While chatting with a group of friends, a thought occurred to me.  We have a tough time trusting God oftentimes because of the relationships we have and have had with authority figures.  Our mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, teachers, pastors, etc, haven’t always done a good job of leading us in a manner that is Christ like, so we learn to be mistrustful.  Then, we transfer the transgressions of others onto God and become believers who don’t always quite believe God.  That’s sad.

One prayer that I recall praying early on, was that God would make Himself more real to me than any human being in front of me.  Where the Word says, “Let God’s Word be true and every man a liar.”, I want that to truly be the case for me, because God’s Word is most certainly The Truth.

My prayer for you this week is the same.  I pray that God is more real to you than any human or circumstance you face.  I pray that you learn to laugh in the face of adversity, knowing that there are far more for you than could ever be against you.  I pray that you, like God, have the ability to laugh heartily at your enemies, knowing that God knew each situation you’d face and provide for you in full, for that situation.  Our God is the most trustworthy Person ever.  My prayer is that we all sincerely know that, not just in our heads, but in our hearts in an experiential way.

Something else happened, which actually prompted me to write this blog post. From time to time, I gather my children and we practice sitting in God’s presence together.  We each hear from Him and share what we’ve heard, and sometimes, we end up prophesying over each other.  It’s nice.  I want to do my best to help foster an intimate relationship with the Lord for each of them.  I often tell them, they can’t live off of my faith.  They need their own relationship with Him.  To not have one, is to cheat oneself immeasurably.  To fool oneself into thinking, “I know God” when there really is no intimacy, is also doing oneself a colossal disservice to say the least.

This time, we each asked the Lord to either share what He wanted or each could ask about something specific.  When we shared, everyone got something really nice. Two girls got words about their future, regarding ambitions and/or goals they have.  The Lord gave one girl ideas on how to do what she is interested in, while the other, He totally had her think in another direction.  This made for a great discussion on how we can do things simply because it is what is expected of us, ie. graduate high school, you go to college.  Is this something that believers stop and ask God about?  Is that the path God truly has for a high school graduate?  Do many even bother to ask His thoughts? How does it feel to go against what others think you should be doing and follow God’s leading? We had a very good discussion about this.

Another girl got one word, an odd word, “cheesesticks”, lol.  We laughed and talked about how silly she is and how she is coming into “her thing” with God and how He speaks to her based on her personality.  We even delved into the interpretation and it was really good. (Too much to type here)

I got two words to start.  “Get Ready.”  Initially, I was smiling but when I heard those words, my smile faded.  I could also hear T. D. Jakes saying, “Get Ready, get ready, get ready!!” As I looked scared, the Lord began to speak to me saying, “Lighten up.  Stop thinking everything is so grave and negative.  I am your friend.  Real friends don’t burden friends with things they can’t handle.” I began to hear the song, “I am a friend of God” and just smiled.

I realize that religion has taught me that Gaawd- (I wish you could hear me say that) is super serious, mean and ready to strike when we mess up.  He might let all kinds of crazy things happen to you, He may even cause them, and you just have to deal.  Also, He’ll want you to go somewhere and/or do some thing that is not only of no interest to you, but something you actually dread. This is not true.  God is good, kind, loving, thoughtful, full of mercy and wisdom.  He calls us friend and loves us immensely.  My prayer is that we are able to put to rest all ill conceived notions and truly know Him.  He is good.