Posts
Rewritten from ~Delayed with a
Purpose – In His Word 9-16-13
Today I woke up
late, because I had awoken early. I started off kilter and it seemed like
dominoes that were set up to fall in a line but with one or two spaces off from
the others. I tried to push through because I realized that wet laundry in the
bottom of the basket of dry clothes was just that, wet. I could put it in the
dryer and continue with the day.
I tried explaining to someone who was running
on their own path in another direction and so we just missed one another. All
would be well I had my Bible sitting on the coffee table waiting for me,.
The Word was
from the book of Jeremiah in the first few chapters. It was gripping though rather
annoyingly long at the same time. That is when I realized it was good for me to
see this particular portion as it chronicled the many reasons God was about to
'get' the people He loved and went on to share how much He loved them. I had people to pick up for school that day and had to 'get' the people!
Can someone do
this? I wondered; love and want to utterly punish someone making their life
miserable at the same time? I thought about this and read on.
I saw how much
God loved and forgave Israel and Judah so many times and so much that He was
now warning them to clean up their acts or get what’s coming to them.
Time slipped by
and I finally finished my many pages of reading in time to check emails and say
“hi” to my distant family members.
I drifted into thoughts and almost forgot to get the kids in the car to take them to school!
Then it was time
to go! I hurried out the door and down the street, around the corner came my
first delay. The neighborhood was backed up?
They were fixing
a repaired road from yesterday's broken water main. I turned and made my way around the traffic
only to stop at the next traffic light, and the next two. I was finally getting
near the freeway and was reminded of a person I was supposed to be picking up.
Oops, I had
forgotten!
“Okay Lord,
thank you for that delay, I would have been to the school by now if I had not
been slowed this far.”
Around the
corner came more delays and we barely got the kids to school on time. I sat in
the car a few moments thinking of all I had to do still this day and breathed another
word of thanks to God.
We cannot always
see the reason we are slowed, often there is an accident or two, that get in
our way miles before we reach the spot we would have been in the middle of when
the crash happened. It could have been us.
Just because all
those things got in my way it was not a reason to be a jerk, or yell at anyone.
I could have been a brat, but instead I chose to look to God and know that
there was a reason in it.
I could sit and
cry about the wet laundry but instead I chose to throw it in the dryer and take
care of the situation. I had to remind myself to stop being upset and make the
choice to rejoice!
So how can we do
this all the time? Or can we?
Well first we
can stop what we are doing; stop complaining, stop whining, stop being selfish.
It's not about
me. Go ahead say it out loud, “It's not about me!'
Then we make the
choice to accept that obstacle as from the Lord.
It’s about His
purpose, His direction and His path laid out for us today.
It is not always
easy to do this step; it's often impossible to do alone, but with God all
things are possible.
Remind yourself
with a quick prayer to God to give you direction who you are following.
I am reminded
now of playing follow the leader with very small children. They don't quite get
it all the time and sometimes one or two will start a new path which often ends
up in a bad way. Our days are the same.
We sometimes
need to be delayed to get the right attitude on to go through the rest of the
day. If I had not decided it was not about me that it was about God I would
have been annoyed all day and probably caused a major confrontation in my life
that would have ended badly. Before I
changed my attitude, I was ready for battle, flesh-me was putting up my dukes!
The spirit was willing,
but the flesh was weak.
Thank God the
flesh was weak, in this case God pushed through and the Holy Spirit was heard
as I stopped at another light and accepted aloud that it was God's plan slowing
me.
The steps of a good man are ordered by the
Lord, and He delights in his way. Psalm 37:23
So, once you
have accepted that He has planned or ordered our steps then we need to follow
the path with peacefulness, not worry, not stressful reactions but with
calmness of attitude and prayer.
Once we realize
God has a reason, even if we never see it; He will keep in perfect peace whose
mind is stayed on Him. Really, we must keep our mind out of the trash bin of
emotions and into the comfort of His arms.
You will keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3
Instead of
stressing, I chose to trust Him to do all that I can't see Him doing to make my
way straight.
Sounds like my
favorite scripture; Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not in your
own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your
path.
He will direct
our paths when we remember to keep our focus off our selfish self, and onto His
perfect will and desire for our lives.
It is not about
me! It is not about you either! It is about doing His will, His timing is
perfect.
As we go through
today, we will find many hurdles, bushes and rocks in our way; especially if
you made the choice to follow Jesus' directions not selfish desires today. The
enemy wants us to cause trouble so he will be dropping boulders left and right
trying to cause us to stumble so we can remind ourselves how rotten a day it
is. God has overcome this enemy, and so can we because God is on our side!
Suggested
Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:1-14, Psalm 37:1-40, Isaiah 26:1-21, and Zephaniah
3:1-20