Written by Fiona Monaghan When one has been seeking God’s will and direction in their life and over time He has shown Himself to be lovingly gentle and compassionate, then one finds that all plans and decisions involve Him on the basic levels. We are in His will and we can trust that if an adjustment to a plan needs to be made, He will show us how and where.
It is the same as in our human relationships, when communication and trust are built up over time. We know without checking with a close friend or spouse, what their thoughts on a particular subject would be, because we are thinking like them more and more and we “know where they are coming from”.
God reveals Himself in much the same way when we seek Him daily - by spending time in quietness or following a devotional that challenges one to ‘get real’ and think deeper. It is amazing to find that the God of the Universe meets with us to teach, guide and encourage. It is His desire!
When our core desire is to get to know God better, He reveals Himself to us by providing what we desire, and in that we get to know Him better.
He then provides what we desire again, and we get to know Him even better, and on it goes… It is a beautiful and fruitful cycle.
Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He shall give you the desire of your heart
Somewhere in my growing up I had retained the image of God as one who would take something from me if I wanted it badly. Over time I’ve re-evaluated this and learned that through difficulty, true trust allows me to see God as one who might benevolently withhold or take something out of my life for my own good. I see how many detours might have been avoided if I had made that realization. Today, I know beyond shadow of doubt that He cares about every detail of my life, my plans, my health and especially my family. He can be trusted with it all. He loves them more than I, and will move heaven and earth to provide them the opportunity to learn to trust Him too.
Troubles seem to be a constant presence in our lives either they’re our own, a friend’s, or a stranger’s across the world. God knows our suffering; it is part of living in a broken world. But he gives us a unique opportunity to not give up or even to just endure through it, but to find joy! To grow! To become ready for ANYTHING! That to me is amazing!
“Jonathan Trager and Sara Thomas met while shopping for gloves in New York. Though buying for their respective lovers, the magic was right and a night of Christmas shopping turned into romance. Jon wanted to explore things further but Sara wasn't sure their love was meant to be. They decided to test fate by splitting up and seeing if destiny brought them back together... Many years later, having lost each other that night, both are engaged to be married. Still, neither can shake the need to give fate one last chance to reunite them. Jon enlists the help of his best man to track down the girl he can't forget starting at the store where they met... Near-misses and classic Shakespearean confusion bring the two close to meeting a number of times but fate will have the final word on whether it was meant to be.” (From 
n this series “Five Things God Uses to Grow Your Faith” we’ve been looking at the ways God uses to grow our faith. The first way is the teaching we receive from God’s Word for our personal lives. The Bible is called the “Living Word” because, if you put it to the test, it will have relevance for your day to day lives, just as if it was written personally for you.