Simplicity, Stark Shadow by Holly Cawfield
There are days when it just seems as if the clarity of the path ahead has been shrouded in fog. The still, small voice of the Lord doesn’t seem to make any sense or isn’t at all clear. It’s particularly frustrating when only a day or two earlier it was crystal clear.
Days like this do come along and how we react tells us a lot about how much rebellion still remains in the heart. Perhaps you can tell I’m having just that kind of day….well, actually two days.
What’s especially interesting when a time like this comes along is the way the Lord will speak even though it might not be in the way we hope or expect. Only this morning an email to which I regularly subscribe showed up with the following bit of wisdom:
I have spoken very clearly to you in days past and directed your steps with surety. My words to you, both written and prophetic, have been a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. If it seems you cannot see clearly at this time, or that you have lost your way, go back to what you know to be the truth.
Go back to the place spiritually where your direction was certain, and regain your perspective and clarity. Many things have happened to create doubt and confusion, but My presence with you is still absolutely indisputable, says the Lord.
Psalms 119:105 -- Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
(Marsha Burns www. ft111.com)
Good advice but surprisingly difficult to take when everything within wants to run ahead to the next thing. However, it’s always been wisdom when the path ahead isn’t clear to simply continue on in obedience to the last thing you felt the Lord telling you to do. And then wait. The wind will change and bring clear air again. It always does.
Then, as if it wasn’t enough to have a bit of wisdom arrive via email a page fell out of my Bible. I have one Bible that I tape all kinds of bits and pieces into--things I’ve read that I’ve found particularly helpful at one time or another--and what fell out of it today? This, from Oswald Chambers’ devotional book, My Utmost For His Highest:
Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion.
If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your "arguments and . . . every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you . Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing.
Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment.
This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.
Hmmm....sounds like the Lord is speaking quite clearly after all and today is just a “KISS” kind of day.
K - Keep
I - It
S - Simple
S - Stupid
Just obey.
Holly
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