God

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Overwhelmed, Take #2!


Task too big?  Job got you down?  House a wreck?  Kids out of control?   Arrrrggggghhhhhhh!   Right?  Wrong.

So I woke up … EARLY (on my off day no doubt.)  You know when you have plans how you just wake up early, even when you did not have to for several hours?  This day was no different, I had plans.   The goal?  Major cleaning.  Ever wake up tired, unable to face the task or the day ahead?  That was this morning.  But, this time as I lay there I started talking with the Lord.

“Lord.  You know I am tired.  You know I am out of remission (I am having a bout with my Lupus), worn down … my get up and go, got up and went.”    And in the quietness of my heart I heard Him say, “I never get overwhelmed, tired, down, out of control.  Leave it to me.”  And so I said, “Lord, I do not want to be discouraged by the overwhelming tasks ahead, but facts are facts.  I am tired just thinking about it, doomed before I start.  Please give me the strength,Lord,  the “uumph” I need to tackle everything.”

I got up, had my devotions and ate my breakfast.  Then I began.  Three loads of laundry:  Darks, whites, permanent press.  I turned and saw a task I needed to handle.  I did it.  Then another one, and I did it … and so on.  By noon I had done so much and I was not tired.  All of a sudden I realized I had not seen it with “overwhelmed eyes”.  I did not see the “big picture”, only small tasks I could accomplish one by one.  I saw as He sees, little bits and pieces.  They make up a big picture, but He sees the details.  Unlike Him, we need to look at the small bits and pieces of the problem, tasks, job, cleaning  …. you get the idea. God can handle looking at the whole thing and not be overwhelmed, that is why we place it in His hands.  When we look at the total picture we just get discouraged.

Remember:

Philippians 4:13 (HCSB) “I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
 

Allow God to break whatever your “it” is down into manageable portions … let Him delve out those portions instead of taking on the whole by yourself.

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Never quite good ’nuff …. never.


So get over it … you are never going to be good enough in your own eyes … for yourself, for your family or especially for God.  But, that’s okay.  So get over it … now.

… and get over it!

God doesn’t love you because you are going to be perfect in Heaven.  He does not love you because you are getting better every day, or as L’Oreal says, “you’re worth it”.  Get over ‘self’ and telling God your sorry you are not being the child of God He expects.

“I cannot make myself right with God; I cannot make my life perfect. I can only be right with God if I accept the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ as an absolute gift. Am I humble enough to accept it? I have to surrender all my rights and demands, and cease from every self-effort. I must leave myself completely alone in His hands, and then I can begin to pour my life out in the priestly work of intercession. There is a great deal of prayer that comes from actual disbelief in the atonement. Jesus is not just beginning to save us— He has already saved us completely. It is an accomplished fact, and it is an insult to Him for us to ask Him to do what He has already done.” ~ Oswald Chambers

Do not let satan* lie to you and convince you cannot do something because you are not good enough.  Do not consume prayer time everyday telling God how worthless you are and how sorry you are that you are not being a better Christian. There is a time for that, repentance … but, it is not a crutch for not praying for others or doing the work He calls you to do.  Spend your prayer time in intercession for others and God will complete His work in you.  I will not go into how the Bible directs us to pray (you can read that blog at “Now I Lay Me”.)

Remember, God made you, He saved you. Now move on and do not be stagnant.

“I know the One I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day.” 2 Timothy 1:12b HCSB
 

Self pity, self-doubt … anything that begins with ‘self’, is going to get you off course.  It keeps you from claiming His power.  If you don’t, then you will raise children who do not understand His power.  Do not fall into satan’s* trap of lies.  God loves you just as you are.  Claim His love, His power and step out in faith.  Otherwise you sit and sour.  At the risk of repeating myself (but, it bears repeating), re-read “JUST DO IT”  if you need too.

Philippians 4:13 (NASB) “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

*satan – I know people capitalize the “S” but, I don’t.  I refuse to give him any status of importance.  He’s a snake, so satan, devil, etc. are lower case, as he is one.
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Look out for the waves …


The child is playing in the surf, standing near the ever watchful parent (hopefully).  The parent sees the wave and lifts them up just in time saying, “whee” to transfer joy instead of fear into the little one’s mind.

You walk along the surf, your mind emptying its thoughts along the sand.  You never saw it coming, the wave knocks you off your feet.  You tumble and roll, gaining your footing momentarily only to have a second wave grasp you and take you down.  There’s that moment of fear, you want to fight back, you want to survive … a hand reaches you and lifts you up.

Oh to be the child again, always having a hand there to keep you lifted above the waves.  As children we do not have to keep an eye out, that is what parents do.  But, as adults we lose our peripheral vision on our own lives.  We get tunnel vision and never see the waves of life coming until it is too late and the big wave of life takes us under.  Then floundering around grasping for anything thing to keep us afloat, we reach out for anything and everything.  Sadly that takes many further out to sea.

The best way to survive waves is to prepare for them.  I love to walk the shore line, but if the water is rough, I go to the sandbars to keep me protected.  The Christian life is like that as well.  Waves are coming, it is part of life.  God allows them, not to knock you down and drown you, but to teach you to rely on Him.  He IS your sandbar.  When you stray off the safety of His path, He’s there waiting to guide you back.  When you allow the waves to wash you out to sea, He’s your lighthouse in the storm.  The lighthouse never moves, you simply have to look towards Him, move towards Him.

You moved, He didn’t.

You know the way, you see the way, you have to admit what needs to be done and swim back towards the Lighthouse.  He will guide, His light reaches out to you.

Psalm 27:1 NLT
“A psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation–so why should I be afraid? The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?”

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“Teacher’s Pet”


You either have been or knew someone that was “the teacher’s pet”.  

They even made a movie about it once upon a time.  Favorite, we all want to be one.  We all have one, not just teacher’s.

In the Bible, “pets” or favorites, caused many problems.  Genesis 25 relates what happens when parents play favorites as did Isaac and Rebekah.  In Matthew 20 we read of a mother in verse 21 that says, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”  She wanted her sons given favor over the others.

“Pets”, favorites, going to the same people over and over.  The teacher does it, the parent does it, the employer does it, the choir director, the pastor, the ….. EVERYONE.  We all have favorites.  Sometimes when we repeatedly go to the same people we bypass more deserving people, hurting them; and we shortcut God’s ministry by not giving Him the opportunity to bless through others.

We all can set aside our preferences and allow God to use everyone He will.  As a parent, you can bless your children by going to the one “least likely”.   Even if you have only one child, you can set aside yourself or spouse by allowing God to use them.  Tap into the strength of others, not your usual “go to” people.  That may be a child, a student, an employee, someone in your church.   Do not ignore the “inkling” to ask someone to do something by thinking through it and convincing yourself you could do it better, or someone else could do it better.  God loves to use those we deem weaker vessels, perfect for the job in His eyes.

Validate others, even if you could do it better yourself.   You may be surprised to find the result far exceeds anything that could have resulted from you or others.   Moses was called out as a leader (Exodus 4) and asked for Aaron’s help doubting what God could do in him, the weak vessel.  How often do we shortcut God and make a hindrance to His work.

Today, if God gives you the opportunity, let Him take someone you view ordinary and make them extraordinary.

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My Get Up and Go …


Got up and went.

Ever feel this way? You know, when your day is done (or maybe just begun) and your get up and go, got up and went.

Know the feeling?  We are always on the run, here, there …. everywhere.  Hurry, hurry, hurry.  We have such a frantic schedule, especially when we have children at home.   My mother use to say she met her self coming when she was going.  Think on that one for a minute.

Other sayings from the South:

* running around like a chicken with their head cut off

* they won’t know they’re dead until they lay down three days later

We live life to the fullest.  So full, we overflow into utter exhaustion and yet seem to get little done.  Another saying: “Take time to smell the roses”.   Oh, we can quote them, but can we live them?  Each generation reflects back to when life was simpler … oh, for the good ol’ days.

Is it any wonder we do not hear answers to prayers?  We are too busy to slow down and listen and follow instructions.

In John 9 Jesus met a blind man. The man wanted to be healed.  Jesus placed mud on his eyes and told him to GO and he WENT.

JOHN 9:6-7  6  “After saying this, He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” He told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.”

The man had to put action to his faith in this instance.  Jesus showed him to listen, follow and do.  Oh, we listen when we take the time to hear.  But do we follow?  Do we put any action to our faith?  Do we “GO”?

Today as you are hurrying around to the point that your “get up and go, got up and went” (in other words you are exhausted), think on what God has asked of you to do.  Have you been too busy to hear His still quite voice leading you?  What did you hear?  Did you say, “I don’t have time, or later Lord?  Maybe not in so many words, but in your actions that is what you say, right?  If you put as much into His schedule as you do your own … if when He asked you to “GO” you got up and “WENT”.  What might you see happen?