Leaning Confidently  

Seeking His Will for our lives should be easy, right? I mean, it is clear in the Word of God exactly what we need to do. Live by faith.

There are no blurred lines before us as we take in the promises that are alive and powerful, and yet … we waver. We hold back. We question. We stumble.

It is one more reminder that we are human ; we need His grace and mercy. We need to lean confidently upon God to set our feet sure and steady on the path ahead.

Though still I wonder, why we stumble, question, and waver in our diligent pursuit. We are made in the image of the most High God, El Elyon is His name.

Do you know, child of God, that you are filled with the same power that resurrected Christ from the dead? Why do you doubt? Why are you distressed? Why do you allow fear to rule you rather than the peace that passes all understanding?

I ask myself these  questions often. 

Although I know the truth, I allow myself to see the temporal rather than the eternal. I gaze past the hope  which should reside within this recreated heart inside, to the fickle that has no foundation.

We have the weapons to fight courageously.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 tells us that though we walk in the flesh we do not war in the flesh. The weapons that we use to fight, they are not carnal weapons, but mighty in power through the Spirit of the living God, capable of pulling down strongholds. We are commanded to cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of the most High God within us and bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

• Those thoughts you had today, the ones that tell you don’t have the qualifications for that dream He has put in your heart. Take them captive and lean confidently on God.
• Those things we know, that we tell others to do, we have to take our own advice and lean confidently on God. 
• Those words you heard someone else whisper, don’t believe them… they aren’t the truth, take them to the Lord and lean confidently in Him.

Sometimes  the level of faith in myself (translate also… confidence in God to work through me) is my biggest hurdle.  Way too often, I have allowed my lack of confidence to limit forward direction, instead I often initiate a back-peddling motion.  I start questioning whether I heard Him correctly, determining I made it all up myself  or I really meant to do something different.

I hesitate because instead of listening to truth, I hear the voices of doubt and disbelief, judgement and jealousy, fear and lack.

I found myself pondering abilities today, thinking how easily we get caught up in what we can, should, and are capable of doing rather than fully relying upon His sufficiency as our source.  As usual I found myself parked in the book of Psalms for inspiration.  Will you join me as we journey through His Word together?

Be merciful and gracious to me, O God, for man would trample me or devour me;

all the day long the adversary oppresses me.

They that lie in wait for me would swallow me up or trample me all day long,

 for they are many who fight against me, O Most High!

What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You.

By [the help of] God I will praise His word; on God I lean, rely, and confidently put my trust;

I will not fear. What can man, who is flesh, do to me?

All day long they twist my words and trouble my affairs;

all their thoughts are against me for evil and my hurt.

They gather themselves together, they hide themselves,

 they watch my steps, even as they have [expectantly] waited for my life.

They think to escape with iniquity, and shall they?

In Your indignation bring down the peoples, O God.

You number and record my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle

– are they not in Your book?

Then shall my enemies turn back in the day that I cry out; this I know, for God is for me.

In God, Whose word I praise, in the Lord, Whose word I praise.

In God have I put my trust and confidence reliance; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

Your vows are upon me, O God; I will render praise to You and give You thank offerings.

For You have delivered my life from death, yes, and my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life and of the living.

Psalm 56 – amplified version ( bold emphasis mine)

It is by His help that we praise, lean, rely and confidently trust in God. Because he delivers us, we walk before Him in the light of life and of the living.

He meets us, always, in our insufficiency and fills us with His own. In the moments when I am questioning the path I am on, looking to my own ability, He reminds me that it is always through Him that I will conquer and overcome.  We were never meant to figure it out on our own. We will never be required to meet the issue in our own ability and provision.

He is the source of our ability and author of our success. Proverbs 18:16 tells us that the gifts of God in us bring us before great men. So, if this is the Truth, then what keeps us from stepping out in faith and into our destiny? In the words of the Psalmist, “What can man do?”

Are you letting the words, opinions, and confessions of others keep you from the destiny God has called you to? Friends, we need to lean away from the temptation to let others define us and lean confidently in the complete provision of the Father.

This leaning is the completing process.

My word for this year is lean. Each moment I have found myself questioning the immediate, He graciously reminds me of my future. I am to put all my trust, all my confidence, all my reliance upon the only One who completes me. ( Phil 1:6) And friends, this leaning… this purging away all the things that are snares upon our feet, this is our completing process.

Are you being called to step out in faith? Are you questioning what He has given you to complete? What is it going to take to help you lean confidently upon His faithful promises, upon Him?

Will you lean confidently with me?

I’d love to pray for you as you lean upon Him. Please feel free to share a prayer request below or email  me at dawnboyer@journeysingrace.com

Praying for His grace as you journey nearer to His heart!

Blessings,

Journeying with friends this weekend:

Still Saturday, The Weekend Brew, Recommendation Saturday, Give Me Grace, Sunday Stillness

The Winner of the  Pure Eyes Clean Heart Book  was Kathleen  who writes at  Kath Ink. You can find her here. Congratulations Kathleen!