us and glory to Him! It is when we have finally given all our hopes and dreams and expectations to God, for Him to do with what He pleases, that He will say, “Do this! Say that! Go there!” and we will KNOW it is God speaking, because our own desires have lost their commanding voice, in favor of His. When leaving a church I had pastored for six years, I received this nasty, anonymous note: “You say God told you to leave us. I doubt that! It’s just what YOU WANT, and now you’re trying to make it sound so spiritual, and make yourself look so holy, by saying it’s a God thing. Some of us are of the opinion that this is just a Steve thing!” Ouch! That really hurt. But my cowardly critic had a point: If we say our decisions come from God, they’d better be free from the desires that come from man!