Doorways of Hope

Jehovah Jireh: God provides. How we long to fling open doorways of hope and see the fulfillment of our deep longings on our time frame! Life does not always unfold as we wish, and we will face indecision and stop in our tracks, in our weakness; but we have a sure companion in the person of the Spirit as we approach closed doors and open windows. 
  
There are times when we do not know what to do....or even what to pray. We may feel the answer is locked behind a door and we have no key. 

It is then that we should toss the script.

Stop our habitual, circuitous methods of trying to make it happen our way.

Throw away the tired prayers for our will be done--because if we are being honest, we usually have a plan in our back pocket and are ready to tell God just how to make it come about--and come to the place of saying I just don't know what to do. I thought I knew but I don't anymore.

When the illusion of what-we-once-thought falls away, we have the chance to get good purchase on a clean foundation and establish our footing. We get grounded in a new beginning. And the Spirit helps us in our weakness because we've come clean that we're not in charge anymore. We can be entirely honest that we don't have to have the answers.

We give thanks that the Spirit intercedes for us with more-than-words. More-than-words--those groanings that surpass the limits of our language when we suffer through anxious searching.

And we practice giving thanks.

We don't wait until the anxious hour is over to give thanks, but we thank God already in the midst of turmoil for what God is doing in our lives for our good and for his glory. And even in the writing of it, I wonder: is this really possible? But I have seen it done. It may be hard, yes. But impossible? No. 

And yet, it is precisely in the giving thanks that we remember God is Present. 

I have been living with a fresh awareness of this truth for over two years, especially after Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts.

It is in drawing closer to God's Presence that we know the truth of the promises that God will never leave us nor forsake us. That we are known and loved...and that it is enough. More than enough.

So when we pray at the invitation of others who seek guidance and when we need direction ourselves, we can lay aside the heavy burden that we need to generate the answer from our own skills bank. Accept the gift of the Spirit who intercedes for us.

Jehovah Jireh: God provides.