Lesson 1: Distinguishing God's Voice
See: Introduction to the lessons
One thing I've learnt over the time I've been ill is that people love to give advice! I know I'm the same. The advice I've had from people – mainly Christians – over the time I've been ill has mostly been fantastic and this post is not meant to be a dig in any way shape or form so please don't be offended! But here's the thing: the advice has sometimes varied. My wonderful, and well meaning, Christian friends have been ready with words of wisdom. But this has ranged from the (dubious) “God is smiting you” to “God's telling you to rest” to “God's in control, just trust that” and shades in between. More specifically, I've been told to eat properly, sleep lots, do nothing when I'm not sleeping, use the time for God's glory.
As I've said, this has all come from well meaning friends who just want to help, a desire to help that I know is borne out of a concern for me. I am humbled by that and extremely thankful to God for it. But. (Knew that was coming didn't you...?!)
But I found it hard in all this to distinguish what God was actually trying to say to me because sometimes the advice was different...and sometimes it contradicted what I felt to be the case. And so I guess the main lesson here is that whilst advice must be valued and good advice must be taken, I need to be listening first and foremost to God.
One thing I've learnt over the time I've been ill is that people love to give advice! I know I'm the same. The advice I've had from people – mainly Christians – over the time I've been ill has mostly been fantastic and this post is not meant to be a dig in any way shape or form so please don't be offended! But here's the thing: the advice has sometimes varied. My wonderful, and well meaning, Christian friends have been ready with words of wisdom. But this has ranged from the (dubious) “God is smiting you” to “God's telling you to rest” to “God's in control, just trust that” and shades in between. More specifically, I've been told to eat properly, sleep lots, do nothing when I'm not sleeping, use the time for God's glory.
As I've said, this has all come from well meaning friends who just want to help, a desire to help that I know is borne out of a concern for me. I am humbled by that and extremely thankful to God for it. But. (Knew that was coming didn't you...?!)
But I found it hard in all this to distinguish what God was actually trying to say to me because sometimes the advice was different...and sometimes it contradicted what I felt to be the case. And so I guess the main lesson here is that whilst advice must be valued and good advice must be taken, I need to be listening first and foremost to God.
posted by Welshie at 7:40 PM
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