Dream Big! Isaiah 64:4, 1 Corinthians 2:9
Quite a few years ago I was involved in a national cause in which I believed there was a great injustice being committed. I spent several months rallying people, raising money, garnering publicity, even arranging for appearances on the Sean Hannity television program.
About a month in, God was able to break through my passion and say, “I can handle this. I don’t need your help.”
But it was too late. I was emotionally and practically committed.
I threw myself into the cause. I would wake up in the middle of the night with new ways to bring attention to the cause. This situation had to be seen for the travesty that it was. I was sincere and passionate.
Finally the situation came to a resolution, and all the cards were on the table. I found out I didn’t have all the facts. The great injustice, wasn’t. Justice was done, despite my help.
Relieved but a little embarrassed, I heard God gently say, “What about ‘I can handle this, I don’t need your help’ did you not understand?”
Over time I thought about all of the time and energy I had wasted over those months. Not that they weren’t already redeemed, but I wanted to make sure I learned any lessons I could. He started to teach me the difference between our job and His. Its a lifelong lesson, but I’m working on it.
Today there are a lot of things to be stressed out about, and a lot of opportunity to Support a Cause and Get Involved. But the first thing I do, is to find out if God needs my help, if there is anything that I need to do differently.
I don’t want to be sticking my nose in His business, and I want to make sure I’m taking care of mine.
I don’t need to help Him, to change His mind, to convince Him to do things a certain way.
I don’t need to fast, or pray, or humble myself, or repent.
Unless He tells me to.
That’s where I start. What is He telling Me to do? What is He saying To Me?
If you’re stressed, maybe that’s a good place to start.
Do you know what God wants you to be doing? Are you doing it?
Give Him a chance to talk to you about what’s causing your stress. You may be surprised to hear, “I can handle this. I don’t need your help.” Then you can be about working on the projects He HAS assigned to you.
“Lord, is there anything I should be doing that I’m not? Any activity or involvement I need to cut back on? I understand my duties as a citizen of this world, and I am committed to fulfilling those responsibilities, but is there anything else you want to draw my attention to?”
Over time let Him change your desires and direction, or recognize the peace in the place you’re at now. Give Him opportunity, and He will be your guide.
So often we hear about how we need to commit to God, commit our will, our family, our path, our plans, our selves, our goods and our time into His Hands. We tend to focus on our part of the relationship, perhaps because we are more familiar with it and feel we are responsible for our situation. But consider this…
God Is Committed To You.
He is devoted to arranging and making the most out of every circumstance in your life to bring you to precisely this point, where you are Right Now.
Whatever that point may be. Whether you perceive it as Good or as Bad.
He is committed to you, for your benefit. And as spirit you have agreed that “this” is the best thing for you. You and He are on the same side, working through whatever “this” is.
He won’t turn His back on you. He won’t leave you or forsake you. He won’t change His mind about you. Even when you think He should.
God has committed His resources, all time, all of heaven and earth, to your Wholeness. He will not stop here. He will not let you go.
When you succeed, or fail, or think you have gotten off the path, whatever any of that means to you, it is all part of His plan for you. Don’t take it as a permanent state of being: you ARE succeeding, because you are in Him and He is committed to you.
When you give up, He’s there, with His arms around you, loving you.
God is committed to you because He loves you.
He can’t help Himself. It’s His nature to love you, and He will not be denied.
You are God’s inheritance, and part of His family. Now. Not when you die, or are seated with Him in heavenly places. Now. You interact as family because you Are family. Not “as if,” but because you Are family. One Family. One Love. One Being. One.
“Lord, is there something we need to talk about? Is there an area of my life or beliefs in which I wait for you to be disappointed in me, in which I expect you to give up or abandon me? Where I am sure you’ve given my blessings to someone else because I have failed you so badly? Tell me Your Truth here, Lord…”
Be sure to test what you hear.
“Lord, Is That You?”
I’ve spent a lot of time driving lately, and ended up listening to a lot of Bible teaching on the radio. I noticed a sense of depression and burden toward even what I usually really enjoy doing. Pausing to check with the Lord, I was struck by several of the phrases I had heard on the radio; maybe not so much the words, but the approach to this world’s challenges that was presented. Rewards for suffering. Bearing other’s burdens. Treasures in heaven.
It is so much easier to be negative about, well, just about anything. On our own we tend toward the negative, and have to really work to be positive.
So, we’ll have to learn how to work. To overcome. To accept and focus on the positive. To enjoy God’s Yes.
Can you know God without a doubt? Yes.
Can you hear His Voice clearly. Yes.
Can you know He loves you now? Yes.
Does He have wonderful treasures, freedom, healing for you now? Yes.
Will we have to work to enjoy them? Yes…
Not to receive them, No…
But to enjoy them, yes, it may be work.
So, it’s daylight, let’s get to work 🙂
In our society we encounter this enemy on a regular basis any time we allow the world system to define “success” for us instead of God. Success can be measured in many ways, for instance some measure their success according to their Productivity: “Try harder!” You need to measure up. Are you getting everything done? “Be Number One.” “Just Do It!” But winning the Rat Race simply makes you the fastest Rat.
Now, we do get to enjoy some great prizes: The unrelenting pressure of competition, the endless demand for busy-ness, learning to live with vindictive peer pressure, and knowing that our success is so often in the hands of those who can ruin our reputation or business with a casual remark on social media.
On the other end of the spectrum, some measure their success by how much they have rejected a previous view of success. They think by embracing the opposite of Productivity, say, Victimology or Entitlement, they have somehow escaped the excesses of the previous generation. But a new kind of excess is created, that of economic fantasy, a separation from the reality of how God created this world to work in this age.
Either way it is all the World System, no matter how it is expressed. If we want to overcome the World System, we start by going to God Himself to define success for us now, as individuals, without rejecting God’s control over the age we are living in.
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