Series: Blessed Be
Psalm 31:16 ESV
John 14:26 ESV
John 16:13 ESV
Isaiah 30:21 ESV
Revelation 3:20 ESV
Years ago (actually decades ago) when I was given my first writing assignment I had no idea how to begin.
I don’t remember that I was given an outline or even a clue how to write, so I did what I always did when I was clueless…I went to my dad and told him I didn’t know where to begin.
My dad was a machinist in World War 2 and after the war he went to college and he had a degree in engineering.
He knew how to make a plan.
I was still in elementary school and so I expected him to make a plan for me. That is not at all what happened. Instead he taught me how to make a plan. I remember at the time thinking the ‘outline’ thing was not part of the assignment, but when I tried to explain that he told me it would be easier to write the story if I have a plan.
He was right.
Six plus decades later when I write I still create an outline when I write. I don’t think or pretend to be a gifted writer or illustrator but my dad also taught me to pray about everything. He said that God has a plan and it will be easier if I pray and write, pray and write, and pray and write.
He couldn’t been more correct.
The marvelous part of the way I was taught to write is that it included taking time to pray first.
See, my dad also taught me how to pray and wait.
Still many many decades later when I write, I pray and wait.
I wait for God’s Light to shine.
Psalm 31:16 tells us, “Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!”
I remember when I first started praying and waiting I thought it was a horrid way to write so I sort of argued with my dad.
He told me, “be patient…God will come.”
Well, I was not patient and I would go to my room, fret and stew and then return to my dad and tell him “God didn’t hear me.”
He replied, “no my dear…you didn’t wait and listen.”
Looking back now I know the problem wasn’t that God wasn’t listening. It was because I didn’t know what I was listening and waiting for…
I didn’t know what it was like or what it felt like when God spoke to me. I was definitely on a learning curve.
Today I look back through the years and I can see that as I waited and watched, God was waiting and watching with me.
God was waiting for me to respond to His love. In other words, God was there all along. I know now that God was yearning for me to open my heart to let the Spirit “in”.
I can tell you now that the very smallest opening we will give to God is enough. I can see now that the Spirit of God is waiting and watching 24/7.
We are told in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
When I was young I had to learn that I wasn’t on my own in life. I had already accepted the call to follow Jesus but I had to learn how to listen and watch. I didn’t know it at the time but God was using every available moment, every opening I gave so the Spirit could enter.
I wasn’t waiting on God…God was waiting on me.
John 16:13 says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
As the Spirit was urging me to desire the truth in my heart, I had to learn how to quiet my heart and mind so I could hear God. The revelation of the reality of hearing God was given to me when I attended a Billy Graham Crusade at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. I was overtaken by the Spirit the night I walked into the stadium. I wept and wept, but they were tears of joy.
Isaiah 30:21 tells us, “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.”
After that night I knew what I was waiting and watching for…I understood the movement of the Spirit.
That was in 1967. It was the year I turned thirteen. I remember it like it happened yesterday. I had never experienced such a flood of joy and peace until that instant. God opened a door and the door is always open.
Revelation 3:20 reveals, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
What is remarkable to me is that every every every time I turn (and have turned through the years) the door opens. I learned that I am not waiting for God. The door is always open.
God is waiting for me.
Spiritual Practice: Turn to God
The door is open and God’s desire is to spend time with YOU.
In God, Deborah
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