Wednesday, January 27, 2016

A Listening Heart


Today I stopped over to  Bonnie Gray's blog and read her post for OneWordCoffee Wednesday.  She wrote a beautiful post about stepping out of our need to feel safe and following God as His beloved. She included scripture found in the first chapter of Mark.

As Jesus was going along by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. Jesus said, “Come, follow me.” Immediately, they left their nets and followed Him.
Going on a little farther, He saw James and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending their nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him.” Mark 1:16-20
It is the second time today that this passage has come to me, so God has my attention.  Bonnie asked us once again to pick out a word that stood out in the passage.......and once again I could not pick just one word. Just too many to focus on!

Looking at the passage we see that Jesus was on a mission to find disciples to follow Him in His ministry.  Did he know Simon and Andrew at all or did His heavenly Father whisper in His ear who He should choose.  And just what did Simon, Andrew, and the others see in this man from Galilee? What drew them in so quickly that they cast down their nets and followed Him at His beckoning.  If He appeared and asked us to "put down our nets" and follow Him, would we?

He does, you know.  He asks us to put down our lives, surrender all, and follow Him.  Accepting Jesus as our Savior, we follow Him.  A simple yet powerful yes to opening our heart to the Son of God.

But there are other ways we are asked to follow Him and that is where I feel drawn to.  Yesterday I wrote a post about where we find our passion.  For us it is not in sports, politics, or more.....but at this time in our lives, it is in healing and Holy Spirit.   As we move into the "retired but re-fired" season of our lives, as we leave my battle with breast cancer behind, and as we continue to walk out our healing by Jesus from Lyme Disease and more, we have been asking, seeking, and knocking.  We have been surrendering, and listening.  Listening for Jesus to say, "Come, follow Me". He will say it.  We know that Holy Spirit is stirring, and we believe He still has purpose for us in ministry.  A ministry of His choosing.  We know He will say, "Follow Me." What we don't know for sure is where or when.  So, as excitement builds, we are doing as I like to imagine Simon and Andrew did, we are living daily with our hearts open, waiting to hear............"Come, follow Me".


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3 comments:

Jenni said...

It's exciting and scary at the same time to know that the call to follow could come at any time and we don't know what His plan is. Thank you for sharing.

Jenni (visiting from Faith Barista)

Meg Weyerbacher said...

My husband and I, are in this season too - knowing God has a calling on our lives and even just recently seeing a door or two open...it is exciting. I am so glad to see God's Church growing! I don't know when Christ is coming back, but I think sll the prophecies have been fulfilled except the rebuilding of the temple, and they have even begun to do some of those parts! Be blessed and keep writing, it is beautiful!

Anita Johnson said...

I love your posts!