God-Ideas

I love when ideas simply present themselves, almost without my conscious thought. In fact, I have noticed that when I become fixated on solving a problem, spending lots of time and energy trying to figure out its solution, it rarely works well. It ends up being lots of sweat and hard work, and still falls pretty flat, certainly not a good ratio of work and results. And it has that self-effort feeling that wearies my soul while the problem continues to dig in its heels and stick around.

But sometimes, ideas seem to fall directly from heaven.

Some of the things common to these God-ideas:

• Often I can’t even quite remember how the ideas appeared. They just suddenly appeared and almost have a life of their own, growing without much effort on my part.
• They lack that “it’s up to me to fix this” feeling and its tenacious companion that fearfully whispers, “I have to do this just right.”
• I feel His quiet joy in my heart and the freedom to move ahead.
• The ratio of effort and results is phenomenally imbalanced with results being on the heavy end.

Over the years, I have pondered these things and noted that God is central in the latter, while self is central in the former. I believe that must be a key. When I am sitting at His feet and enjoying sweet fellowship with Him, my conscious mind is able to receive God’s ideas through the avenue of my spirit.

What a call to seek His face! This is a life-long learning process.

Now as I write, I am reminded of a specific situation where it seems like I have stumbled along the last couple weeks, investing significant energy but seeing few results. I have been relying on my own understanding of this situation rather than seeking Him. “Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways . . .” I hear His invitation to again turn my face to seek Him, the only Source of life-giving ideas.