{"id":7548,"date":"2012-09-12T05:29:09","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T13:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wordpress\/?p=7548"},"modified":"2012-09-12T06:10:52","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T14:10:52","slug":"going-through-spiritual-confusion-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=7548","title":{"rendered":"Going Through Spiritual Confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Jesus answered and said, \u2019You do not know what you ask\u2019 \u2014<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=31&amp;search=Matthew+20%3A22\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 20:22<\/a><\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wtSKzHxVqxQ\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<section>There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand. And it is only by going through the spiritual confusion that you will come to the understanding of what God wants for you.<\/section>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Shrouding of His Friendship<\/strong> (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+11:5-8\">Luke 11:5-8<\/a>). Jesus gave the illustration here of a man who appears not to care for his friend. He was saying, in effect, that is how the heavenly Father will appear to you at times. You will think that He is an unkind friend, but remember?He is not. The time will come when everything will be explained. There seems to be a cloud on the friendship of the heart, and often even love itself has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller fellowship and oneness. When God appears to be completely shrouded, will you hang on with confidence in Him?<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Shadow on His Fatherhood<\/strong> (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+11:11-13\">Luke 11:11-13<\/a>). Jesus said that there are times when your Father will appear as if He were an unnatural father?as if He were callous and indifferent\u2014 but remember, He is not. \u201cEveryone who asks receives . . .\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+11:10\">Luke 11:10<\/a>). If all you see is a shadow on the face of the Father right now, hang on to the fact that He will ultimately give you clear understanding and will fully justify Himself in everything that He has allowed into your life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Strangeness of His Faithfulness<\/strong> (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+18:1-8\">Luke 18:1-8<\/a>). \u201cWhen the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Luke+18:8\">Luke 18:8<\/a>). Will He find the kind of faith that counts on Him in spite of the confusion? Stand firm in faith, believing that what Jesus said is true, although in the meantime you do not understand what God is doing. He has bigger issues at stake than the particular things you are asking of Him right now.<\/p>\n<p>__________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p>September 12, 2011 (Journal entry from last year)<\/p>\n<p>There are times Lord when I have absolutely no idea what is going on. Just like the devotional says, I am confused and it does not make any sense to me\u2026right now. But I am learning Lord that things do not always have to make\u00a0 sense. Circumstances in my life and the world may not make sense to me, but I am learning to trust you regardless. Now I understand how patience has its perfect reward\u2026that is my faith has become stronger even though my\u00a0 circumstances may remain the same.<\/p>\n<p><em>And God says&#8230;\u201dTrusting in Me is not a natural response even for believers. Trust in Me is a supernatural response that can require development over time. Remember that nothing can ever separate you from My love, and that all things work together for your good\u2026regardless of how you may interpret them. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, and I will make your paths straight. And ask Me for wisdom and understanding and trust Me to meet all Your needs including the need for a stronger faith.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus answered and said, \u2019You do not know what you ask\u2019 \u2014Matthew 20:22 There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7548"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7548"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7555,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7548\/revisions\/7555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}