BV8: SECOND STEP TO VICTORY

There is the second step to overcoming the uncertainty that can steal victory and which haunts all our lives especially when cancer is involved. The first step is to recognize the presence and power of that uncertainty and start praying about it.   Many feel that uncertainty is like a dragon voicing  both  our human frailties and deceptions of the devil. We are told that with prayer we can prevail over every such voice. In Phil 4:7, &       I Thes 5:17 Jesus invites us to bring everything to Him in prayer yet we seldom do it. And when we do, we often miss his answers. The reasons are several but the main one is that we are not actively listening when He speaks or watching when He acts.   

The answers we perceive sometimes seem nebulous, sometimes serendipitous and sometimes slam dunk obvious; he answers, it is fast, clear, wonderful, undeniable - the stuff that generates powerful PEE. But because they are not all obvious and we miss many of them we have got to pray a lot to get much PEE. We must give God a chance to get off the bench and into the games of our lives. He is longing to show us His stuff. And when He does , we have to be really listening and watching for His answers = the second step.

Learning how to listen takes some effort. Studying scripture helps us understand God's character and gives us a hint as to what kind of answers we might expect, the where and what to listen for. But then we also need to tune our hearing. Sometimes He answers with a loud blow horn voice we can't miss and sometimes even out loud, but not often. Usually it is the still small voice of His spirit to ours. So we must learn to listen with our heart and spirit for His wooings, whispers and nudges - for some mysterious download of ideas or inclinations onto the hard drive of our minds. Or maybe it will come in words of scripture that just seem to jump off the page or out of a song, or out of the mouth of a friend or pastor. Often of the blue, totally unexpected - an aha moment. But only if we are looking for it and recognize it for what it is. 

Also  we need to be watching for how events unfold around us, how the behavior of other people changes or how our own attitudes change or how the physical world changes. When God is on the move all kinds of things may happen. We need to be watching or we will miss out on the help from God and from gaining more PEE.

Prayer with listening and watching can bring some victories but on their own they are not enough for total victory. There is a third step.