My Inspiration - guest post by Sue Provost

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Where is God in Your Life? Three Retreats in Christian Spirituality:

This reality, presented by spiritual director and clinician Susan M. Provost, in Where is God in Your Life? Three Retreats in Christian Spirituality (published by Trafford Publishing) outlines this spiritual quest as the goal Christians have committed to that encompasses their entire being. But once the decision to commit to Christ has been made, people may not know how to begin developing that relationship with Christ. Provost knows that quite often, people need to be given the tools necessary to develop a relationship with God and to understand how that relationship is celebrated in the community. Provost’s three two-day workshops are a program that will show readers and participants how to recognize God in their lives and to feel His love. The workshops help people to continue their spiritual journey to a greater connection with God and to see the importance of the Christian faith as a spiritual roadmap on the path to God. Provost’s program and book show how Christians eventually discover that success, productivity, and the constant drive to acquire things do not fill or satisfy the soul within us. “We burn out from what has become a road to spiritual death," Provost says. "We look for someone to convince us that we are of value for who we really are, not what we and our culture chooses to label us. We look for someone who we do not have to prove that we are worth something. We look to connect with the Creator, the Savior, and the Spirit of the God who loves us. Our soul yearns to make that connection and to feel whole, to feel significant, and to feel loved.” Where is God in Your Life will show you how.

You can find Sue at http://www.sueprovost.com/

My Inspiration, God is Always with You by Sue Provost

Every day is a gift from God. We can spend the day disliking what we do. We can spend the day being angry and hurt, sad and alone. We can do that if that is what we want to do. Instead, I prefer to spend the day looking at all the good that has occurred in my life. I lost my job last October, but I did not lose my husband, children or grandchildren. I lost my job, but I did not lose the love God has for me. I lost my job, but I am still alive and able to find something else to work at. I lost my job, but I did not lose heart, because I knew that God was with me. I lost my job, but did not lose what was really important to me, my faith. There is always a plan that God has for us, but sometimes a door has to close for another door to open.

Each of us needs to fully grasp and understand just how much God loves us. We need to see how He is intimately concerned about every single detail of our lives. Reading that God loves us in His Word and understanding that He died for our sins, can still be merely intellectual pursuits. However, receiving His Spirit and experiencing His Life in and through us, is something we can never deny as being ultimate, personal love. However, the way in which to feel that ultimate personal love is not readily apparent to us.

Unfortunately, our culture encourages the need to be constantly in motion. We have the need to be productive and fill all our time with something. We become nervous when we encounter empty space, when there is a gap in a conversation, when we do not know what to say, when we are sitting in a waiting room and there are no magazines on the table to read. For most people, just doing nothing is unthinkable.

It can be difficult to encounter God while the focus of our lives is on the importance of earthly power and possessions. We cannot notice God working in our lives when we do not take the time to stop and notice anything. We do not know how to step out of the world of progress. We are moving so fast through our lives that we take no time to notice what is happening around us when the noticing is not necessary to fulfill our goal. In essence, we are programmed not to accept who we are, but we are driven to judge ourselves and others by earthly success, productivity, and accumulation of things. Consequently, we have no real appreciation for ourselves or the others we encounter. We are trapped in a jail of our own creation.
Move out of your own jail and find out what it is God wants you to do. You may already be doing it, or you may need to leave something in order to do it. Do not be sorrowful. God is with you.

ABOUT SUE PROVOST

I am an active spiritual director, religious education teacher for both children and adults, and author of Where is God in Your Life? Three Retreats in Christian Spirituality. My vocation in the practice of spiritual direction supports lay men and women, as well as clergy and those in ministry formation, in discernment of God’s gifting and God’s calling. I have a master’s degree in Spiritual Formation from Regis University, in Denver Colorado. I am on the board of directors of Small Christian Communities Connect (SCCC), as well as being the chairperson for SCC in my local parish. I write a daily blog about the message of Jesus on my site

http://letyourlifesing.blogspot.com/

and I have a website http://sueprovost.com/

where I try to bring an awareness of God walking with us on this earthly journey. My desire is to share my understanding of God’s love with others, so they can experience what I have found in my own relationship with God. I feel that communication with God through prayer is the essential element needed to be able to see God’s movement in our lives.