Just for You: Welcome
Ask and Receive
5.10.19
My friend and I have been going through a book together, one that has been sectioned according to themes. This past week we were discussing “Meek.” Along with the author’s thoughts there were relevant Scripture passages to consider and discuss. As I prepared at home before our meeting I read and pondered Philippians 2: 3-11 and Titus 3:1-7. Quickly, God brought to mind a situation where I had not been meek, at least not in my thoughts towards another. This was a perfect time to turn in repentance and confession and give praise for God’s abundant supply of mercy that washed over me. As I reveled in a fresh perspective of how His mercy and kindness was abundantly available to me and to the other, I walked with much more freedom. My friend and I prayed each of us would have more of this quality of meekness by His grace. Our desire is to reflect Christ to God’s other children. Of course this begins in our thoughts. We asked.
Several days later it happened. God graciously gave me another opportunity to walk in the humility of meekness. At the time I did not recognize what I heard as an opportunity. What I heard left me feeling displaced, dismissed, overlooked and unregarded. You know the kind of message that can have this affect. Perhaps it is a ministry opportunity that was denied or given to another. Or taken by another. Perhaps it was a relational situation where you were not included. Perhaps your words were dismissed when another’s “better” way was presented.
I called my friend and asked her to pray for me, realizing our Lord uses the prayers of others to augment our desires for change. I knew she understood meekness, as we had just studied this theme. I wanted the right attitude, especially towards the others involved. I did desire to see His life and light come first in my thoughts, and then in my actions and reactions. My friend joined me in asking.
This morning as I came before the Lord, the situation and people I mentioned above were not on my mind at all. I picked up a book of essays looking for something else. What I received was God’s answer to yesterday’s asking.
Elizabeth Canham wrote: “Each of us is a mystery. Today we are encouraged to psychoanalyze, understand, and fix the problems that have contributed to our sense of alienation or disease. We forget that we will never plumb the marvelous depths of our own being. What we see and know is like the tip of the iceberg. Below the surface is God’s handiwork in all its richness and depth. We are strangers to ourselves and the most appropriate posture we can adopt is awe and a willingness to allow the Spirit to reveal more of what is hidden below the surface. This pilgrimage, a journey of discovery and surprise, and the welcomed stranger within enables us to honor the mystery of the others who travel with us. On pilgrimage we travel light, discarding the heavy load of judgment and appreciating the gifts of those we meet along the way. Sharing resources, stories, and needs creates hope. In an inequitable world dominated by fear, those who follow the Christ-path will embody pilgrim hope—the hope that on this journey together God has not ‘forgotten the recipe for manna.’ There is enough for us all and together we are invited to sit at God’s table in an ever-widening circle of belonging.”
God prompted me to ask for change. I did.
God tells me I will receive an answer. I did.
Today, aided by the Spirit using my friend to ask with me, and aided by the Spirit using another’s words, I learned three lessons from this experience.
* First, as I see myself as the “welcomed stranger within” with mysteries I don’t yet understand, I can see others in the same light and appreciate their gifts.
* Next, since on this pilgrim journey “God has not forgotten the recipe for manna,“ therefore, there is enough to go around for all of us, including me. Enough value, love, direction, places to serve or whatever good I am seeking.
*Third, God says ask. After I have asked, I want to stop and “be still and know” that He is God. He hears. He answers. Maybe not right away or in the way I expected, but He does answer by His Spirit and in accordance with His Word and His good and perfect will. Most often I can leave it with Him. I will receive an answer.
Thanking God for His heart that welcomes me,
invites me to ask and to receive,
especially if what I ask for is a heart and perspective like His,
Carolyn Roper
