Last month, here on 5 Minutes for Faith, I wrote about the day God stopped me in my tracks. He reminded me that no matter what I think I know, only He knows the full and complete picture of His plans.
That same day, although I don’t remember what I was reading at the time, this verse was put in front of me.
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
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I’ve been working my way through Your 100 Day Prayer: The Transforming Power of Actively Waiting On God, by John Snyder, over at Counting My Blessings this summer.
I believe that finding this book was a God appointment in my life. You see, I’ve been praying about something for a VERY long time. God has blessed me with peace and patience most of the time, but occasionally when longing sets in and my heart hurts . . . well, I’ll bet you can relate.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is:
Prayer is not like rubbing a magic lamp to get our wishes granted.
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I’ve been thinking about time alot this week. Starting a new calendar is a big deal. I love having a clean planner, dates stretch out fresh with possibilities. No appointments scribbled out yet and no reminders of my problem with procrastination or promptness, just clean white pages waiting to be filled.
Did you know that God cares about time?
I did a search of the use of the word “time” in the NIV Bible, and discovered that it is used 888 times. The first verse which includes the word “time” is in the Book of Genesis, the first chapter, where in verse 5 it says:
God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.”
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Life seems to be all about learning, implementing, revising, relearning…
Some of those lessons are ones I wish I just had to sit through once and, perhaps if I truly learned the message the first time through, that would be the case.
He’s been teaching me these past many months the art of letting go. Letting go of the old in order to embrace the new. Letting go of what is not working so that He can bring to me what will. Letting go of trying to fix it or work it out on my own, instead allowing Him to bring His perfect will and plans into my life.
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I spent some time visiting with a dear friend the other day. We each have things that are heavy on our hearts. Issues that we see as being potential problems for God’s people. Situations where individuals are investing themselves in things that could ultimately hurt them spiritually, and also have a ricochet effect on the lives of those closest to them.
How do you handle this kind of conversation?
I have a few tips to share should you ever find yourself in a similar situation.
1. Don’t Gossip
- Be very careful to discuss the problem without names.
- Details are unnecessary, stick to the big picture.
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“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” ~ Hans Hofmann
“Hey!” Kendall walked into the kitchen. It was the twinkle in her eyes more than her excited tone that captured my attention. “Can you come here for a minute?”
I dried my hands on a towel and then followed her into the living room. She walked to the hutch which now housed the collection of salt and pepper shakers I had inherited from my grandmother. I thought for sure she must have more questions about them. She reached one tiny hand out but – instead of fingering one of the sets in fascination like she had earlier – she pointed to the round tin with the letters S I M P L I F Y stenciled on the side that sat tucked out of the way on the bottom shelf.
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We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5
I awakened this morning with the title of this post running through my mind. What if the first time you had a thought, it was just that . . . a thought? The second time you thought it, you were granted a mulligan by God’s grace. But if you continued spinning it around in your head, it appeared across your forehead in ticker tape format. Right there for everyone to see!
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“Knowledge flows like spring water from the wise;
fools are leaky faucets, dripping nonsense.”
Proverbs 15:2 The Message
Nonsense!
Wow, what an amazingly fantastic word. I know we “know” what it means, but digging a little deeper, look what I found out about nonsense…
According to Merriam-Webster.com nonsense means;
1a : words or language having no meaning or conveying no intelligible ideas b (1) : language, conduct, or an idea that is absurd or contrary to good sense (2) : an instance of absurd action
I’m not a rocket scientist or anything but I can tell you this…I do not want to be a leaky faucet dripping nonsense, do you?
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