Holy Spirit Central
Self Examinations
Throughout my existance, I have been training myself to look for the strange and random things in life. I believe that on occasion, The Lord shows us unusual, random, and phemominal things to not only get our attention, but to teach us things. Below are some examples of this that I have experienced in my personal life, and that have either guided in the direction that I should be going as a Christian, or that have taught me something new:
What Happened:
So today is Sunday and I was sitting in church. The time came where the offering plate was passed around, and I just happened to remember at that very moment that I had no money in my pocket. I often do forget to bring in my offering, and many times make it all up at the end of the month or the next week. I thought nothing unusual about this, until for absolutely no reason, an elderly woman that sits behind my brother and I tapped my brother on the shoulder and actually asked him where her money was! My brother was completely confused, and looked all over before realizing that she said it for no apparent reason! I just about jumped out of my seat! The offering plate had not even been passed to us yet, and for some reason this woman randomly said this. Now she was quite "up there" age wise, and has been known to recently been saying a lot of strange things, and despite this being said to my brother, I felt it was a direct message to me. I almost felt like I was being given a message from The Lord through this woman, asking me where my contribution to his house was! If she would have said this in a joking manner, or even snickered a little bit after asking my brother, I wouldn't have thought twice. However she was serious as stone, and only asked once. She then completely ignored us and went back to paying attention to the service.Analysis:
After this happened, I quickly learned that God may speak to us quite directly through others at times. I learned that I should be training myself to give every week, as my current method of "making up" for the offering I had forgotten often left me forgetting how much I gave and when I gave. I'm sure that many times I have not given 10 percent of my income to The Lord, simply because I am not sticking to a strict schedule and training myself to remember to give each and every week.
What Happened:
So today is the day that I attended (not by my choice) my local government's Jury Selection duty. The way my local government selects jurors is by sending a court summons to about 120 people, and then everyone is brought together. This was to be a three day process that I would be missing quite a bit of work by going to (which I didn't mind). How it works is, the judge and his assistants choose a group out of 120 people randomly, and then the attorneys choose an even SMALLER group (by questioning) out of that group to serve on the jury. This was my first time doing anything like it, and to be quite honest with you, I wasnt sure what to do or how to answer questions a lot of times. I listened intently and didn't really do anything too embarassing, but I found myself constantly praying: "Lord, whatever happens, let it be your will and not mine." I continued to pray this each time I was pulled into the first small group. I was isolated from the 120 other potential jurors three times, and I found myself getting more nervous each time. I realized that I really did not want to be in the final jury on any of these cases, and was selfishly asking God to disclude me from them and have the attorneys choose other jurors. Miraculously, I was not chosen for one case, and was quite pleased (I appologized to God for my selfishness). Immediately the judge informed us that the whole process moved along quite quicker than he expected, and that we were finished and would not need to come back for the next two days. This made me overjoyed, as I immediately decided that since I called off for three days of work, I would use the next two as vacation days and not tell anyone. I was planning to do this EVEN THOUGH we were in quite a fix and had to work mandatory overtime. I then thought to myself: "Wait a minute, The Lord just answered your prayers, and you are about to lie just so you can have a little more free time. What are you doing?! You owe him one. Go to work!"... and so I did!Analysis:
The main thing that I have learned from this experience is that God will reward you, even when you do not even remotely deserve it. You should reward him back just as well. Surely, there is no gift large or miraculous enough to have even an ounce of worth in God's eyes, but what little in life that we CAN do for him, we should! Even if you decide to not tell a little white lie, God will notice!
When you read each of these instances, you might say: "Well, you really can turn any strange coincidance into some type of lesson to yourself, it doesent really mean it is a direct message from The Lord does it?". Well to answer this I would say to you: I believe that God sends us messages at times, and many times we may miss them. Some of the above examples may not have been interpreted correctly by myself, or may not have even been a message at all, but regardless of all of that, each one has improved me further as a person!
Try it!
During a typical day, look for signs of The Lord's guidance. Many times you may not understand what God is trying to get across to you, but when you do make connections, you may be suprised!
