September 12, 2008
by Bill Malick
There, I said it. Whenever my wife Debbie and I are on a trip and I miss an exit or make a wrong turn I will admit that I am slow to ask for directions. So I compensate for being lost by driving faster. Don’t tell me that you don’t do the same thing. Statesman and outdoorsman, Daniel Boone was asked if he was ever lost while making his way through the wilderness. “I was never lost,” he said. “I was bewildered for about four months one time, but I was never lost.”
So what happens when you create your own vision? You wound yourself and any who follow you. Paul Becker tells us in his book, Seeing Your Vision Come True, that you will end up unfulfilled, frustrated, and defeated.
When we dream up our direction and fail to slow down and listen to God day in and day out we miss out on the greatest opportunity of all time—that being to drink in His direction. The apostle Paul bears down and tells us to be confident that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. David is described as a man after God’s own heart. Sure wasn’t because he was perfect! In II Samuel 2:1, David asks the Lord the question, “Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” The Lord answered, “Go up.” David spent a lot of time listening to God and he enjoyed it…probably learned it as shepherd boy.
Finally, here is the dilemma that I find myself in time and again. I get so preoccupied with what I want and want to do that I don’t slow down and listen. For some time now I have been carving out specific times to listen and guess what, my hearing is getting better. The best part is that the intimacy with God is SO REFRESHING. Don’t create your own vision…slow down and hear!