Moments with My Father

I’m thanking my Father that it’s Friday – a new gift of opportunity to us all! One opportunity that I rejoice in is that I have the privilege of hearing my Father’s voice as He speaks through His Word to me. There is nothing like the power of His voice to do amazing things within my heart. What a delight He is in my life! This morning’s message I heard during my time with Him is based upon what Paul said “Whatever was to my profit, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” Have you ever found yourself headed in one direction in life and the next thing you know you are going the opposite or a different direction? You are going along full speed ahead and all of a sudden you hear our Father’s voice that changes your mind about the direction you are going and you immediately flip a “U” turn and go full speed ahead the opposite direction. I’ve been chuckling as a cartoon image fills my mind of someone running on a horse as fast as they can in a direction on a road, running past people who are scattered along the side when all of a sudden lo and behold, here they come running full speed back the other way. I imagine these folks along the road saying “What’s up with that?” Well, the Apostle Paul had this experience on the road of his life. He was full speed ahead in killing Christians – he was extremely zealous in doing that and then all of a sudden, he’s in chains in prison for his zeal in telling people how wonderful Jesus was! It could confuse an onlooker! One thing Paul was real good about doing and he loved to do was to explain to people what happened in his world that caused the change. In his own way, he basically told people like “Well, ya see, I was headed this direction and Christ told me this, so I turned around and now I’m going the other direction! The same thing can happen to us in a few different ways. 1) Our Father can will one thing for us in life for a time and then we can find out His will for what He wants us to do down the road has changed to something different. 2) We can be wrong in our interpretation of how God is leading us and when He reveals that to us, we change our direction. This happened in Paul’s life. 3) We can be running down the road of life, self-centered and aimed our own way for our own perceived profit somehow. Jesus then speaks to us about it and the next moment we become Christ centered and find ourselves turned around. In any of these ways, once the sake of Christ becomes the greater issue, we will find ourselves turned around. What we once saw as for our profit or gain becomes of little or not of value. I’m looking at this in my mind and asking my Father to show me if there is an area in my life where I’m heading in a direction that I need to turn around in and head the other direction. I am also asking is there something greater in my life that I see as more profitable or gain over Him? Yikes!! If so, I need to ask our Father to help me to view it as loss compared to Him and change my direction. Depending on the circumstances, it could be embarrassing as ya have to run past all those along the road that have observed ya before. It isn’t necessarily embarrassing that we are heading in a Godly direction now into the future, but that we were heading in the wrong direction before. I find encouragement in that our Father who is the greater observer is an understanding and forgiving observer and the great rewarder for new found obedience. To go the direction He desires is worth riding past all other onlookers. Who knows, seeing you run by them going the different direction just may cause them to follow along! Yeehaw! I’m seeking to ride His way through this day ‘cuz it’s the right way to run and it will get me to where I’m suppose to be going!