shadow

Traci Huff

The Still Small Voice

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So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.

1 Kings 19:11-12, NASB

“Do you want God do send you a postcard?!”

fireMy husband has asked me that more than once when I’m faced with a big decision. My answer is always the same. “Yes! Actually, that’s exactly what I want! Gideon got the fleece, Moses got the burning bush, why can’t I get a postcard?!”

It seems silly as I write it, but it’s honest. Sometimes my faith feels so small and my circumstances seem so big. I just want God to tell me what to do!

Elijah, fleeing for his life and desperate for death, was told by the Lord to go to Horeb as He would be passing by. Elijah, a prophet of God, was no stranger to the miracles of the Almighty. Elijah, having been fed by ravens and witnessing fire fall from Heaven, knew the Lord would deliver. Expecting God to show up, Elijah went as he was told. Today’s verse tells us that a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire came, but the Lord was not in any of them. This time, the Lord showed up in what the King James Version refers to as a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12 KJV).

What if Elijah had only looked for God in the big and miraculous as opposed to the still and the small?

Make no mistake, God still uses miraculous ways to communicate with us, but if you and I are only looking for God in the big and the powerful, we set ourselves up to miss His divine guidance. God may not speak to us in the same manner as He did to Elijah, but He still speaks in countless ways. He speaks to us through His word, through conviction and prompting deep in our hearts, and through the words spoken by others. There are no limits to the ways He can and will show up in our lives.

It’s difficult to hear His guidance without spending time with Him through worship and the reading of His Word. It’s in our hearts—our humble and submissive hearts-—that the still small voice of God is heard.

Humble and Hearing,

Traci

Watching and Waiting

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Heed the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God, For to You I pray. In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.

Psalm 5:2-3 NASB

sorrow_bwThe same prayers had been muttered day after day, week after week. In search of guidance, my heart was heavy, and my prayers had become routine. A spiritual blind spot that had taken residence in my heart was revealed through conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Was I praying just for the sake of praying or did I pray like I believed? Did I believe that the Creator of the universe was hearing my prayers and was going to answer? I soon realized that I hadn’t heard His guidance, in part, because I wasn’t expecting it.

Praying-it’s what we do. Christians pray. We most certainly pray in church. Many of us pray before meals and say bedtime prayers with our kids. We pray for healing for those who are sick and for comfort for those who are grieving. The list goes on, but do we pray expectantly? Do we pray like God is not only going to hear our prayers but that He is willing to answer our prayers with the same power that created this world and everything in it? Often times, my answer is no.

I find myself believing the lie that my problem is just too big … or too little to even pray about. I listen to the enemy when he tells me that someone is too lost and can never change. Oh, the lies we listen to.

What if we changed how we pray? What if we prayed like we believed God and that He was going to hear our prayers and answer them? Not according to our will but to His. For us to believe that God is going to answer our prayers in the manner that we desire is faulty theology.

How wonderful it is that the God that we pray to is the same God who created the heaven and the earth and raised Jesus from the dead?! Praise Him!

There is no need too big that our God cannot meet. There is no financial situation too desperate or a marriage too broken. No child has run too far from the Lord that He cannot bring back to Himself.

Friend, as we enter the throne room of God, laying requests for the salvation of loved ones, the healing of diseases, and comfort for the grieving, let us leave those requests with Him and wait expectantly for His answer.

Waiting expectantly,

Traci

Stinkin’ Thinkin’: Fix My Eyes

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Life and peace? Yes, please!

All around us things clamor for our attention, making peace a seemingly elusive concept just out of our reach at times. Paul tells the Romans a mind set on the Spirit leads to life and peace. That sounds great, but how do we do that? How do we take our minds off of our flesh and set them on the Spirit?

Stick around this week and see what God’s word has to say about it …

 

Fix My Eyes

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith … so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 

Hebrews 12:1-3, NASB

trackThe demands of life are endless—as are the distractions. Coming at us from every direction, things scream for our attention. Many of them need our attention, but many do not. It’s no wonder that we can get sidetracked and focus our sights on the wrong things.

Many days that which screams at me the loudest gets my attention. Sadly, it’s often my fleshly, sinful self. How do I get my eyes off my flesh and set on Jesus? The struggle is real on this one.

When runners show up to a race, they don’t show up with weights strapped to their arms and legs or hanging from their necks. Instead, arriving with the goal in mind of crossing the finish line, they shed anything that can slow them down.

Like weights strapped to us, our sin distracts and weighs us down. Whether we realize it or not, you and I are running a God-ordained race day in and day out. Your course looks different from mine, but our finish line is the same: to stand in the presence of our Lord and Savior.

As we lace up our running shoes and hit the course that the Lord has set before us each day, it’s imperative we shed the sin that weighs us down and fix our eyes on Jesus.

For many of us, our thought lives can add significant weight to our bodies. Living with sinful thoughts as constant companions, our witness for Christ and ability to run our race is hindered.

I pray that each of us would be especially cognizant of the effects our thoughts have on us and with humility, we would take every thought captive and submit our minds to Christ. And with an attitude of praise and thanksgiving, we would experience the peace of God regardless of our circumstances.

Let us fill our minds with more of Him and less of the world as we keep our eyes fixed squarely on Him. Running with endurance, the race that He, the author and perfecter of our faith has set before us.

Running the race,

Traci