Category: doubt

Taking it to a New Level

 
We’re depending on God;
    He’s everything we need.
What’s more, our hearts brim with joy
since we’ve taken for our own His holy name.
Love us, God, with all you’ve got—
that’s what we’re depending on.
(Psalm 33:20-22 The Message)
 
 
This week, I started out with a prayer asking God to “Save me from haste and confusion…”
 
After that prayer, confusion kept coming across my path. Both the actual word, and at times a sense of confusion about life. So, I looked up the word in the dictionary to ease my distress. The word “confuse” means “to bewilder, to mix up or identify wrongly or to make muddled or unclear.”
 
Confusion comes to my heart when I do not understand God’s will or direction, and especially when circumstances don’t make sense. 
 
I have been asking hard questions this week:
 
Why do two of my friends have to face the fear and uncertainty of health issues?
 
Why does another friend struggle with a sense of condemnation, when she is making a huge difference in the lives of many?
 
Why do I still sit around wondering what I should be doing with my life, when I have a recent degree in English, a self-published book and people who want me to share my writing, speaking and creative gifts with them, as well as plenty of time?
 
On Tuesday, I met with a group of spiritual leaders, where we were discussing spiritual growth and the catalysts that lead to a deeper relationship with Christ. Between my questions and the good dialogue at that meeting, I discovered something.
 
God wants to take us to a new level. He inviting us to bring our confusion, our fears, our doubts, our crises, our agendas, our gifts, our strengths, our weaknesses to . . .
 
a new level of dependence.
 
Dependence on Him. Dependence on His love and grace and strength.
 
Dependence. Will we accept His invitation?
 
 
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 3

Look: To Direct One’s Attention

Then he said to Thomas , “Put your finger here; see my hands.
Reach out your hand and put it into my side.
Stop doubting and believe.”
 
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
 
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
John 20:27-28 NIV
 
 
Today’s Five Minute Friday prompt: LOOK
 
(This is where you write for five minutes,
no editing, just write and see what spills out.)
 
Here’s my offering:



Look at me. I have freckles. A diploma on my wall. A blog on the internet. I have a husband and two sons. I want you to notice how accomplished I have become. I am short. I have brown hair. I wear glasses.

Look at me, ma…no hands…I road my bike to have coffee with friends. I bought groceries and carried them home on the same bike. Aren’t you proud of me?

Don’t look at me! I am wart. I am slug. I am abscessed wound. I stink. I drop the ball. I am picked last. I didn’t comb my hair. My shirt and pants don’t match. I lie. I cheat. I pretend. I act out in anger. I scream. I curse. I want to punch someone in the face. I am ugly.

Look at Jesus.
 
I don’t know what he looked like, his physical body marred, bloody, sweaty, dripping with life. He walked dusty roads. He climbed a hill with a tree on his back. He looked upon his mother and John. He groaned. He breathed. He gasped. He died. Buried in a cave with a stone door. Body found missing.
 
He appears. He eats. They believe. One doubts. Jesus returns. Look at me. Look at my hands. Touch my wounds. Put your hand in my side. Believe.

Linking up with:
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 12

Doubt: To Lack Confidence In

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ( James 1:6 NKJV)
The Intuition Diaries 
About midway through our Lake Michigan boat trek, I had a bout with doubt.

We left Rock Island early to cross the wavy sea to make our way to Escanaba, a small town on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The waves tossed us to and fro, as we were travelling in a beam sea, which means the waves push your vessel from the side. Nice rocking motion if you want to put a baby to sleep, or get seasick.

I tried to fight the motion sickness, and Les offered me the remedy; drive the boat. But even taking the helm was difficult today, because at first I had nothing on the horizon to focus on. I had to go on faith, trusting the computer chart to direct me. I wanted to quit driving, but I knew the alternative would be worse, headache with nausea all day.

I had to roll with the waves, and trust the unmarked route. I had to rely on the tried and tested navigation aids that would get us through this turbulent sea.  Several minutes into the rocking and the rolling, I spotted a stationary object on the horizon. Just the focal point I needed to persevere on the path.

 

This light stands out on the middle of the lake far from the shore. It marks an underwater shoal, a natural rock wall that can cause damage to a ship. Before this adventure, I didn’t even know that these lights existed on Lake Michigan.

 

This person of faith may know her destination, but at times when nothing is on the horizon, doubts buffet me like the waves of a beam sea on a vessel crossing the water.

 

Thanks be to God for putting unexpected markers along the route to realign my faith in Him, and lead me to the ultimate destination—forever with HIM!

 

Posted on by kelrohlf 3