As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.Whenever our right becomes the guiding factor of our lives, it dulls our spiritual insight. The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the best. In this passage, it would seem that the wisest thing in the world for Abram to do would be to choose. It was his right, and the people around him would consider him to be a fool for not choosing.Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice for us. We have to learn to walk according to the standard which has its eyes focused on God. And God says to us, as He did to Abram, “…walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1)._________________________________________________________May 25 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, how do we know when we are chasing the good at the expense of the best? When we are waiting on an answer and our wants and/or needs seem to take up all of our consciousness? When I am waiting on Your response Lord, it is very easy for the good to seem like the best because it is so much better than the status quo. How can we know to say NO to what appears to be a good answer to prayer when we should be waiting on the best answer? And when we are in the middle of a test or trial, how can we know that the answers that seem to provide rescue are not really a rescue at all? How can we bypass the good and wait on Your best?

And God says…” My sheep know My voice….and when they are surrendered, connected and curious, they know when I am responding.  When you are focused on Me and not the outcomes to your prayers,  you will know My voice and  My answers to your requests. When you are practiced and accustomed to hearing my voice, you immediately know when I am or am not providing the answers and rescue you require. When you are surrendered, connected and curious, waiting on my answers (Those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.) I will never disappoint you. The answers may not seem to be the answers you were/are waiting for, but you will know when they are from Me. Simply be surrendered, connected and curious, and remember that I am God, My ways are not your ways, and you may not understand how or why I am answering as I do.  Go to your “Holy of Holies”…your place of intimate prayer and connection with Me, and listen for my still small voice. Recall that all things work for good for those that love the Lord. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, do not rely on your own ways and means of securing answers to your prayers, and I will provide the answers you need. I will make your paths straight.”