1 John 4:17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

Believing God rather than ourselves are noble thoughts.

I want to love perfectly and I try to do the right thing. The results are not always acceptable.

We can only put love out there, the results are not within our control.

• 1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
• 1 John 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

I believe this even if I don’t see it. My problem more than anything is my expectation of the reciprocal effect of the love of God. If I put His love out there I expect to see results. Sadly that is the flesh seeking acceptance. Disappointment is the end result for seeking in the flesh those things generated in the spirit.

Things are bad right now and we pray. Then nothing happens. The problem is in the prayer if we do not pray God’s will. We pray from a position of fear and doubt. I know, I do it. It does not matter how much we agree if it is not within God’s will.

So what is God’s will?

To be in this world as His Son is in the world. Not as He was in the world but how He is in the world. His abiding love never fails if we walk in it. I tend to forget that and try to match a love that is so much greater than my own. But I try.

So I try to remember the process. God speaks, I hear, I believe, and I obey. It always begins with God speaking and if we are not listening, we know what happens next. We walk where we want and do what we want.

The better part of prayer is listening.

Acts 16:6 And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

I am to stop running down the list of excuses in the devotional John Mark. The only way I know that is because the Spirit is not supporting my effort. It is not that I could not continue, only that the Spirit would not be leading me, it would be an effort of the flesh. So I will stop.

Paul, Silas and Timothy answered the call to reach the Macedonians. God directs the path of His servants to meet His will. The time for Asia was not right, the time for Macedonia was right.

Just how much effort was made by the Spirit in forbidding them to go to Asia is not known. I doubt He sent an angel to stand in the way as He did to Balaam in Numbers 22. It is more likely that they were sensitive to the leanings of the Holy Spirit. It takes some effort to ignore one’s own plans to seek God’s plan.

Isaiah 37:29 Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.’

The Hebrew word for complacency is ša’ănān and carries with it the idea of quietness, ease, and security. We get comfortable with what we are doing and wish to continue because some level of success has been found, but with the success comes inattentiveness, not seeking instruction.

The flesh seeks comfort, security and ease, and we have been taught the spirit opposes the flesh. Then there will be a still small voice saying, “This is not the way.”

Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

As my wise teacher answered me about this passage; “You have to be on the move first.”

Zephaniah 1:12 says that the Lord punishes those who have settled in their lees.

Those who have ears to hear, listen.