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A Crisis of Identity
The Old Crisis
Strained relationships are common for Leola right now. It isn’t the fault of the people in her life. There is a struggle in her mind about who she should be as a Christian. Should she abandon her old self? She has secular friends and Christian friends and at this moment she is not comfortable with either one. Her behaviour with each one is not quite up to par. She cannot be a Christian with her secular friends and she can’t stand her Gentile behaviour with her Christian friends. Who is she, a Christian or a Gentile? She isn’t Gentile enough to be a Gentile nor is she Christian enough to a Christian. She just doesn’t fit into either category. “I wish I knew who I was?” Leola thought as she sat studying the Words of God. She knows she is going through an identity crisis. Her identity revolves around whom she is serving and how. Is she a Christian serving Christ or a Gentile serving Satan? Someone preached God does not gift unsaved people so what does she do with those talents she has had all of her life? Are they from God or from Satan? Does she have to give them all up and develop new ones?
Leola started learning about those so-called ‘Spiritual Gifts’ the teachers spoke of. She ordered tons of books and studied the Scriptures. She was convinced even the unsaved were gifted by God to do what they were doing otherwise that would me either we developed them ourselves (we are god) or the devil gave them to us (he is god). Without a doubt Leola was gifted for leadership and administration. Who gave her those gifts because she has been acting within them all of her life. She is also an encourager and a teacher. How did she get those talents? If God is not giving talents to people from the time they are born how did she get them? These questions are weighing heavily on Leola at this moment. Even in these early days she can see within the church people are not acting within their own talents, which is also perplexing to her because if God gives the talents why are they not being utilized by the church. Are we not the Body of Christ, the eyes, the mouth, the arms and the feet? Maybe, they don’t know what talents they have or they don’t like what they have? Either way she has to get to the bottom of this or it will drive her nuts! (That is her combination gift of administration and teaching kicking in. They always need to find the truth to set them free from not knowing!)
After studying the Words of God I came to believe God gifts everyone from the day they are born. How they use the gifts God bestowed upon them at birth is another thing altogether. I have expressed this truth before as I will again – God has a plan for every single person on this earth from before they were born so therefore we can only believe this truth – God has given each person talents to function in this world inside and outside of the church building. The identity crisis each of us goes through is specific to using those talents. Are you a born leader, then lead? Are you an excellent organizer, than organize? Are you compassionate toward the hurting, than have mercy on them? People are being used by God to move another person into their specific plan of God. Your leadership, administration, mercy or the another gift was given to you by God to work and to show people Christ! In Romans 12 Paul tells us about the gifts everyone has, Christians and Gentiles. We use these gifts to function in our work and in the church to serve each other. These are what are called the functional gifts of God. We function in them every day no matter where we are while 1 Corinthians 12 list the gifts used to edify the Body of Christ. Paul tells us the Spirit Himself unleashes these gifts as He sees fit. These are for those of us in the Body of Christ to be used to edify each other. We know this because Paul tells us they come by the Spirit. In 1 Peter 4, Peter tells us to get busy doing what God has gifted us to do so the body will run like a well-oiled clock. They both want us to stop lusting after what men want and do what the Spirit wants. Herein lies our identity crisis. We want what man wants for us but God wants us to do what He wants for us. It is the struggle between Gentile and Christian we all go through.
Her New Identity
Leola is having a crisis that can only be described as a crisis of her new identity in Christ. Her gift of leadership and administration turns out to be a rare combination and to be found in a woman was detrimental to her cause or so she thought. Men and women alike will hold her back but in her search to discover the giftings of God she is also discovering who is in charge of those gifts and it is neither man nor Satan. God gave her those gifts and left her in charge of them to choose whether she would use them or not! She will! Her new stronger identity would do what He wants her to do rather than be limited by what people think she should do. Her learning also included teaching the gifts of God in a Life Skills Workshop as well as encouraging everyone she meets to use the talents God has given them to serve His people in the manner God instructs not people. Being able to improve her life skills was hinging on His answers to this crisis. In finding the answers Leola gained a full understanding of who she was in Christ and who she would become for Him. This was significant for her because this crisis was holding her back from doing all the things of God meant for her. Now that she is years past this crisis Leola’s faith in God is based on His approval of the tasks she does not mans. She will not be held back by people because she knows God is making His way for her to do exactly what His will is and she is going! She said out loud to Satan, “If you are in God’s way, you are in my way, so get behind me, Satan!”
Who will win in your life, the Gentile or the Christian? If you think God has not gifted you with THAT gift (women shouldn’t have it or men shouldn’t have it) you are limiting God. God is bigger than any man and He does what man cannot do. The gifts of God are for us all to serve His people whether they are saved or not. Just as God uses the saved He also uses the unsaved. Do you know how He has gifted you? The Bible does not tell us explicitly what we will do on the New Earth although since it is our soul using the talents given, and our soul will live on the New Earth it stands to reason whatever our soul is gifted to do here will be exactly what it will be gifted to do on the New Earth for the Body of Christ. Think about your talents here. Can you use those talents for God’s people on the New Earth? I am gifted with Leadership, administration, exhortation and teaching, can they be transferred to the New Earth where everyone knows who Jesus is. Absolutely, because outside of Jerusalem will be those who chose not to use their talents to build up the Body of Christ therefore they in turn were not built up either. They will not know Jesus personally because they chose not to have a relationship with Him by studying His Words. They will go into Heaven as ignorant about Him as they were on the day they were saved. Let that not be you! No matter what any person says God is the one who gifts you, He makes the way for you and He gives you the people you are to serve. No man has the power to do any of this. Give up your identity crisis today and free yourself to do what God has asked you to do to serve us, that we can do the same! We are going with or without you so why don’t you just come!
Meditation Verses this week: Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; 1 Peter 4; Revelation 21-22
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Cry out to Him and See!
There is nothing like a death in the family to make us evaluate (or me anyway) the things we are doing. We watch as people walk through the room and how they react. We react with curiosity about how they have impacted the lives of those they knew. We evaluate how they have impacted our life. The only real way we can know what they have done for others is to listen to stories and listen intently to how people felt about that person. This is a skill that we must learn to utilize as we get older because we learn much about ourselves and about others. We can know someone all of our life and still not know the impact that person has had on others outside of our own relationship with them.
This begs me to ask of myself, “How have I had an impact on those in my life?” Have I created an atmosphere of love or contention? Have I taught my loved ones that I am determined or lazy? BUT the biggest question is, “Have I shown (not told) them that I love Jesus?” Will that be the first thing people say or will they have to find out from the pastor during my service. I have no other desire for you to know anything other than my love for Jesus and how I work that out in my life. What I want you to see is I love Jesus, I love my family, I love my friends and anyone whom I can touch through my teaching of Jesus Christ and my writings about how we can learn from Him.I want you to see my passion for the Word when I teach you what Jesus has been teaching me. I want you to see my determined devotion to Him while I help you learn what I have learned. I want you to see my steadfastness in doing what Jesus has asked me to do. In this you will find out that I have dedicated my life to knowing Jesus by studying His word so I can be of use to the women in the area in which Jesus has placed me. I cry out to God daily for them and I ask Him to position me to be of the most use to them.
How can we go forward when we feel like we are not doing enough? Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” Cry out to Jesus and ask Him daily what He has planned for you. He will reveal in you just as He will reveal in me just exactly what He wants us to learn and how He wants us to use that knowledge. Then we must do it!
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Excited to Learn? YEAH!
Knowledge is one thing but understanding is a whole new ball game. I love it when I begin to understand something whether related to the Word of God or at my job or even just reading a book that is hard to understand. I ponder stuff all the time and ask why a lot. Jesus is so patient with my questions and my lack of knowledge that it just blows me away when He teaches me something new. I do not deserve to know this much or to understand anything He is teaching me because I am so dim witted sometimes. How many times does He have to teach us something before we learn it? Well, let’s see what the Word has to say about that.
I want to start with Proverbs 6:6 when Solomon calls someone a sluggard. Lazy people cannot learn so he says to them go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. He wants us not to be lazy and learn fully what we need to learn. Wisdom does not come in one day so the fact that he refers to us becoming wise tells me that he knows we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Psalm 106:35 tells us that they mingled with the nations and learned their practices. That is us Christians. We mingle with the world and learn their ways in time and act like them but we need to mingle with God and learn His ways so we can become knowledgeable about the things of God. To do this we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
The Bible was written for us to learn from and Paul needed to tell us just that in Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The length of time it takes us to learn is shown here in the term perseverance. Why would we need perseverance if our learning were going to be quick? Again, we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Proverbs 1:7 says that the beginning of knowledge comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord is not based on what you don’t know it is based on what you do know. We cannot gain a fear of the Lord until we know the Lord. He has buried many secrets in His Word that He expects us to uncover. It takes learning to uncover those secrets. Only fools despise wisdom and instruction – be not a fool and fear the Lord. Take time learning and be taught often.
Read books but always come back to the Word! These are just a few verses that tell us about learning. Jesus taught us the whole time He was on the earth so that we would have a mentor; someone to teach us the ways to walk. Jesus said take His yoke upon us and learn from Him for He is gentle and lowly in heart and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Our learning begins and ends with Scripture. We can be taught the Bible from others but the truth can only be found in one place – the Holy Bible. It tells us that we need no other teacher (1 John 2:27) than Jesus and that God will send no one else to tell us the truth (Hebrews 1:1-3) because Jesus has told the truth to us, recorded and distributed it to us that we may learn. When the mystery of the truth is revealed to us it is an exciting thing to comprehend because it has taken us time to learn and we were taught often!
Be persistent this week to spend time in the word with the FULL understanding that it will take time to learn and we will need to be taught many times before we understand. God will reveal His mysteries to us if we persist.
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The Rewards for Study
I don’t know about you, I am an instant gratification person! Well, that might be a little strong but I like to see the reward from my work. I am a hard worker and I can see the reward sometimes but there are times when I work hard and see nothing, if you know what I mean. I don’t see the reward right away and it bothers me! I see that sometimes when I study the Bible! We have been talking about studying the Bible but do we know what we get out of studying the Bible? What is the reward and exactly when will we see this reward? Does each person get the same reward? Let’s see what the Bible says about that….
2 Timothy 2:15 says rightly dividing the Word of Truth, which is studying the Word and knowing it, means we can present ourselves approved to God an unashamed worker. If we diligently study the Word, God will approve us along with the rest of those who study the Word. Each of us will receive the same reward. This is an amazing thing all by itself because everyone will stand before Jesus one day but we will already be approved before we even stand before Him. That is a great thing to know while I live here on this earth but I must continue to study the Word to continue in that approval.
Joshua 1:8 Meditating in the Word, day and night, will surely help us do all that is written in it therefore we will be rewarded with a prosperous way and good success in what we do. If we meditate in the Word and do the Word, God will make our way prosper and give us good success along with the rest of those who do that same. Each of us will receive the same reward. Another great thing to know while here but I need to continue to meditate on His Word and observing to do all that is written in it to continue going in a prosperous way and having good success in that way!
John 8:31-32 A Disciple of Jesus who abides in His Word shall know the truth and that truth shall set him free. The reward for abiding in His Word is freedom. Abiding is more than just doing it is living. If we spend our days abiding in the things of Jesus we shall know the truth, which in turn shall set us free. Each of us will receive the same reward. Oh, freedom is the greatest thing to know but we must abide and continue to abide to know this freedom in the truth.
Proverbs 25:2 God takes glory in concealing a matter so that His kings can search it out to our glory. The reward for searching out a matter is glory from God. We should never be satisfied with our current knowledge but always searching out the matters of God. If we spend our days searching out matters from the Word we will obtain glory from God just like the rest of us kings who do the same. Each of us will receive the same reward. How wonderful it is to know that Jesus will see me as a king and bestow glory on me as long as I continue to search out the matters of God.
We know that all of these rewards are contingent on us continuing in mining for the treasures of God. He wants us to study so that our soul will be overtaken with doing the right thing, the will of God. Our soul will always want to do the ME thing but God wants us to do His thing and that is why we study the Word; to know God and to love Him so much that we do His will out of love.
Please don’t study the Word for your head or for the world, study for your heart and God will reward you mightily with approval, freedom, glory, a prosperous way, good success and so many more. Study the Bible to find other rewards and be further rewarded.
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What Will it Take? Part 3
I have asked you what it will take to get you to read the Bible – what was your answer? I have also asked you what it will take to get you to study the Bible – what was you answer to that question? Now a new question if you can handle it. What will it take for you to memorize the Bible? I am not asking you to memorize the whole thing just parts of it. What is your biggest excuse for refusing to memorize Scripture? Actually, no matter what the excuse, there is no excuse for not knowing the Word of God. In Proverbs 1:7 Solomon says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and that fools reject wisdom and instruction. I am going to tell you on this day that memorizing Scripture is part of this knowledge because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to hang onto for future use. Shall you present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God or not?
I hear all the time that people have “life verses” that they have memorized but I am confused about what exactly that means, or more so, what does it mean to them. They memorize a verse like Romans 8:28 but miss the verses before and after where it says that we are predestined to do good works. They memorize Jeremiah 29:11 but skip the fact that God said seek me first and you shall have this. Seeking Him means knowing everything that He says not just what we want to know at that moment or even for life. Has our soul been so spoiled by what we have been feeding it that we want to have life verses that tell us that we are only going to have good things for the future. What about memorizing Hebrews 4:12 or Psalm 149:5 or Isaiah 49:2 or even Jeremiah 23:29 and John 12:48? We are going to be judged by the Words of Jesus when we stand before Him and if we have never buried them in our soul we will not even know what we will be judged by. This is what the Word means to us right here and right now. It is not about our soul here on Earth it is about our soul in Heaven. Paul said to bring your soul into submission (1 Corinthians 9:26-27). Do not run aimlessly through life only putting fluffy verses into your soul, run to win this race to Jesus. Put verses into your soul that change you, encourage you to keep going and keep you on the pavement. Since our life is constantly changing so should our “life verse or verses” change. Challenge yourself and your soul to memorize a whole Psalm this week. Some good ones would be Psalm 8, Psalm 91, Psalm 100 and the all-favourite Psalm 23. Bring your soul into submission so that in the future you will be able to continue running through that desert.
A time is coming when you will not feel the Father around or Jesus or the Holy Spirit because your soul is inundated with worldly woes. Are you prepared for that? Will your whole Spirit come to a stand still? Will you wish you had prepared yourself? Yes, you will unless you let your soul whining take over. Will God be to blame if life happens and you have not prepared your soul to handle it with dignity? You won’t be alone. There are many Christians out there who have not prepared their souls for what is about to happen but that is still no excuse for them to be unprepared. What is it that you are preparing for? Are you preparing for financial disaster, a death in the family, kids coming or kids moving out, job or job loss? Jesus tells us that where our heart is, that is where our treasure is (Matthew 6:21) but our heart is supposed to be in Heaven and we are supposed to be preparing ourselves for when Jesus comes again. We are being sought after by a roaring lion to be devoured and the only way to beat him at his game is the Word. He will continue to come after us but if we know the Truth it shall set us free from the oppression that he has laid upon us. We are not without power but it is not our power that can beat the devil it is the power of God that beats him. The power of God is His Word and it is sharper than a two-edged sword piercing even to the separating of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12).
If you know the things of God you shall present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God! Is that not what we want? Therefore there is nothing in this world that should stop us from becoming mature and running the race well. Memorizing Scripture will give us this knowledge we need to present ourselves mature because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to fight the devil with in the future. I cannot say this enough – reading the Bible, studying the Bible and knowing the Bible is the only way to mature in the things of God. It is disappointing to find Christians who are not hell bent on knowing God. Yes, it is work but how well do you know how to search the Internet or run your computer? Do you think that will give you a free pass into the New Jerusalem? How many songs can you sing from memory? What is stopping you from singing a Psalm instead of a song? Can you see how weak your current excuse is, if you just ponder that excuse for just one moment? When Jesus comes He will take no excuses, only the Truth and His Word will judge us! Ignorance of His Word will not save us, it will kill us. We are to bring our soul into submission and make it do what Jesus wants us to do! Unless you read, study and know Scripture you will never know what that is! What will it take for you to understand that God’s will for us will not be thwarted by stubbornness? He knows what you will and won’t do and He will pull you along kicking and screaming if He has too so why don’t you just do what He wants! He wants you to know Him and to know Him you need to read the Word, study the Word and know the Words.
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Guard those Pieces with Your Life!
Joining the pieces of information together that God gives us takes time and knowledge to accomplish. We all use different methods to join those pieces together. To follow the will of God we need to be able to put those pieces together. Putting these pieces together takes a steadfast mind on the task. If we are keeping these pieces in our mind we cannot allow ourselves to be caught off guard. We need to guard these pieces with out life. Each of those pieces keeps us alive in Jesus so when we do not guard them we will lose them. Keeping guard of these pieces with your life will lead to two rewards, more pieces and growing up.As we learned from the last blog, pieces are bits of information that the Holy Spirit places in our heart/mind to help us stay in the Fathers will. As we guard the pieces we already have he will supply us with more. Jesus said in Matthew 13:12 that those who have will be given more but those who do not guard their pieces will lose their pieces. This applies to all knowledge and wisdom given us by the Father. We are gathering information because it helps us to get into position to fulfill the will of God in our life. Some of these pieces of information include how we are gifted, who Jesus is inside those gifts, how we can use those gifts each day and what other information we need. No information is complete by itself so we need to gather more to fully understand all the pieces. Guarding all the pieces information results in more and our growth as well.
With each piece of information we gather and guard we will grow in our faith of Jesus Christ but what is more important is that we will grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. When we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ we begin to grow up in Him too. It does not take a rocket scientist to learn Jesus Christ it takes someone dedicated to learning Him and dedicated to growing up in Him. We can spend our whole lives warming the bench at church but once we leave our hope, our faith, and our stamina fail to continue as we go to work, parent our children, submit to our husband and follow our leaders. Gathering pieces together to grow is imperative to being who Jesus wants us to be.
It is all about who Jesus wants us to be. He gives us pieces of information so that we can keep doing what He has created us to do. He has created all things and all things hold together because of Him (Colossians 1:16-17). It is His great pleasure to give us more pieces and it behoves us to grow with those pieces. To live in ignorance about who Jesus is, is to live in ignorance about who you are. We are defined by who Jesus is which is why we need to guard those pieces with our lives and He will surely reveal the rewards to us.
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A Reason to Think!
I have to figure things out! I need to know! Why do I do things this way and how will they work out? Every time a thought comes in my head I reason it out to get the answer! I can talk myself into hating something that is perfectly fine! Why do I do that? I want something other than what I have so I refuse to like it. I get unsatisfied with what I have and what I am doing from time to time and I throw myself a pity party. I think about all the things I could have if I was doing this and all the things I wouldn’t have if I was doing that. I look at my surroundings and crave what I want. I think of how my life could be different then I throw myself another pity party due to everything I am missing.
When I reason about these thoughts I always come to this conclusion; God’s truth. God does have a plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and that plan is His plan and it may very well not include what I want. He gave me this mind to reason with Him and for Him (Isaiah 1:18). He supplied my gifts for accomplishing His works (1 Peter 4:10). I am to learn to be content with what I have and who I am because God is with me (Hebrews 13:5). I learn through this process of reasoning that I am not irrational because I reason through every thought. Reasoning with our God and ourself is good for us and God loves it (Ask Moses, Jonah, Job, Isaiah, Peter and Paul)! It makes us more rational and less likely to get caught up in the Devil’s schemes! It is in this back and forth that God reveals Himself to us so we can come to an understanding about what our next step is; God’s will.
The action we take this week is to stop talking and start reasoning! I am an extrovert and talking is how I get answers but I continue to learned that thinking them through (reasoning) is just as good. It is a wiser decision if I talk it out with God rather than people to spare them the frustrating indecision I go through to get to my answers. Come to the truth this week and see the reason to think! -
Strategies that Count!
Are you thriving? Are the strategies you use for life bringing you closer to your life’s goals or are they bringing you further away? Are your life skills presenting you as having control over your life or are they showing your inability to use wise strategies to accomplish your dreams?
The world will have us believe that if it is good, it is good for us! I will submit to you that Paul had it right when he spoke to us in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 23. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. The things that we do daily speak to who we want to be and how we want to live. The Word of God can transform our decision making so drastically that we will understand exactly what Paul means when he says not all things are helpful to us nor are all things going to edify us. With that in mind how do we get closer to our goal? How can we live a life abounding in self-control?
The Truth Leads us Closer
To get closer to our life’s goals we need to understand what Biblical strategies are available to us from the Word of God. The fear of God is the beginning of the knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) we need to implement the Biblical skills used to direct our lives closer to our goals. Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him,in John 8 verse 32 “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” As hard as the truth is sometimes it brings us closer to our goals rather than the lie that says we can have anything we want, any time we want!
Self-control is a Fruit
Once we begin to pull Biblical strategies from the Word of God we begin bearing fruit. Before we realize an internal fruit appears called self-control, among others. Galatians 5:22-23 lists all the fruits of the Spirit. He reveals to us all the strategies we need to use to make our decisions then He fills us with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These gifts from God then become part of our strategies for life. We can turn our whole life around with these internal fruits of the Spirit spearheading our life closer to our goals.
Choose Life in the Word
Choosing life in the Word of God will transform the skills from God’s teachings into solid Biblical strategies that will improve our life. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us how important Scripture is in our life. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That says it all! Of all the choices we will make in our life this will be the most important one.`
Do you want to get closer to your life goals? Do you want to present yourself as having self-control? The choice is pretty clear to me! Let us get in the will of God together to thrive!
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Let Him Choose!
Elijah, the prophet of God Almighty, killed 450 prophets of Baal and believed at this time that he alone stood for God (1 Kings 18-19). He was exhausted and ready to give up. He went up to the top of carmel and put his head between his knees waiting for the rain to come. It came but it poured down more than just water. Elijah had to run for his life to Bersheba. God ministered to him there but he was still running under the impression that he was the only one. It is a great encouragement to know that God has a plan and you are not the only one working it but until you know you are still alone. God asked Elijah what he was doing in Horeb. He told God he alone is zealous for Him. God, before He told Elijah about His plan first showed him His glory then He informed him he is not alone.
Elijah built his ministry by himself. He walked by himself in the zeal of the Lord! He alone went against Jezebel. He looked around and listened but there was not anyone with this same zeal. I feel like this sometimes. I feel like I alone am filled with the zeal of God and it is draining sometimes. Over this couple of weeks I have seen that Jesus has spoken the same words to others as He has spoken to me. He is training me with the same instruction He is using with others. He is showing us His glory before He chooses our fellow workers for His cause. When we are ready He will unite us!
Sometimes we feel we are alone but when God tells us that He is going to do something He does it. We CANNOT do God’s works on our own and if He has shown us that we will join with others He has those others already chosen. He is moving them into place just as He is moving us into place. God knows exactly what we need in a partner worker to accomplish His Word. I am finished trying to pick my fellow workers I am going to let Jesus do that for me and see the wonderful people He adds to my life for the glory of God. He definitely has revealed to me that He can do a better job choosing His workers than I can!
Action Plan: If you feel alone you are in a good place because your aloneness will make you available to view the glory of God from the place where you can see it best. This week open you eyes and ears to what others are saying so you can hear how God is working just for you. Sometimes you have to reveal God’s plan for you even though you have discounted it out of barrenness. That is when God will reveal to you the work He is doing!
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A Change Maker not Making Change!
I am a change maker except I am making no changes in my community at least that is how I feel at this moment or rather a moment ago. Has God directed you as He has me that you will be a change maker but He hasn’t released you to make much change except in yourself. My innards are bursting to make change in my community! They are curdling with age though! I wrestle with what to do! I wrestle with how to do it! I am a wrestler at this moment not a changer.
God has taught me over the past year that I am a learner right now. I read the Word, I learn the Word and I read other books that help my mind get ready. BUT I wrestle with learning. I think I know enough! I think I can but apparently God has a different plan for me. What I learned recently to help me deal with this is – I cannot understand God’s plan for me because my feelings get in the way all the time.I know that He has a plan for me (Jeremiah 29:11) and I know that I am predestined to walk in that plan (Ephesians 2:10) and I know that He will finish what He started (Philippians 1:6) but my human feelings get tangled with the world. [She has my job, he is doing what I want to do, she is being used by God in the way that He will use me.] All of this gets the better of me sometimes making me feel unused and unwanted by God!
This is why He revealed to me that I am not focusing on Him. I have memorized verses just for this reason – to focus on Jesus and not on the world but I had forgotten why I was memorizing them. I recently came into a situation where I decided my feelings were getting the better of me so I started focusing on the verses I memorized. Amazing enough I was relieved of the turmoil and found peace again.
Action Plan: Last week we attempted to discover what it is that God has gifted us to do but what do you need to learn to be more efficient at that gift? Begin that process of learning this week but don’t get discouraged. It may take 12 years, like me, or it may take 2 before God starts using you in His Kingdom. Whatever the number the goal is to be ready to be the change maker that God has revealed you’d be!
