1. God will do whatever it takes to get us to desire Him above all else- even if it means delaying Canaan. How do you keep your focus on God when you desire Canaan?
2. What is your “mountain of God” in your life? Where have you seen an outward manifestation of God, been called to a commitment with him, and developed a covenant friendship with him? (p. 82)
3.Hosea 5:15 “I’ll go back to where I came from until they come to their senses. When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they’ll come looking for me.” (MSG) Have you ever had one of those moments. What lessons did you learn from it?
4.Is God calling you to pitch your tent and settle in at the bottom of the mountain? What is your attitude about what God is going to do during this season of your life? How do you handle this?
5.Believing God means believing when you don’t see any evidence. How do you continue to walk that path of belief when you continue to see no evidence of God’s work?
6.How do we as Christians find a balance between viewing God as The Almighty and as an intimate friend?
7.What quote or passage was the most meaningful to you in this week’s homework?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
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1. I continually try to focus on the faithfulness of God in my own life over the years and return to scriptures that show that God can do whatever HE desires, whenever HE desires.
ReplyDelete2. Especially during a season in my singleness God called me to a much deeper relationship with him. It called for all those things in my life. I knew that God was serious about changing my heart and the things that I was truly desiring. Over the last few months I've felt God moving me to another time of deep relationship with him over an issue. So, I'm camping at the mountain again....
3. I think in those moments God will just wait you out. You can throw all the temper tantrums you desire, and be in as much rebellion to him as you want. When you get tired of YOURSELF, then He is right there waiting.
4. WOW....this is right where I am at right now. I won't say that I always handle it with grace. Sometimes I have moments of weakness where I just break down, but other moments God continues to remind me of who HE IS, and WHAT HE can do!!
5. FAITH ....that's the only way to do. Return to the God of the impossible. EVERYday remind myself of who the God is that I serve. Surround myself with Godly people who also encourage and are walking the same roads of faith.
6. I think at different seasons of my life, my view of God has been different. As I've matured I've tried to keep a better balance of my view of him.
7. Your wilderness adventure is to bring you to remember what Christ did for you, acknowledge what HE currently is doing, and recommit to personal intimacy with Him. Lord help me to learn and do these things...it's my desire.
1. It is hard to keep my focus but I remember that God doesn't just have me in a situation for His fun. There is a reason I'm here.
ReplyDelete2. During our season of infertility I was really comforted by several scriptures and felt closer to God then ever before.
3. Yes, it took about a year of infertility before I realized it was not something I could change and realized God was teaching me something.
4. We have pitched our tent and are settled...maybe not willingly and maybe not without a fight. :) I'm determined to seek God and learn what He wants us to learn during this time that Cody does not have a job.
5. By faith. I know God will not abandon me and will not leave me camped out for no reason.
7. pg. 81 "God will do whatever it takes to keep our minds purposed on this goal (intimacy)-even if it means delaying the satisfaction of Canaan."
Michelle Confer...
ReplyDelete1. I think it helps to keep perspective when we know others are in the same boat of this waiting time as we are. We can find fellowship with other believers to be encouraging as we share our stories.
2. I am working at patience and slowing down to listen to what God is trying to tell me. This chapter challenged me to truly listen to what it is God wants me to hear Him say.
3. Yes, God taught me to see how gracious He is and how much love He has for us, regardless of what we do or think. His mercies are new every morning! His love never ceases.
4. Yes, like I said before, I tend to want to speed through the lessons and not cease the moment to reflect and be more intimate with the Lord. He wants me to chill and camp out, listening for His leading.
5. It’s like Heb. 11:1 that she quoted in the chapter. When we can’t trace His hand, we have to trust His heart. We know He is always working for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. We just have to cling to the hope that the word promises us.
6. Finding a balance between the holy God and the friend God is like adoring the creation He has created while praising Him in prayer. He is so big, yet comes to us in such small intimate ways to remind us He’s the God of all the earth, but He knows us by name and has counted every hair on our head. He is the Almighty God, yet at the same time, the gentle Savior.
7. “…Fully engage in this season of God’s chosen journey for you. Don’t leave your bags packed in hopes God will quickly move you to Canaan. Don’t miss out on what He wants to do “this very day”.”-p.89
1. It is so hard sometimes to focus on God when all I can think about is my "Canaan". One thing I try to do is remember. I try to remember other times in my life when I had wandered in the wilderness, finally reaching that promised land (such as in my time of singleness, then finding the man I married and love with all of my heart). He has always been faithful even when the journey took turns I didn't enjoy!
ReplyDelete2. I know I have mentioned it before but the adoptions (particularly the first one) and the time after we came home were very much my "mountain" experiences with God (or one of them). It was a time I had to just wait for Him to show Himself. And He always did. Just not at the times I expected!
3.Unfortunately, God has had to teach me that more than one time (which makes you wonder if I ever truly learned it in the first place!).
4.I have been wandering in the wilderness for a while. Not a wilderness of trials and tribulations (though there are those too) but rather wandering through the busyness of life. I know that I need to camp out. I need to pitch my tent at the base of the mountain and spend time just listening for His voice. That means slowing down a bit which is not easy! (Yet I don't want Him to break my legs so that I have to be carried either!)
5.Again, I have to rely completely on how He has proven Himself over and over. He shows me through evidence of His word that He keeps His promises. I also blog (almost nightly) and often I can look back at past entries, especially tough times, and see how God was working even when I couldn't tell it at the time. Like others have said, it is a walk of faith.
6.That is a big struggle to me. I think for me, the personal part comes from my daily walk with Him. Am I walking each day, taking time to listen to Him as well as share my heart? Yet each and every day we need to acknowledge who He is, by both praising Him for His character, His ways, and also by confessing, which reminds us how imperfect we are yet how perfect He is.
7.The image of the shepherd and His sheep, how He cares for His sheep, yet if He must, he will break the legs of the sheep to carry it until the sheep learns to totally depend on Him...ouch! What a reminder I need in my life. Am I willingly following my shepherd? Or will I have to be broken to do so?
1. I have a hard time with this one…I get my mind focused on something and I want it now! I try to keep searching his word and waiting but that is not always easy. I tend to get anxious and frustrated.
ReplyDelete2. My mountain of God came out of a heartache, a broken marriage. After the wilderness he brought me to the mountain top experience and it was because of that journey I know HIM more intimately and trust him more.
3. I think when I had one of those moments in my life I learned that Jesus was ALL I needed! He is, he truly is all I need.
4. I think I’m pitching my tent for a while right now in my life…. I’ve fought it for so long and it wasn’t until that lesson in Day 2 that I realized that is where God has me right now. I have been restless but after this week I know I have to pitch it right now and I pray that I have a glad heart while I fully engage in this season of God’s chosen journey for me.
5. I just have to take it one day at a time….I sure do like to see God show up. It helps my weak faith…oh I want to have a stronger faith to believe he will show up but in his time and not mine.
6. WE have to communicate with him, we have to read his word and know that he is KING over our lives and he deserves our worship!!! He does want to be our friend but he is due our love, our adoration, our praise and our respect! He is GOD!!
7.Friend, camp at this mountain with a glad heart. Despite the difficulty of the journey and all your questions in tow, fully engage in this season of God’s chosen journey for you.
april
Michelle Lee
ReplyDelete1. I usually find it helps to praise through song and prayer. I love to pull out the guitar and just have some time to pour out my heart....helps me to keep my focus on Him.
2. My "mountain of God" is a hiking trail where I love to go and have my quiet times. There are these big boulders that I can go sit on and I've often had "AHA" moments with God there. It's the place I go when I want to draw near to God.
3. I've had several rock bottom moments in my life, but I think the most significant one was when I was 20 years old and had just moved to the east coast. I was a Christian, but began hanging out with some people who were bad influences. I so desperately wanted to have friends in my new environment and be accepted. I lost sight of my ultimate need for God and was on a path that would have led to much pain I'm sure, but God brought me conviction one day as I was in church. I was moved by the sermon and ended up getting on my knees and repenting before God and asking Him to help me change my view on what it meant to be a Christian. Through the process I learned a lot about God's love and acceptance and it was the beginning of a lot of healing in my heart.
5. I try to call to remembrance instances where God has done a work in a friends life or in my own in the past. This helps to remind me of God's faithfulness even when my faith is seemingly weak.
6. By spending time in His word, living out His commands, and praying.
7. Deuteronomy 32:9-11 "The Lord's portion is His people, Jacob, His own inheritance. He found him in a desolate land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, cared for him, and guarded him as the apple of His eye. He watches over His nest like an eagle and hovers over His young: He spreads His wings, catches him, and lifts him up on His pinions." (Such a beautiful picture)
1. I think that talking it out and working out the day to day frustrations and reminding myself of all the times I did not understand until I "got there" and also those times I didn't understand even after I "got there". I also love to sing, read and talk about our ultimate "Caanan" in Heaven.
ReplyDelete2. When Steve and I were first married we moved within a year to KY for him to go to seminary. I thought I had acquired a great job when everything went wrong. As assistant supervisor of a children's home, I realized quickly that the owner was doing some very underhanded things. I left my job, but only to be followed by her atty who made amny threats on my integrity and character to keep me quiet. I was young, poor and scared to death. God provided a wonderful atty to help me and the supervisor pro bono and it all worked out. However, it was a long, dusty road and I spent much of the time on my knees begging for a way out. God met me there even though it did not always look like I wanted it to look.
3. In the wilderness of our lives, we must look very hard for the pillar and the cloud. Sometimes it feels like God withdraws completely, but He is simply "where He always has been". Rock bottom is an ugly place that God will go with us to, and pull us from, but not say with us in forever.
4. Definitely! Steve has been working on the mountain of his Doctorate for four years now. He is close to the pinnacle with his dissertation work going on this year. UGH!!! I have been camped out a long time and am so anxious and excited to move on.
5. There is always "evidence" of God. Sometimes we do not have the eyes to see. I beg for those eyes and I beg god t move me forward so that I cannot fall behind.
6. One practical way I do this is by attending the "Traditional" service at my church. In our home, we are very open and friendly with God and try to include Him in the good, bad and ugly. By attending the traditional service at this time in our lives, we stay in tune with the holiness of systematic worship, liturgy and hymns.
7. "God wants you to know His voice with confidence"...I have always struggled here. There hav e been times in my life I have thought I received a clear vision from God which turned out not to be like I thought I saw it. I also witnessed a leader in ministry who thought he saw a vision from God that turned out not to be so. I truly beilieve the visons were there, but the problem was in the interpretation. I struggle here. I am so eager to interpret what I "think" and in my time that I miss the blessing of the voice all together. Please Father give me more clarity as I seek to hear and follow you.