Respect the Restraining
Have you ever felt paralyzed? By this, I mean you feel unable to move forward in a certain area in which a decision needs to be made. It's as if God's hand is actually stopping you for a purpose that only He knows about. I'm not talking about Him removing one's will, but perhaps restraining it. A person could go against this restraining, but it would take effort and great resistance to do so, and all peace would go.
At what times might God do something like this? And for what reasons? Using parents and their adopted adult daughter as an analogy who thinks she wants to meet her birth mother: the parents know that the mother is a drug addict and a prostitute, but has kept this upsetting information from her. By meeting her, they know their daughter would be disturbed, maybe even depressed or worse, to find out the truth. Because they know their daughter's sensitivities, they don't want her to have this meeting, but she is an adult and it is her decision to make.
When the child asks their opinion, the parents caution her not to go, but won't say why. They tell her there are things about the mother that would upset her, and strongly advise against it. The daughter has learned to trust her parents, and because she knows they are sharing these cautions out of their love for her, she respects them, and decides not to have this meeting. On one hand, she "thinks" she wants to, but on the other hand, she listens to and "obeys" the advice of her trusting parents who she loves very much.
There are things only God knows about the circumstances of our lives that we don't. Whenever we feel "paralyzed" to go forward in a situation, it may be because of a "grace barrier" of God on our behalf. Letting this barrier have it's way in our lives, even though sometimes we don't know the what and the why of it, can save us from being hurt. If we learn to heed to this resistance of God on our behalf, and don't try and go against it for our own reasons, it will protect us. This is but another way of trusting and respecting God's love and care for us, and of walking by faith.
Sometimes, we are not yet mature enough to know the truth. Later, though, in God's maturing process of us, we then become able to know it. If so, (and only God knows this about us) He may show us what He had formerly protected us from. We then see why He had "paralyzed" us, and will thank Him for it, with our eyes now being opened.
The unseen Hand of God on the inside of us is mysterious and wonderful. He restrains us in ways we don't even know at times. If our heart's desire is to follow Him truly, when we sense this restraining, we will be wise and respect it by not resisting it. That may mean not making a decision, until we feel it's release.
"For in Him we live and move and have our being."-Acts 17:28a
At what times might God do something like this? And for what reasons? Using parents and their adopted adult daughter as an analogy who thinks she wants to meet her birth mother: the parents know that the mother is a drug addict and a prostitute, but has kept this upsetting information from her. By meeting her, they know their daughter would be disturbed, maybe even depressed or worse, to find out the truth. Because they know their daughter's sensitivities, they don't want her to have this meeting, but she is an adult and it is her decision to make.
When the child asks their opinion, the parents caution her not to go, but won't say why. They tell her there are things about the mother that would upset her, and strongly advise against it. The daughter has learned to trust her parents, and because she knows they are sharing these cautions out of their love for her, she respects them, and decides not to have this meeting. On one hand, she "thinks" she wants to, but on the other hand, she listens to and "obeys" the advice of her trusting parents who she loves very much.
There are things only God knows about the circumstances of our lives that we don't. Whenever we feel "paralyzed" to go forward in a situation, it may be because of a "grace barrier" of God on our behalf. Letting this barrier have it's way in our lives, even though sometimes we don't know the what and the why of it, can save us from being hurt. If we learn to heed to this resistance of God on our behalf, and don't try and go against it for our own reasons, it will protect us. This is but another way of trusting and respecting God's love and care for us, and of walking by faith.
Sometimes, we are not yet mature enough to know the truth. Later, though, in God's maturing process of us, we then become able to know it. If so, (and only God knows this about us) He may show us what He had formerly protected us from. We then see why He had "paralyzed" us, and will thank Him for it, with our eyes now being opened.
The unseen Hand of God on the inside of us is mysterious and wonderful. He restrains us in ways we don't even know at times. If our heart's desire is to follow Him truly, when we sense this restraining, we will be wise and respect it by not resisting it. That may mean not making a decision, until we feel it's release.
"For in Him we live and move and have our being."-Acts 17:28a
posted by Patti Blount @ 8:19 AM
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