Do you ever pray and say Amen with the thought lurking, "I wonder if God heard me?"
How often do you say, "I don't hear Him? I ask, and I ask God for even a smidgeon of a sign or word, and still, it's crickets."
Today, we began our day once again "reviewing" the rising of old conflicts this past week that still confounds us as we give them to God over and over. We decided to put it on hold and served ourselves tea and coffee while reading the bible verse of the day, following up with the next reading in the Bible, which happened to be 1 Corinthians 10. Honestly, at the time of this reading, nothing really stood out and jumped at me. And that's okay, as sometimes God works in stealth mode.
And then we each prayed to Jesus out loud, sitting together but separately. We each listed what was bugging us and, in turn, thanked God for each of the troubles as well. First, I prayed, and then my husband prayed. Our prayers were similar but different, but the needed results matched up well. After a few moments, my husband said, "As I was praying, I saw a young black cat out the window climbing high up in the tree. Maybe 20 feet. And then I watched it fall to the ground, get up and run off. Odd right? What do you suppose that was about?" I simply said, "Think about it." I wasn't being stubborn but obedient, and I also wondered myself as we rarely have any cats in our yard. God has tweaked my path lately in my mentoring a bit to cause others to think rather than just give them the answer.
And so he did think about what he just saw. Within seconds he said, "What we were praying about, what has been oppressing us, just literally left." Yep! Ding! Ding! Ding! Woot Jesus! I said on the inside. On the outside, I only said, "See? You do recognize God."
One of the conflicts we had had... was over politics. For us, one being a type A and the other being a type B and one on this side of politics and the other on the other side, we long ago resolved this issue by the leadings of the story, The Gift of the Maji, where the wife cut and sold her long beautiful hair that she took great pride in to buy her husband a beautiful gold chain for his prized pocket watch only to find out her he sold his pocket watch to buy a comb for her hair... Selfless.
And then someone came over and stirred the pot and wished to debate politics... it was nipped quickly and efficiently with a side dose of passing along this story as to why. God will take that seed and will cause it to bloom.
And then again, God made Himself clear... He spoke... through the Bible this time and not a black cat...
31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
33 Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
God is the only truth. And He recorded it for our benefit in the Bible. "Give none offence..." Not over anything. Every single word we speak outside of the Bible... is only an opinion... and you know what they say about opinions. ;)
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