Listening to His Voice

How do I listen to the Lord?

Today I went to an event put on by my church for women.  The speaker read to us the story of Lazarus in John 11:1-44.  It was a story I've heard before, but some things stood out to me this time (the first couple pointed out by the speaker):

1. Mary and Martha sent a prayer to Jesus asking him to come to them
2. Instead of going to them right away, Jesus sent them a promise
3. Mary and Martha interpreted the promise in a way that made sense to them
4. When Jesus fulfilled his promise, it was radically different from what Mary and Martha expected even though they knew that Jesus was Messiah

So many times, I do this.  I misinterpret what God tells me.  He is very clear and concise in the things He speaks to me, but then I go and muck it up by adding a heaping helping of confusion.  Instead of taking His truth as it comes and resting in His words, I try to interpret them.

Why can't I just absorb His promises and take rest in knowing that He will bring them to fruition?  Somehow I always manage to do this for about thirty seconds and then my mind starts playing out the various scenarios in which the promise may be fulfilled.  Or taking it a step further, and by doing so, changing what I was supposed to hear from the Lord into something I think would be best.  Or what about when He instructs me in how to proceed in some situation and I manage to attach a "reward" of sorts to it?  He says, "do X." And I adjust it in my mind to "do X, and Y will happen."  Or other times I put His words into a time frame.

My thinking is so limited and shortsighted.  No wonder I get confused and frustrated.

A verse that I keep coming back to lately is Proverbs 13:12.  "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."  I feel like I keep putting my hope into my interpretations of what God tells me instead of in God Himself.  So when things don't happen as I hope they might, time after time, it really does make my heart sick.  I need to put my hope in God and trust that His word is true and good and He will fulfill His promises.

God, help me to change my patterns of misinterpreting your truth.

Safe

Just a song I'm really liking right now.  Pandora brought it to my attention.

Phone jots

Sometimes randomly, God will reveal some little truth to me throughout the day.  And I don't want to forget these snippets of truth, so I jot them down in my phone's memopad.  I actually have quite a few different memos started that I just add to whenever the need arises.

One of the memos is titled "Reality" and these are the thoughts that are currently jotted down in it:

At this point in time, I want to be in a relationship for selfish reasons.  And until I change that, not only is it not going to work out, it really shouldn't happen at all.
-10/08/11
-Still true 11/22/11

Marriage doesn't produce happiness, it produces holiness. My sins will be revealed to me as well as my husband. I'm certainly not ready for that now. When will I be?
-12/24/11

Right now I do not want to be in a relationship. Not until I start changing some things about myself that I want to change: increase physical fitness, a servant's heart, less laziness, less TV, etc.
-03/04/12

I still want to change things about myself and I have goals. But I just realized that I will always be having things to work on because I just saw a note I wrote titled, "Goals for the 08/09 school year." I'm supposed to be changing and growing in the ways the Lord shows me.
-04/11/12

When I start to learn about the dreams of the man I'm going to marry, I will not just support them so I don't crush them. I will support them because I will be able to dream them with him and they will become my dreams if they aren't already.
-05/06/12

 Maybe at some other time I will post some of the other memos that I have jotted down...