Heed the Call

The moment you think you have heard from God, act upon it decidedly.  You may be mistaken but the Lord will honor your faith and make even your error work for good.  Our problem generally is not our false interpretation of God's directive but rather our rebellious waffling on the point of action.  We see everything else so clearly...the troubles we face, the insults we endure, the lost opportunity and the baseness of co-workers but do we see the way we react to the Word God gives us?  Do we notice how faithfully He guides us or are we blindly moving forward without a care?  The Lord will show you the way but only as you adapt to His guidance will you see more.  If you haven't heard from the Lord, then return to the last place you strayed from His prod and start over there.  Do the thing He told you to do and renew your commitment to follow God wholeheartedly.  Everything went haywire for Abraham the minute he gave in to Sarah's demand that he produce a child through Hagar her slave.  The harshness of the demand that Abraham send off Hagar and his son Ishmael was the correction Abraham had to make to be certain the Lord was his one and only God.  Is it stunning that Abraham had to act upon Sarah's childish demand for Abraham to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael if he was to get back to where God wanted him before he submitted to her whim the first time?  Give in once to the temptation to follow along a line other than the clear one God has given you and the correction may be brutally painful and seem absurdly unfair...and yet it must be done.  In faith we stay on the narrow path God lays out for us and in faith we return to it when we grasp the immensity of our deviation from it.  Once we have accepted the correction and done so decidedly, the way of God becomes clear and bright.  Never be afraid to follow God wholly; be scared to death though of disregarding His certain command.  You may be kept from disaster by God's grace but there will be a cost in the end, one that did not have to be before you strayed.

The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son.  But God said to him, "Do not be so distressed…"  Genesis 21: 11,12a NIV