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| Yellow paint* |
Have you ever prayed desperately for an answer? I’m not
talking about a “yes” or “no” answer, but a fill-in-the-blank answer. An I-can’t-figure-this-out
answer.
Maybe you’ve needed direction about something.
Perhaps you’ve wondered why you aren’t advancing where you
want to. Why, for example, if you’re investing all your efforts in your career,
making sacrifices, praying, tithing, aren’t you advancing?
Why aren’t you seeing the breakthrough?
So, you ask God. “Lord, what am I missing? What is holding
me back? What’s in the way?”
Sometimes He does answer, right away.
Sometimes God doesn’t answer.
Sometimes time will teach us.
Sometimes God will send someone with a word of knowledge or
prophecy.
The key is to be open.
You might say, “I’m open!”
How willing are you to hear?
“I’m willing! I’ve even fasted. I’ve been asking, seeking, and knocking. I’m asking trusted
friends, mentors, my pastor. I’ve got nothing! What am I missing?!!”
Ever been there?
Me too.
But I’ve learned something.
Sometimes the answer is “yellow.”
Stick with me here. “Yellow” is a stand-in word. “Yellow”
can represent anything. It’s the blank-filler.
“Lord, what is the answer? Why can’t I move forward? What am
I not seeing?”
“The answer is _(yellow)_.”
But often times we’ve already ruled out “yellow.” We’ve got
twenty-five reasons why “yellow” couldn’t possibly be the answer. It can’t be
God. “Yellow” doesn’t line up with God’s best for us, with His word, or His message.
“Yellow” isn’t it.
Still, one or two of your trusted friends said it was “yellow”
just last week.
“Nah, can’t be. I know
it’s not ‘yellow.’”
So, we push it aside. We search for something else. Anything
else. Something that lines up with what we know to be true. Something that
feels right, looks right, seems right.
Guess what?
We’re wrong.
The answer is “yellow.”
“Yellow” is why we can’t advance.
“Yellow” is what we’ve forgotten to do, to follow through
on.
“Yellow” is the solution to the problem we’re facing.
“Yellow” is what we don’t want to see.
“Yellow” is God’s answer.
The moral: sometimes the very thing we’re ruling out is the
thing God is trying to show us.
Ever grown frustrated with the silence of heaven?
Sometimes God will stop speaking. We’re not hearing it
anyway. Then we get frustrated because all of our fasting and crying and
searching doesn’t elicit God’s response. Now what?
We end up resenting God. But God has already spoken. In
pride or human reasoning, we’ve ruled out His answer. We know better.
So, ask yourself: are there any areas in your life where the
answer has already come? Where you may have ruled out what you heard, even
though you have sound reasons for doing so?
Perhaps it’s time to go back to “yellow.”
~~~
* Photo credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Abstract Brush Lines" by Janaka Dharmasena
