Whew chile, when God wants to speak to you it's not always pleasant...

A lot of people tend to think that when God speaks to you that it's always a fun, uplifting experience and while God's guidance is always for our best, sometimes He has to reach us in ways that aren't pleasant so that it will truly capture our attention.

For example, I had been asking the Lord how I could come closer to Him after some spiritual frustration and truthfully, certain things not going the way I wanted them to. (Remember, I used to be a witch so not having things bent to my will is something I'm still adjusting to.) I was studying different Catholic books surrounding His Resurrection, watching The Chosen, and praying every day, so why didn't I feel as close to Him as I desired to be?

The revelation I got was this... I wasn't devoting myself entirely to the Word. As much as we may like to bypass it or choose other sources of inspiration, the Bible is foundational to a relationship with Jesus. You have to be actively in His Word in order to receive words from Him.

He showed me this by allowing my toddler to get into all my makeup while I was in the next room. I keep my makeup in a holder on my altar to Santa Muerte. My Bibles and journals are also placed there. My baby got makeup got on everything, himself, the walls, my chair, but the biggest concentration of mess was directly on top of my Bible. Not even a drop of makeup had touched my altar cloth or my Santísima statues, but the entire cover of my Bible was slathered in foundation and the empty container rested on the cover.

Pregnancy hormones had me crying, I'm not going to lie, so after cleaning everything up and trudging downstairs with my stained Bible, I soon realized exactly what God was trying to show me. There's no shortcut or substitution to come closer to the Lord without study of Scripture.

This is also why it's very important to be mindful of what we request from God. I had asked Him why I didn't feel close and he showed me why in the most blatant way. Even the makeup was symbolic because as a woman, we can even put pampering ourselves before the Lord, not realizing that when we turn to Him, He will give us comfort that goes beyond skin deep.

I share all this to encourage ya'll to get into your Bibles, even if it's just 5-10 minutes a day.

Also, has anyone else received an unpleasant answer from God when seeking Him? Did it still turn out for the best?