When He was alone…the twelve asked Him about the parable. —Mark 4:10
His Solitude with Us. When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted desires, a broken friendship, or a new friendship— when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us. Notice Jesus Christ’s training of the Twelve. It was the disciples, not the crowd outside, who were confused. His disciples constantly asked Him questions, and He constantly explained things to them, but they didn’t understand until after they received the Holy Spirit (see John 14:26).
As you journey with God, the only thing He intends to be clear is the way He deals with your soul. The sorrows and difficulties in the lives of others will be absolutely confusing to you. We think we understand another person’s struggle until God reveals the same shortcomings in our lives. There are vast areas of stubbornness and ignorance the Holy Spirit has to reveal in each of us, but it can only be done when Jesus gets us alone. Are we alone with Him now? Or are we more concerned with our own ideas, friendships, and cares for our bodies? Jesus cannot teach us anything until we quiet all our intellectual questions and get alone with Him.
Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord
It is true that the busyness of life shouts so loud that I dont hear you. Also when I come to a situation with a pre loaded emotion or a jump to a quick reaction… it seems to shut down my ability to hear what you were going to say. As Oswald says, you will wait until I calm down to speak, or maybe even engineer some circumstances to slow me down, so we can speak. From this point of clarity, it seems like it would really be good if I could get to that quiet place more easily and more often … maybe even live there.
You are right. It is the life lesson. It’s what I’ve been saying to you about living connected. The lessons can be learned the easy way or the hard way, it’s up to you.
Proverbs 13:15 Good understanding gives favor: but the way of transgressors is hard.
I’m sitting back and staying curious. To see what you will choose, to see how well you stay connected and how you live out of that connection.
Well, I can see that it’s a better life when it’s a connected Christ like life. I guess some of that old stuff… worry, fear, self centeredness, doesn’t drop off as easily by just becoming aware of it and will power. So we wind up needing “circumstances?”
Pretty much. But you still choose your response to the circumstances of life. You have seen some come closer and some push away when faced with the same circumstance. You can also weather a storm with connection or without. You choose.
I choose life. And Connection. And please help me when I dont.
Good choice. I will.
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