Do You Ever Do This?

As God is continuing to interrupt my need for control, one of the ways He has challenged me recently is to let Him direct my quiet time.  Instead of being tied to a reading plan or a devotional, God has challenged me to pray and either let the Holy Spirit provide me with a reference or guide my hands as I open the Bible.  A few weeks ago while I was surrendering my need for control down, God guided me to Jonah 2, which is when Jonah finally surrenders to God in prayer.  Boom!  Just what I needed to hear and learn from.

Now I have always had some trouble sleeping.  I have always had vivid nightmares that would wake the whole house up as I cried out.  When I was younger they had more to do with intruders or being kidnapped.  One time on a trip with my church group in college, I dreamed that one of my good guy friends stabbed all of us with a knife.  I woke up all my friends in my hotel room as well as my friends on the hallway.  Lately my dreams have been very spiritual warfare driven, where I have to fight the devil off or more recently was suffocating me.  Very vivid nightmares.  It is why I don't do scary movies or anything to do with zombies and the like.  I don't need more things influencing me.  In fact, in order to go to sleep at night, I have to have a nightlight on.  While talking with Miss L about all of it, I realized that I have a deep fear of the darkness of night.

Last week, using the "Holy Spirit Guide Me to the Right Words" method, God guided me back again to Jeremiah 18, reminding me that I am just being molded to His desires right now.  I thought that was a nice reminder.  I looked over at the footnotes, and it cross referenced Isaiah 45:9.  I started reading that verse and then continued reading until I came to this verse: "It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it.  My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts." (Isaiah 45:12).  Wow.  Here God is speaking to the people, reminding them that He created everything.  I felt the Spirit tell me to go back to Genesis 1, where God created light from the darkness and called them day and evening.  As I was reading it, I felt God tell me that He has created everything.  He is in charge of it all.  I don't need to be afraid of his creation, the night.  Then He brought me back to one of my favorite verses, Psalm 91: 5- "You will not fear the terror of the night,"  What started as a quiet time devoted to me continuing to surrender control turned into the Lord speaking to me directly on a deep fear inside my heart.  I prayed and thanked God for His powerful words that reminded me that I do not have to be afraid of His creation, He will watch over and protect me.  That night I turned the nightlight off and lay down to sleep, reminding myself that God is in control, watching over me, protecting me, and that the night is part of His creation.

His Spirit can guide you in so many ways.  If I had been too stuck to my quiet time plan, I would have missed on some serious truth to help me win the battle over my fear.  For His word to be effective, it doesn't have to be long extended passages of scriptures.  Those truths God gave me through His word were no longer than an average series of text messages between myself and friends.  Short as they were, they were more powerful than I could ask or imagine.  So far I have been able to sleep at night uninterrupted and without the nightlight.   I challenge you to try this out at least once this week.  Just get alone with God and His word and let Him guide you to the words He has for you to read.  It is powerful, living, active, and yes, stronger than any sword!