Asking Gods Counsel

Why endeavoring to read the word through in a year by using those handy bible charts they hand out in January, I am reaching my goal. This year I chose to use the “Women’s Devotional Bible” and I am enjoying it tremendously. Every once in a while I will come across a devotion that I feel is just really good and so very true. That is the case with this one. So many times I get caught up in the affairs of life and, I take on too many responsibilities. It is during these times that my reading the word may fall behind, or I am just so tired at the end of the day that I give God an “I Love You Jesus!” for a goodnight prayer as oppose to really spending sometime developing my relationship with Him.

Hope you enjoy……

Asking God’s Counsel by Cynthia Heald

For me, obedience issues are related not so much t temptations to yield to evil as they are to struggles to do what I should. Procrastination, over commitment to activities, and not living my priorities are my battlefields in this area. James wrote “Anyone, the, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins” (James 4:17). Most of my temptations and testing involve a choice to engage in activities that although basically good in themselves, might come at the expense of my walk with God, my family or other responsibilities. Just as Eve was deceived into thinking that she would become wise by eating the fruit, so I am often misled into wrong choices because I think they are good.

Joshua at one time entered into a covenant of peace with the Gibeonites, although God had clearly instructed that they were to be conquered. Joshua and the elders were deceived by circumstances, and it is recorded in Joshua 9:14 that they “did not inquire of the Lord.”

If only Eve had sought the counsel of God. If only I would take time to ask God’s thoughts concerning my decisions. James wrote that if we lack wisdom when encountering trials and test in our lives, we should ask God for directions (see James 1:5). If I want to become a woman of excellence, I will take time to ask, listen and then act.