Themes from God

Do you ever feel God speaking to you directly?  Like he's trying to get your attention, in a way that is special, just for you?  Or driving home truth to your heart, where it can change your life?

If not, I highly recommend asking him to do just that.

For the past few months, I've noticed God giving me little recurring themes at different periods of time.  For instance, the week or two before my trip, the word "angel" kept popping up in songs on the radio, and I'd feel like God was saying, "You're that to me."  An angel is a ministering servant, according to the Bible, but it is also a term of endearment I associate coming from a father-figure or loved one.  I wanted to believe God loved me like that.  It came up again in different ways.  Friends would say, "Hello, Angel," and I don't recall them ever calling me that before.  Or another friend used a little angel icon in chat to represent me.

Then, after I arrived in Kiev, I started reading scriptures that randomly tied in to the Promised Land, or Promises, about Noah, or Moses, and I kept thinking about a specific promise God made me almost 3 years ago, that one day my deepest desires and longings would be fulfilled.  I had asked him for a sign to know it was for me, not just a general scripture, and he gave me one.  I've never been so sure of anything in my life.  Now, it seemed that God was telling me that Kiev represented the fulfillment of that promise...the land where my dreams would come true.  Again, little things would pop up--a rainbow in the sky, two days in a row, a rainbow card in my Bible I hadn't noticed before, the lyrics of songs on my iPod saying, "He will keep his promise"," or a song written by a friend saying, "I believe he's made a rainbow just for you...."  Coincidences that can't be coincidences if you just allow yourself to believe.  For days, that theme rang in my heart.  I felt God reassuring me, because I had been feeling very afraid that these happy times would eventually come to an end, and I'd be back to where I started.  But I felt God promising me that I would never feel completely destroyed and alone again.  That he was promising to bless me from here on out, like Job after being tested and found true.  The hardest times of my life are over...that's so hard for me to believe, but thank God he doesn't give up on helping me see it.

Speaking of sight, that brings me to my latest theme.  When Chris first saw me on Facebook, he wondered what kind of name "Shaela" was, so looked it up.  He's told me it means "blind" or, a more preferred meaning, "from the fairy palace."  There have been many scriptures coming up this past week on blindness.  Ever since I learned about my name's meanings, I thought, "That's true--I can be very blind to who I am, or how people can love me."  For those that know me, I can be a very insecure person, and yet I don't feel insulted by that name meaning.  Like the words of Amazing Grace, I once was 'blind', but now I'm 'from the fairy palace'.  God's grace has made me royalty, a fairy angel, worthy, special, and filled with light.  Now I just need helping believing that...really "seeing" myself as God does.  So, this week's theme: being healed of blindness.

Yesterday in church, they read a scripture that related how Jesus had come "so that the blind might see."

Even this morning, I noticed for the first time that my stuffed animal named Jehova Rapha ("God who heals"), had no eyes or nose.  The dog in the apartment I'm staying at had ripped them off!  ("Niet, Cooper!")  So I got out my superglue and put Rapha back together.  God really does heal.  Then I remembered my theme..."I once was blind, but now I see," and again, I felt God telling me that he was going to answer my prayers.  Yep, I had started to pray for discernment last week...that I'd see myself the way God does, to see the needs around me, and the best way to meet them.  I've been told more than a few times by close friends that I lack discernment, and I finally asked God to give it to me, because trying to get it on my own hasn't worked.  That's like a blind man trying to do Lasik surgery on themselves!

So, here we are, in the week of Blindness, and my prayer is, "God, give me YOUR eyes.  I want to see your vision in my life."

How about you?  Is there something God has been trying to get through to your heart lately?  If you're not sure, try praying to hear his voice, and what theme he wants your heart to believe.