Posts Tagged obedience

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

I’m headed to speak this weekend at a state women’s conference. I am giddy. I have been praying and preparing for months. I have been thinking about the ladies I will get to meet, praying for their safe travels, and praying God opens all of our hearts and ears to what He has to teach us.

When I say I have been praying and preparing for months, that is a literal statement. Months. And now, it comes down to two days away and…. I feel unprepared. I feel a bit anxious. I am uncertain about my final point. And if I allow it to begin, the doubting questions creep in and get loud. Really loud.

What if I don’t offer a message they can relate to? What if I have missed the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the points to draw on? What if they don’t leave my workshop empowered and open to God’s calling? What if I get off my notes and ramble senselessly? (That could actually happen, so… valid concern.) What if I have imagined God’s calling on my life and it was all MY imagination? What if? What if?

I know. You have already called it. Satan is quite busy. The confusion, the uncertainty, the doubt…those are not of God.  Just the opposite to be exact.

When we are stepping out of our comfort zone to do God’s work, Satan is not going to sit idly by. Because when we obey God’s calling, God is about to receive the glory He deserves. And isn’t that always the desired goal? When I pause to recognize Satan’s lies and attempts at deception, I stop listening to his questions. I start asking God’s what if’s.

What if a hurting woman learns she has a Best Friend who will never leave her? What if a young lady finds out she has great value to God, and chooses purity over seeking a boy’s approval? What if a young mother leaves feeling empowered that God sees what a great job she is doing, and her kid’s reap the benefits of her new-found confidence? What if a widowed woman realizes God still has a plan for her and great plans for her future?

What if lives are changed for the better and God receives amazing glory and credit? What if? What if?

It occurred to me the What If game doesn’t only exist when I go to speak. It happens anytime any of us take a chance, a risk, to obey God. It can be something seemingly small to you, but will have huge impact on God’s plan for you and for others. Possibly even eternal significance for someone else.

 A couple of weeks ago our Pastor spoke on Peter stepping out of the boat and walking on the water with Jesus. Scripture does not tell us that Peter paused to ask what if? before taking that first step. He just stepped. Outside of the boat.

I love what Pastor said about Peter’s steps. We have to get out of the boat. That is where Jesus is. Miracles happen outside of the boat.
I’m ready to see miracles. I want to see lives changed for the better. I want to see God receive all the glory He is worthy of. And I am done listening to the wrong what if? questions. I want to be outside the boat…. because that is where Jesus is.

Do you ever play the What If game?

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

I am half-way through the Bible study by Henry Blackaby and his son Richard Blackaby called Experiencing God. It is quite the study. Yes, I know that doesn’t really describe it, but I don’t really know how to put it into words. Amazing. Awe-inspiring. Aggravating. Frustrating. Life-changing. Exhausting. Exciting.

But it is very timely for what is going on in my life. Funny how God always divinely places me in just the right study at just the right time. Does that happen to you as well? I’m betting it does. This week I am knee-deep in understanding that responding to God’s calling on our lives, not only takes faith and action on our part, but it also requires making adjustments in our everyday lives. Here is the first paragraph from today’s homework:

           “Many of us want God to speak to us and give us an assignment. However, we are not interested in making major adjustments in our lives. Biblically, that position is impossible. Every time God spoke to people in the Scripture about something He wanted to do through them, major adjustments were required. They had to adjust their lives to God. Once the adjustments were made, God accomplished His purposes through those He called….If you choose to make the adjustment, you can move on to obedience. If you refuse to make the adjustment, you will miss what God has in store for your life.”

That whole paragraph shouts at me, but the last sentence is the zinger. I do NOT want to miss what God has in store for my life. And I really am willing to make the adjustments to my life in order to obey His calling. I have already made a big one by setting aside my own career ambitions. And I have complete peace with that decision.

But what is starting to occur to me is that not all adjustments are big ones. I am starting to see that some of mine are small. Small, but with huge impact. One that has been glaring to me as I worked through today’s homework is my time management. Or maybe you can call it self-discipline. It is both – combined. At least, at LEAST, the first hour spent when I sit down to work or write is spent dawdling, surfing the web, facebooking, tweeting, and just plain ol’ messing around. Call it what you want, but it comes down to wasting precious time.

It’s not that I think I should not have free time to just play on the computer sometimes, but the key word is sometimes. I admit, with a red face, that there has been more than one time when God laid something on my heart to include in a writing and I logged onto Facebook before typing out what I felt God saying to me. And of course, wasting time in the office bleeds into other areas of my life.

I will need to finish an assignment or a blog, so I have to finish it after I pick my children up from school, simply because I wasted too much time that morning. That steals time from them. I don’t want to steal time from them. I want them to have my undivided focus from 3:40pm to 8:00pm, bedtime. But the bottom line remains, my lack of discipline and time management not only effects my children’s time, it is effecting my ministry.

Now I am not making any declarations that I am swearing off social media and reading the news online forever. That would just be crazy talk. But there is a time for it, and a time to take action on what God has called me to do. I have no doubt that there will be other adjustments I need to make in order to be obedient to God in the coming days, months and years. But this small one seems to be weighing heavy on my heart right now. So I have to listen to that small voice inside me and make the adjustments. Because I do NOT want to miss out on what God has in store for my life.

Do you have any adjustments you need to make? Are you a dawdler too?

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Yesterday was a wasted day. Meaning, I wasted it. Completely. I hate when I do that. I had plenty to do, but crossed nothing off my carefully crafted to-do list. As you may have noticed, I didn’t even blog.

We lost about 500 square feet and my beautiful office when we moved. So I have set up temporary headquarters in our guest room. We are thankful for the house we live in, but are also thankful it is only a rental while we get adjusted to our new city and find where we would like to settle permanently.

But in the meantime, I need to be productive. Yesterday was the opposite end of the spectrum for me. Today, when I walked into my office, it hit me like a brick on the head why I was rotten yesterday.

So this is what my calculated plan created. A big fat mess that has been in the floor for 3 days now. It is what I see when I walk into my office/guest room. It makes me tired.

 I have learned enough from years of seminars, conferences and schooling that a cluttered desk equals a cluttered mind. I am sure I have shared that with you before. Most people have a junk drawer in their kitchen that they stash things they are not sure what to do with it. We have one too. But this is like a junk drawer on steroids.

It drains my energy when I walk into my office. I come to my computer to work on an article or my current book and I feel drained and uninspired. Then I find myself in that old trap of feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start again. So I don’t start. I procrastinate.

Clutter is one of those things with me. You know, everyone has their thing. Well, one of mine is I can’t stand clutter. Less is more. My children’s rooms are decorated with less, as well as the rest of our house. My office, of all places, needs to abide by the same rules.  When I am in my office, I look over my shoulder sometimes just to gaze at the one area in it that is not cluttered.

The one area in my office that is clutter-free. The little cove where we tucked in our guest bed. That area makes me happy.

 Tomorrow I am fully committed to finishing the organization process so the creative process can once again survive. After doing my Bible study today and trying to listen to God through His word, it occurred to me that my procrastination (of anything) can stand in the way of God’s plan for me. He has called me to do something, but I am allowing my procrastination to keep me from fully obeying His request.

Do you have a thing that drives you crazy that you have not dealt with? And better yet, are you procrastinating something you know God wants for you to do? I don’t want something as trivial as clutter in my office to keep me from fully walking in obedience. I want to completely participate in His plan for me.

And let me remind you, girlfriend, He does have a plan for you, too. A great one. I will be praying for you while I am completing the set-up of my new workspace. Umm, you may want to say a prayer for me too.