Thoughts and Prayers

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. – Isaiah 55:8-9    

God always wants to bring us closer to Him, yet we fall short because of our own vices. I have now finished both books of Samuel, and have begun to read 1 Kings. As I am still learning about God's faithfulness and our own ability to serve Him through the characters in these books, I have begun to pray more often for God to show me His own will for my life, so that I may follow it with ease. Yet, I suppose I am missing the point of these readings in the two books of Samuel, because David is given clear instructions to be king, yet he still finds a way to go against God's will. I suppose we cannot truly follow His will for us all the time, because of our own sin. Yet, God's grace allows us to start over every day and make draw closer to Him when we feel furthest away.

Lately, I have been less stressed about my job for a number of reasons, though I still have a cloud of frustration hanging over me. My thoughts get the best of me when I go to work, and I cannot seem to be satisfied with how things are run, how product is displayed, how the employees act, etc. It all brings me to a point where I seem to get irritated over minute details and lack trust in my coworkers to do their job properly. This frustration is something I do not want in my life and I have been trying to redirect those frustrations onto God, in my prayers that is. My thoughts and prayers are in constant battle when it comes time to pray in the morning; "I should just sleep in to get more rest, but I know God wants me to spend time with him" I think as I am praying. There are a lot of things I need to find a solution for at work, yet I only have an hour or so in the morning to be in prayer with God, so why do I need to worry about that now? I wish I could just sit down in the morning and be completely focused on God and be in prayer to hear His words for me, rather than my own grumblings. However, as I looked up a verse about God's way in our lives, the only verse that I was brought to was the one at the top, from Isaiah. We cannot know how God will work in us, yet we must continue to let Him turn our ongoing thoughts into clarity of His direction for us. We cannot find better advice from anything than the word of God. However, His thoughts and ways are not ours, so knowing when He is speaking to us is what we need to understand if we are to follow His will in our lives.

May God guide your thoughts and prayers so that you may have clarity, and peace, in His holiness.
Amen.