It's been a long road of faith, I guess, for me. But something priceless I learnt through this experience is learning how to listen to God's guidance. No. 1: You need to be patient. Humble yourself to just pray and wait for God's voice. And what guidance! His guidance comes in so many ways... e.g. friends suddenly calling you up to tell you not to take the job... leaders' godly counsel as they help you think through... Bible verses that point the way...
But it's also been good training in learning to discern the voice of God. I realise that there's a lot of worldly opinions and of course, well-meaning advice from my parents... and your own understanding too. And there are times where guidance from God really seems so unclear. You read your Bible, praying to God for guidance which job to apply for, which job offer to turn down... and getting more and more stressed as each day rolls past. But the Bible can seem so vague at times - I mean, what does sacrificing of lambs have to do with looking for a job? (Unless you're deciding whether to eat lamb chops or not haha... oops bad joke :P)
So, it's the principles that the Bible has that are really so important. "First seek the counsel of the LORD," King Jehoshaphat told another king. That's a verse that has been ringing in my mind constantly ever since I've been looking for a job. And I think this is one way that I can tell that God may be speaking to me... it may be different for you I guess :)
But even principles have their limits I think - they are like a map - great for telling you where and where not to go. But in life, there are the gray areas. And thank God, He didn't leave us alone - He sent us the promised Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth. :)
So, that Saturday night, I went to Peter's place to ask him for advice, and we both did our research, best as we could... and we gathered all the facts... and didn't know what to do next. So we looked at one another - and Peter said, "Ok, let's pray."
So we prayed for a while, and remained silent, waiting for God to speak to us. After some time, Peter told me, he sensed that God may be wanting to tell me two things: "FAITH" and "HONOUR". Peter said, "I believe God wants you to trust in Him, to have faith in Him that as you make the decision to honour God - by choosing not to work on Sundays - He will honour you back."
Wow! 'cos these were the two things that also came to my own mind. Hebrews 11:6 in particular. And this verse, "Those who honour Me I will honour". And that verse was exactly the same one that came to Peter's mind too.
So it's confirmed... and to triple-confirm, I asked Alan the next day what he thought about it, and his advice pointed to the same thing too - to make a decision to honour God by setting aside a day of rest specifically for Him, and also not to compromise times of fellowship too. That, and the worship song, "Centre of My Life", during service, was so timely.
So hee, the guidance from God was decisive here: "Do NOT take up the job offer. I can give you a much better job than that."
So a principle I learnt from listening to God is to constantly and persistently seek Him, whether it's for counsel, guidance, answers or just simply to seek Him as He is. It really pleases Him, really! :) "For He rewards those who earnestly seek Him." And also... his guidance is not always immediate. Sometimes it's the slowly building up type. You know how those big big pictures that you download from the Net take a long time to load? Yah, sometimes it's like that. :) So you need to wait patiently for His guidance. But one thing you can be assured for sure:
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD...
What a wonderful promise! :D Like that how not to be encouraged??? :D
And hee, I do have this sense that my job search is coming to an end. I don't know how much longer... I guess from this point onwards it's really by faith. But I do know that God has been faithful to me all my life, and I really do want to love and honour Him more and more each day of my life.
So I'm looking forward to sharing this testimony of what God will do in my job search... and it'll be doubly sweet - not only because I got a good job, but also knowing that it is a reward from God Himself for having faith in Him to the very end. I think that's a far, far, far sweeter reward than anything you can find on earth... :D PTL! :D
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