God Direct Me

         “Return to the LORD, your God, for he is gracious and compassionate…and abounding in love…” (Joel 2:13)

         God is gracious, compassionate and abounding in love. That’s why it’s important to return to, become aware of, stay aware of, the Presence of God. OK, if we’re not already there, or we’ve forgotten, what’s the first step in returning our awareness to God?

         I suggest saying, “God direct me.”

         With God’s help, there is ever-expanding good in your life.

         Now let’s just stop here a moment and clarify some possible unconscious misunderstanding: “With God’s help sounds like God is outside of us… someone who’s going to fix some sort of problem like a plumber fixes a leaky pipe.

         The idea of “God’s help,” I believe, is better understood as allowing ourselves to be directed by divine truth, as best we understand it and have practiced it. Doing so will change our lives for the better.

         God’s Power is present in every one of us. We must allow it to move, and we must be ready to move and change if necessary… i.e. do something differently!

         Here is a story about a woman born in St. Louis, MO. I think you know her when I tell you her name.

         She described herself as a “born loser.” Born into poverty, born into a broken family, she was raped at age seven by her mother’s boyfriend.

         She told no adult, but did tell her brother that she wished the man were dead. Found dead the next day, the little girl, thinking that her words had killed him, chose not to speak for the next five and a half years!

         At some point the family moved to California. At age 16 she became an unwed mother and now had to fend for herself and her child. She worked as a dancer, cocktail waitress, Creole cook, nightclub singer before eventually becoming the first black female street-car conductor in San Francisco.

         It was about this time that she decided that if her life was going to get better she had to take a part in changing her life. She realized that neither the past nor the present determined her future.

         This is a truth that we, too, must realize.

         She had to grasp those proverbial bootstraps, pull herself up, and tell herself that she could be created anew with God’s loving help.

         God Direct me.

         Pulling ourselves up when we have fallen is something a lot of people choose not to do. Some people face a crisis and they decide it will never get better; their past has been a crisis, their present is in crisis and therefore that determines the whole future of their lives… and then it becomes a recurring theme in their lives.

         The idea that we cannot change our lives is a human lie we tell ourselves.

         Invite god into your life. In other words, live according to your highest understanding of divine truth… and be ready. Be ready to think and act differently… to have a different experience.

         This woman decided that, with God, she could turn her life around. She started to study spiritual things. She started to fill her mind with possibilities instead of limitations.

         When you are stuck are you ready to learn? Are you ready to start to feed your mind with possibilities instead of the same old reinforcing ideas of limitation, and then act on those possibilities?

         This woman unlimited herself, and eventually became a professor at wake forest University!

         You will know whom I’m speaking about when I tell you that in 1992, this woman, who is very, very distinguished, stood in front of the Capitol of United States to read poetry for President Clinton’s inaugural: Dr. Maya Angelou.

         My Angelou field over and over again at life and then with God’s direction moved beyond her limitations.

         In the Sermon on the Mount (MT 5:14) Jesus says that, “You are the light of the world.” He doesn’t say that you are a faceless, unimportant, ho-hum member of humanity, a born loser, but YOU are the light (the expressed truth) of the world!

         When you are attached to God, really attached, when you really follow Jesus Christ, you do not just read about Him, you take on His teachings inside of you, and you make a difference right where you are-in your family, in your business, in your service to mankind because you have made a difference in your heart by being willing to let God Direct you.

         We need to believe in bigger possibilities, not just as individuals, but as nations and humanity.

         No matter what we face in life, God is bigger than our problems! Don’t tell God about your big problems; tell your problems about big God!

         There is not one of us in here, who has not faced a mountain in our life that was so big and so seemingly powerful that we didn’t know how to get around it. The important thing is to keep on climbing, but don’t try climbing alone. God is there holding the rope. You do what is possible, and God will do the impossible. You have a big God that is bigger than your problem, a God who can help in you and through you.

         In the Bible it says that God defeats your enemies.

         In Deuteronomy 23:14 the Bible states, “For the Lord your God is walking among your places of dwelling, to keep you safe and to give up into your hands your enemies who are fighting against you…”

         A failure or a loss can seem to be your enemy. After you have failed at something or suffered a big loss, after you have had a big mountain come into your life, do you know what your greatest enemy is? It’s not the event. It’s your negative thoughts about the event and your negative self-talk about your self.  It becomes your enemy when your negative self-talk keeps on daily, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, year by year, even decade by decade. It will keep defeating you…if you let it.

         There comes a time when you have to pick yourself up and dust yourself off, and stand tall because you are a child of God; you are the light of the world, you are the truth in expression in the world, you are the hands and feet of God in the world.

         Here’s one last story to illustrate the point about our thoughts being our enemy and how letting God directives made a difference.

         This is a true story, it was told to me by the person to whom it happened. Her name is Muriel. Muriel and her husband had been separated and intending to obtain a divorce for couple of years. Muriel said she could hardly stand to speak to her husband. When he would call it would deteriorate into a shouting match of insults and anger.

         Muriel told me she wanted to get the divorce settled, and she wanted God to direct her to be able to have a productive conversation but she was stuck in this eddy and couldn’t get free of it; her husband in attack mode, she would also tighten up and become angry, too, whenever they spoke on the phone.

         Muriel wanted God to direct her but she would forget that every time she saw her husband’s name on the caller ID of her phone. Then she did something genius. (Actually God gave her the idea) She went into the contacts list on her phone and changed the caller ID on his name to say, “God direct me” so that each time he called she saw those words on her phone just before she answered it. She says that calmed her down, and after just a couple of more phone calls from her husband he called to say, “look, why don’t we stop fighting and just get this settled” which is exactly what they did.

         When you do that, let God to direct you, all power, which is already in you, placed there by God, moves through you. And not just through you but through the situation at large.

         You may be urged to pull your self up by your bootstraps into the many things necessary to change your life and move forward to an experience you never imagined just as Dr. Angelou did, or perhaps you just let your defenses down and your immediate struggle smoothes itself out to resolution as it did with Muriel and her husband.

         If you are willing (willing is important in spiritual growth), I invite you to let "God, direct me" be your mantra, your guiding idea this week. You can put that as a message on your screen saver or you can change the caller ID on your phone. If there is someone with whom you struggle, you can change their contact name in your email if you have a charged relationship with them. You can write, “God direct me” on a 3 x 5 card and post somewhere where you’ll see it regularly like your desk, your mirror, the steering wheel of your car, even your sock drawer! Put a rubber band around your wrist with the intention to think of that each time you see it. Work up some other creative ideas for yourself.

         God is bigger than your problems!

         Let God direct you - participate in the changing of your life.

         Let me conclude today’s message by saying, “I love you and I bless you for the goodness of God at work in you now.”

Thank you.