His Finger on my Heart…

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Catey Stover in Freedom Fighters

What if God placed his finger somewhere on your life to grab your attention and get you You to focus on His will… would you ask Him to remove it? Or, would you respond, “speak Lord, I am listening.”  What if God disrupted your plans by touching your heart… Would you ask Him for safety and calm? Or, like Isaiah, respond, “Here an I Father, send me.”

Craig Groeschel writes, “My prayers were too safe. I had access to the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The Great I am. The Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and the End. The all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing God who can send fire from heaven, shut the mouths of hungry lions, or calm a raging storm. And all I asked him to do was keep me safe and help me have a good day.”

God’s desire is to work through us to reach others with the Gospel of Christ. To prepare, redirect, and reposition us for this purpose, necessitates He place His finger on our lives to renew the way we think. For this to take place, requires we trust and obey Him, walking in faith that believes He can do all He has promised. Sometimes He does this so we will ‘be still and know He is God.’ Other times, it may be for us to go somewhere, or maybe speak to someone, or to fulfill a need in someone’s life. But if all I am asking God for is ease and comfort, none of these life-changing circumstances will occur. Many who have prayed, ‘Father, Your will be done in and through me,’ have lost their lives, positions, reputations, and all the stuff the world values; but at the same time, the light of the Gospel shined brighter than ever in and through their lives to others… and in doing so, they received all God has promised those ‘who believe.’ Jesus taught that if ‘you want to save your life,’ you may know ease and mediocrity for now, but in the end, ‘you will lose your life’ with God for all eternity. But, if you willingly give up your life, ‘as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God,’ then you will gain everything He has promised, through Christ… and know His will, which is good, powerful, sustaining, secure, full of hope, and perfect.

 

God has his finger on my heart, and is teaching me again, ‘to be still and know that He is God.’ This is often how you get type A personalities to sit down and shut up. When it hurts to breathe, there isn’t much else you can do. It is in these times I learn how powerful prayer is and in seeking God’s sustaining strength and vitality, the day is won. Too often we set out to control events and manipulate people and circumstances for the purpose of obtaining our own ease and comfort;  when it was God’s intent to renew ours and other’s lives. Faith only grows in the cauldron of adversity and opposition. More often then not, that struggle is not external but rests in our own hearts where we must choose to trust God with our whole lives or rely on our own weak and short-sighted desires and fears. It is here that we truly learn, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31 NLT)

 

Is God pursuing you right now? Is He placing His finger on some important place in your life… asking you to trust him with that relationship or financial need? How about your vocation, education, or location? He wants to bless you with ‘a priceless inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by His power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.” (1 Peter 1:4-5 NLT)

 

You can have undisturbed mediocrity that leads to eternal routine self-centeredness or you give live daringly, trusting the Word of the One who promises eternal joy and love in His presence, which is guaranteed in Christ, who secured it by shedding His own blood in your place. His gift of salvation is anchored in Heaven where nothing can change or disrupt it, what you have without Him is guaranteed by nothing…. so…

Choose wisely…

Written by David Brown: David Brown is a husband, father, grandfather, Pastor with a Masters of Religious Studies and a Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Religions. Dave is the Associate Pastor of Pemberton’s First Baptist Church.

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Think About This: “One word from the Lord is like a piece of gold to a believer, who is like a jeweler, shaping and hammering out the promise for a number of weeks.”  – Charles Spurgeon

The Daily Bible Reading: Joshua 9-13 | You can download our 2020 Daily Bible Reading Plan by clicking here. 

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness. –Psalm 17:15

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the doctrinal and theological views held by America’s Keswick.