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Making Room for God - Part 2

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As this new month begins, be reminded that fresh starts are not just marked by dates—they are marked by decisions. Every new season brings new opportunities to pause, reflect, and realign. God is not asking for perfection at the start, He is inviting us into a deeper posture of surrender. He wants us to make space for His presence, not just in the quiet moments, but in the chaos, questions, and decisions that fill our days.

Practical Discernment

Discernment of spirits is a spiritual gift—an ability given by the Holy Spirit to recognize the spiritual source behind a person, message, or atmosphere (1 Corinthians 12:10). In a complementary way, practical discernment is something every believer can cultivate. It’s the day-to-day practice of bringing our thoughts, desires, and decisions before God and learning to recognize His wisdom. Every temptation Jesus faced came from a real, human desire: hunger, the need for validation, the desire for relevance. These are not evil in themselves. They are just part of real human experience. But the enemy knows this, and all he has to do is manipulate a legitimate desire or need. Practical discernment is learning to evaluate your decisions in light of those desires. It’s about asking: Have I placed this before the Lord? Am I willing to let Him reshape it? Once we begin recognizing God’s voice through His Word, the next challenge becomes distinguishing His will from our own desires. We have to sacrifice our desires—not because they’re wrong—but because they have been corrupted by the brokenness of our human experience. As a result, our desires are rarely neutral; they often carry the residue of that brokenness in the form of fear, ego, disappointment, or unmet expectations. James 1:14 captures this clearly: “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own desire and enticed.” That means the enemy often does not need to invent anything new—he simply manipulates what is already in us. So, like Abraham with Isaac, we must lay our desires on the altar. If God gives them back, they will be refined and aligned with His purpose. And if He does not, it is not loss—it is redirection. We can trust that what He has in mind is better than what we were holding onto.

One way we begin to lay our desires before Him is by asking honest, practical questions. A good place to start is this: Does this dream, decision, or plan depend on me to make it happen—or does it depend on the Lord? If we want God to move undeniably in our lives, we have to make room for what only He can do. That is what we hold onto. It does not mean you should not eat bread—it just means you should not turn stones into it (Matthew 4:3–4). Let God provide the bread, like He did for His people in the wilderness (Exodus 16). Provision outside of His will, no matter how justified it seems, is still disobedience. Ruth is a model of surrender. When Ruth said, “Your God will be my God” (Ruth 1:16), she was surrendering everything familiar—her culture, her security, her future. She chose the unknown. Like Abraham, she left behind what she could control to follow the One who holds all things together. In this new month, God is asking someone to do the same: to release the familiar and trust Him with what comes next.

You don’t have to do it all in a day. Just start by giving God your desire. Let Him expose it to His fire. In Acts 28:3–5, when Paul tossed the bundle of sticks into the fire, a serpent slithered out. That is what happens when you bring your desires into the presence of God—what is hidden gets exposed. And when it is, all the enemy’s manipulation and twisting of legitimate needs is brought into the light. Once exposed, it no longer has power over you.

Guarding Against Burnout

Burnout is dangerous. It is one of the surest ways we crowd out God’s presence in our lives. It pushes us to react instead of reflect. We become driven by survival, not surrender. We get consumed with doing more instead of depending on Him more. And if we are not careful, burnout can distort our view of God—making us feel like He owes us something, or worse, like He’s absent altogether. Elijah reached that point. Twice God asked him, “What are you doing here?” (1 Kings 19:9, 13). And twice, Elijah deflected: “I’m the only one left.” He could not admit he was exhausted, spiritually depleted, and feeling irrelevant in his role in Israel. But God did not rebuke him—He whispered. He reminded Elijah that He was still present, and that Elijah was not as alone as he thought.

Elijah withdrew from what God had said. Even Moses burned out when he struck the rock and said, “Must we bring you water, you rebels?” (Numbers 20:10). First mistake: “we”—it was never about him, it is never about us. Second mistake: Yes, God loves rebels. That’s who He came for (Luke 5:32). If we are going to be God’s vessels, we must make room not just for God to move in us, but also through us—so we never ever have to rely on our own strength and hence avoid the weariness that comes otherwise. Even when we are weary, His strength is made perfect. Elijah, on the other hand, chose isolation—even though Obadiah had shown him that a faithful community still existed (1 Kings 18:3–4). Elijah wasn’t truly alone. He just chose to be. He had made it a habit of going solo:

  • In 1 Kings 18:11–14, when Elijah tells Obadiah to announce his presence to Ahab, Obadiah panics. His fear is not just about Ahab’s wrath—it reveals a deeper uncertainty about Elijah himself. Elijah had become unpredictable, unaccountable even to those in the company of the prophets. Obadiah, a faithful servant who had risked his life to hide prophets, was not sure if Elijah would follow through or disappear again.
  • Later, in 1 Kings 18:22, Elijah says, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord,” despite knowing that Obadiah had preserved one hundred prophets in caves. It’s not just oversight—it’s disconnection.

As a result, when Jezebel pushed back (1 Kings 19:2–4), Elijah fled in fear and despair. His pattern of isolation left him vulnerable—exhausted, overwhelmed, and unable to see clearly. He asked for death under a broom tree, not because God had left him, but because of his disconnection. And that is the danger of burnout: it convinces you to isolate. But community is one of the main ways God shows up. He uses people and relationships—yes, even flawed ones—to carry His presence and His provision. When we shut people out, we shut out the channels through which God often moves.

Make Room

All throughout this devotional, we have been asking: How do we give God room to show up? It begins with how we respond—not out of pride or pressure, but through reflection. It grows as we saturate ourselves in the Word, allowing God’s truth to shape our perspective. It expands as we surrender our desires, trusting Him with the outcomes. And it matures when we stay rooted in community, refusing to walk alone.

God does not need perfection to move—He just needs your surrender. He is not waiting for your performance. He is waiting for your invitation.

Will you make room for Him?

Monthly Declaration:
This month, I choose to make room for God—trusting Him with my desires, surrendering my plans, and inviting Him to lead me in all things.

Reflection Questions:

  • What desire is God asking you to place on the altar today?
  • Where are you isolating yourself, and how can you invite community back in?
  • What part of your life needs to be surrendered so God can take center stage?