God vs. Not God

The Spiritual Difference Between Peace and PettinessIf you’ve been around here for awhile, you know that I see God in the IMPOSSIBLE. I’m a huge nerd and numbers guy so if I pick up on something that is a mathematically impossibly good thing, I try to give the credit STRAIGHT to God. But something happened yesterday that was interesting. I built up the courage and battled a bit of angst to text someone to have a conversation. One that might be awkward for us both. But I sent it, put my phone down and felt like I had done the right thing.Fast forward 5/6 hours and I’m scrolling IG. I see this sourdough recipe and I get excited and screenshot it. I go to crop the recipe and would you believe that the person I had texted hours ago had just liked the post ABOVE the one that I had screengrabbed. I wasn’t even THINKING about this text from earlier and now IMPOSSIBLY, I’m sitting there thinking “oh you can’t text me back but you can be likin all these posts on IG?!”I’ll be the first to admit that there’s a little petty b***h of a human that’s buried in my soul. lol. I don’t always have grace as my first reaction. That’s for sure.But it made me think … this was one of those numerical impossibilities that I might have given credit to God for if it was different. So then… supernaturally impossible events might not always be God. The Evil One has considerable power, too. That’s important to remember.So how do I tell the difference?Great question.First of all, even though both are capable of supernatural, God is all powerful. His supernatural looks like LOVE and Compassion and grace and NON judgement. You’ll factor in the full situation versus your narrow view of what you “think” should happen.The evil one will make you have the petty thoughts like I had at first. There will be no grace. No patience. No mercy or compassion. It will be entitled. It will be self centered and sometimes, when you reflect on the way you thought, even for that split second, it’ll feel bad.But you have a chance to capture those thoughts. Before they get too far down the road, you can recognize em and say… whoa whoa whoa. I don’t HAVE to think that way. It’s only been a few hours. It’s all complicated. People are busy. Chill. Take your thoughts and bring em to God and be like, “Yo, God. Help me to be more patient. Help me to take the pain and insecurity that I have rumbling below the surface and hand it over to You to work on. I don’t wanna be b****y, I don’t wanna be petty. I want to be loving and trust You with any and all outcomes. Thank You for reminding me of how quickly my human side can pop up and steal my joy and my peace. I’m sorry for being petty. Help me to be grace FULL first.”AmenThank you for Liking, SHAREing and Supporting! 🫶🏽buymeacoffee.com/joeldavidbarnes This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wehavetoshare.substack.com/subscribe