Learning to listen to God instead of myself
My first pregnancy was a doozy. I began to swell and feel a little different before I even knew I was pregnant. I was young and thin back then and even though I had gained a little weight with the swelling, my stomach showed nothing at 3 months. Then it seemed that overnight my body was pregnant! My doctor retired about that time and I took on a new doctor around 4 ½ months so he was unaware of the sudden change in my body. By six months strangers were asking me if I was overdue. With my height and stature, I was surprised that I looked so pregnant, but I just told everyone that we still had 3 months to go. We faithfully went from work and school to our birthing classes each week. I remember a nurse once addressing all of us moms. She said, ‘ if the baby is kicking up here, the head is down. If the baby is kicking down here, the head is up. And if you feel kicking up and down, you have twins!’ We all laughed or gasped, but I remember thinking, ‘that’s how mine feels, so I wonder how you really know.’ You must realize that this was in the stone age before we got sonograms from day one. Well, sure enough, at eight months I was so big that my doctor sent me in for a sonogram and there they were – two of them! I was in complete shock! Five days later two sweet little girls made their appearance into our lives and we’ve been blessed ever since.
Here’s what got me to thinking about that time. I’ve been trying hard to listen to God for some answers and it’s hard to set myself aside and just listen to Him. How many other times have I ignored all the signs and messages that God is sending me because my mind is already made up about what the truth is? Have you ever heard that old joke about the man who is caught in a bad flood? As he makes his way upstairs a small boat comes to save him, then he’s on the roof and a larger boat comes, and finally he’s hanging on the chimney and a helicopter comes, but each time he loudly and proudly declares that he doesn’t need them because “God is going to save me!” Well, he drowns. At Heaven’s gate he humbly asks the Lord what happened. ‘I trusted You to save me’. And the Lord says, “Son, I sent two boats and a helicopter!” The man thought he could decide how God would answer.
We’ve been studying David in BSF this year. Saul was mercilessly pursuing him with the intention of killing him. At one point it would have appeared to any of us that God had handed him over to David. Choosing to ‘do his business’ in the same cave that David and his men were hiding in, made him easy prey. How obvious could it be, right? There he was for the taking. David’s men encouraged him to kill this evil man. It would end David’s flight and all his troubles…right? This was easy enough to reason, but…David was in the habit of listening to the Lord. And this would not honor his God. He listened to God instead of the reasoning of his men or his own brain. And of course, God honored this. King David is honored still today.
So, as we all begin a new year, I pray that we will always pray first. Let us seek God’s wisdom over our own and have ears that hear Him above all else. May we all learn to seek Him in His Word and ‘Believe what we read instead of choosing to read what we believe.’ And as we call on Him, pray to Him, and seek Him with all our hearts, may we be found by Him, who holds the world in His hands.
Be blessed.
~ Diane Qubty
