Soul Sister Time

              One of the trickiest parts of knowing and doing God’s will is when it comes to the details that are not spelled out in Scripture.  We know it is God’s will that we forgive others as we have been forgiven.  We know it is God’s will that we tell others that God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins.  We know it is God’s will to be humble, patient, loving, kind.  But there are times when we think we hear God tell us to do something specific or maybe even weird.  How do we know for sure that we are hearing from God in that case?               This issue came up for me recently in a mini-crisis I experienced.  On a very hot August afternoon, my car broke down and died on the side of the road.  I was in a panic, praying to get off the major freeway without being killed.  I can see now how perfectly God answered that prayer.  The place my car completely stalled was actually a good place that would not cause an accident (although it was inconvenient for drivers) and

              As you know I have been teaching the book Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.  Our class came to the third letter that was written to Soldier.  Brother Lawrence told the Soldier to carry out his duty as a guard with God.  He told him that no one else would notice and that the mundane duty of marching back and forth between the gate he guarded was the perfect way to keep his mind on being in God’s presence.               I wanted to ask my class to find a task to do with God so I decided to purposefully practice God’s presence during a mundane task.  It was early in the morning, and I really wanted to paint my toenails.  It had been a while since they had been painted because of my foot surgery.  I invited God to be with me as I painted my nails, a task I had never done before while conscious of God’s presence.    I was ready for a different color, and I saw my toenails in desperate need of attention.  I went outside on the patio to carry out my task

              I feel I spend half my life encouraging others to develop spiritual disciplines.  I have quite a few that are firmly established.  I never realized that my own spiritual disciplines could become detached from God until I followed the Holy Spirit’s leading recently.  It was very revealing and so good for my soul.               I was led to develop a class around spiritual disciplines that have had a great impact on the women and men who have gone through the class.  In the class, they are introduced to the Christian Classics, have an overview of the entire Bible and are asked to try out a spiritual discipline for a week.  After the class is completed they write a rule of life, choosing the spiritual disciplines that help them remain most connected to God.  It’s not the class itself that has the impact.  It is the time, place, persons that God calls to meet together to become a community of spiritual of transformation through the Holy Spirit.  I have taught this class

              Prayer is a mystery.  It is through prayer that I live most days in peace.  Without prayer, I get stuck repeatedly obsessing and emotionally reacting to the many wrongs that are a part of my daily life.  It’s the little things that take away my peace and focus on prayer.  It’s only when I have myself all worked up that I notice I have not been in touch with God about that situation. But the bigger issues in my life—the ones I know I have absolutely no control over—those I daily commit to prayer and rarely take them back after they have been fully turned over to God mainly because the prayer subject is way too much for me to devise a plan to fix.               Recently, I received an answer I did not like at all to one of these huge prayer commitments.  I mean I had done everything right.  I accepted that I was not in control.  I accepted that only the Lord of God the God Almighty knew what was best.  When I got the answer “No,” it devastated my soul.  I was just so s