I need answers.
I think we all have that area in our lives that needs to be clarified, straightened out, explained. I remember one time last semester when I had a (gold star) blonde moment at the office but it tuned into one of those conversations with God that revealed my own heart to me.
I had to call my supervisor who was out of the office that day, so I called her from my cell phone. At the exact same moment I heard her phone ring on the other end of the call, the office phone rang. So I hung up on my supervisor and answered the office phone. "Teacher Education, this is Tori." But no one was there. Good, because I really need to talk to Ms. Jen. I picked up my cell phone and called her again. And again the office phone rang right away. I looked at the caller ID to see if it was someone I could call back and was exceedingly confused to see my number there. I sat there for probably 10 seconds, one phone ringing in my ear and the other ringing on the desk, trying to understand what was going on. And everyone less blonde than myself has already figured it out... I was calling my own self.
{How many times in life do we "call ourselves" instead of calling God?}
I was trying to talk to my supervisor who could help me sort out a problem I had but the only one I could get a hold of was me. And I couldn't help me.
The same thing happens to us in our lives when we look somewhere else besides God for help, answers, direction, or comfort. We can't look inside ourselves or to other people and find what we need. It's just not there. All we find are empty words and more questions. Why? Because it's a closed circuit. You can't answer your own questions; you can't comfort your own heart.
But when you call out? You find everything you need.
It makes so much sense but I'm usually the first one I ask even though I know I don't know the answer. God knows that weakness of humanity and maybe that's why He says so many times, "Call on ME and I will answer."
When I talk to me, I become more confused, more frightened, more worried, more prideful and less compassionate, less focused, less likely to act on faith. When I talk to God I become "like a spring of water whose waters do not fail," full of joy in His salvation, upheld by the generosity of His Spirit, as bold as a lion. He becomes my defense, my glory, my shield, my reward, my guide, the director of my steps and the banner of truth that defines me.
There are wise people in your life that you should seek counsel from, of course. There is great value in hearing another perspective but never let someone else's words replace God's words. They are painful sometimes, maybe hard to hear. But they are always truth. The wisest of us has given bad advice or spoken wrongly but God never has. He never does. And He will never will. He is not a human given to emotion and change. He is eternally steadfast and unmovable in who He is.
"Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."
Psalm 50:15
