Discernment is a gift that everyone has access to. Many don’t experience the peace that comes from following God-given discernment because they don’t use it on a regular basis.

I believe the more we follow the discernment that God gives us the more discernment God will give us. When we get a feeling about something and then ignore it we often end up regretting it.

For me when I am doing the right thing I experience a great deal of peace.

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week I began to get concerned. My iPad, which is about four years old or so, stopped charging. Now, my iPad has my whole life on it. I have notes from counseling sessions with clients, passwords, all my credit card companies so that I can check my accounts and pay online, my bank account, my book manuscripts, my blog manuscripts, my pharmacy information, my doctor’s office records, you name it.

Frankly, I have had trouble with my iPad not charging before, but usually by buying a new cable the problem is resolved. I have a iPhone but the screen is hard for me to read. With my older eyes I need something larger.

So, what to do? I would ideally like a new iPad but I cannot afford to buy one at this time. So, I went to the Apple store online and found an iPad I liked. I saw there that I might be able to buy one with payments. I checked into it and the payments were too high. I discussed it with my husband and he said, “You have to have one. Consider it a ministry tool that you MUST have and go ahead and put it on credit. God knows you need one and he will supply the money for the payments.”

So, that made sense and I started to try and buy one online. I begin to feel terribly anxious. I knew that I was not in God’s will to make payments. I had no peace about it and every time I started to put my information in to qualify I felt anxious again. Even though it made sense that I needed one, I knew that that payment was not what God wanted me to do.

What is right gives you a sense of peace. When you are going against your God given discernment you will just not feel right about your decision. If you go ahead anyway it usually ends up bad.

What ever gives you a sense of struggle and strife is false. Whether it’s a relationship, a major purchase, a job, or a person, if you don’t have peace do not do it.

I then went into prayer. I said, “God buying a new iPad is not in my budget right now, and I would have to finance it. I don’t feel right about it. What do you want me to do? I could buy a cheap tablet but it would be a hassle to move all my things over with anything but iPad, which would automatically transfer to a new one.”
I prayed and then I made a decision to step away from it for a while. I started cleaning my stove. I figured that would take a lot of time and take my mind away from the problem. Believe it or not it seemed to clear my head.

I sat down to relax after my cleaning job and immediately something came into my mind. I remembered last week my husband said he thought we had suffered a power surge. Could that have fried the cord I was using? Maybe that was it. I tried several cables in that same outlet to charge it and nothing worked. I tried different outlets, near by, with the same cables and they would charge but really slowly. I remembered that I had bought a couple of new cables awhile back. I also knew, through the help of God, that I should try using the USB in a newer surge protector that I had. This whole thought process was absent when I was stressing over it. Now it seemed obvious.

So, I did that and it worked. I am now having to use the new cable in that surge protector each time I charge the iPad but it WORKS. Praise the Lord.

MY PEACE WAS RESTORED.

I urge you to develop your God given discernment by only moving forward into something when you experience peace.

One other thing I advise is giving the problem a break. Do something else that takes your mind off of the problem. Walk away from it. Stress causes confusion. Just stepping away for a while will often clear your head to where God can give you a divine solution!

In His Unconditional Love,
Cathie
Belovedhandmdn1@aol.com