Delighting in the Lord and being...content!

 
  I should never be surprised at how God works in my life but sometimes I am. This last Sunday I drove to Kansas to stay for a couple days with my job. I left in the afternoon so I would still have some rest time after church. While in Kansas I went to church and what do you know? The message was just for me! I was late getting into town so I was 20 minutes late but in the 30 minutes I was there God reminded me of things I tend to forget. So I'll share those with you here.

The message was on one of my all-time favorite passages: Psalm 37:4, 5

"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit they way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."

  The entire chapter is about resting in the Lord and trusting Him. I found many wonderful things in the entire chapter but for tonight I'll only focus on verses 4 and 5.

A few thoughts from the message and some of my own:

1) Delight - we delight in so many things: sports, movies, sleep, food, people, shopping, etc. Our delight ought to be in the Lord. It's interesting how often we say we "have" to go to church or "have" to read our Bible or "have" to pray. We ought to delight in those things. The more you do those things the more you'll delight in it. To steal a line from Nike, Just Do It! Pick up your Bible and start reading, bow your head and start praying, get out of bed and go to church! God will bless your efforts and give you a delight to do those things. We all struggle in these areas at some point or another - I know I have - but God can and will help us through it.

Personal example: I have struggled to have a consistent prayer life at different points in my life. It's like things are going fine so I don't really need to pray. Things in my life are going pretty well right now, in fact, so my prayer life hasn't been all it could or should be. I decided I needed to work on this. It's been neat to watch God answer different prayers in just a short time. There is no prayer too small. I've prayed different nights for God to help me wake up early/on time and help me make the right decision to get out of bed. He has made sure to wake me up and He nudges me to make that right decision but sometimes I think 5 more minutes of sleep is better. But I can always thank Him for waking me up. That may seem like a silly example to some people but it is a very big deal for me. If He cares about my smallest prayers I know He'll answer my enormous prayers! It's been really fun to spend more time talking with my Heavenly Father especially since I know He is listening.

2) Verse 4 also says the He, God, will give us the desires of our heart if we delight in Him. Are all our desires good for us? No, of course not. So what does this really mean? The closer you are to someone the more you want what they want. You want to see their desires met and see them happy. It's the same with in our relationship with God. The closer we are to Him, the more we delight in Him, the more our desires will line up with His desires. He may replace some of our current desires or He may give us the desires of our heart. It's hard to let go of our desires and allow God to have them. God's plan for our lives is so much better than we could ever imagine though! We need to always remember that He alone sees the big picture. We just need to trust Him.

Personal example: My deepest desire is to someday be married. God knows this and He knows if this will or won't happen. Right now I am trying to focus on serving God and keeping Him first in my life. God has given me so many ways to serve Him in my local church and right now while I'm single is when He can use me most, in some ways. I don't have anything holding me back from serving God except what I allow. So often as single women, we get discouraged thinking about prince charming that hasn't arrived yet. We get so impatient we forget to enjoy the journey. Each step of our lives is intricately designed by God. We can only see the backside of the tapestry but He sees the masterpiece. It's ok to be single and serving God. Don't allow Satan to trap you in discouragement and despair. There is always a purpose in the seasons of waiting no matter where they occur in your life.

3) Another thing the preacher talked about was contentment. I do not like that word! :)
Content = Satisfied with what one is or has; not wanting more or anything else.
Are any of us ever truly satisfied with what we have or what we are? We say "I wish I look like so and so" or "I wish I had curly hair" or "I wish I had a new car" or "I wish I were married", etc. That's human nature but we must fight against it! God has blessed each of us more than we deserve. I have a job, a home, a car, family and friends, the ability to do things, and so much more! Those things alone should make me thankful. Being content is a decision. I have to decide to be content in my apartment. I have to decide to be content in my job. I have to decide to be content being single. Decide to be content with where God has you and with the people and things He has already blessed you with. In His perfect time and according to His will He will add people and things to your life. Maybe someday He'll even add a special person to my life! But first I have to decide to be content.

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5

God bless,
Linda

Planted by the Rivers of Water

I started reading in the Psalms and I asked God to show me something new even in the familiar passages. He did that for me and I wanted to share what I saw.

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord: and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: his leaf also shall not wither: and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

The verse that stood out the most to me was verse 3. We are compared to a tree in this verse. Now when I think of a tree I think of something that is stable, stong, and unmoving.

Plant is defined as to place firmly in position, to establish. So to be planted is to be firmly in position, to be established, and deeply rooted.

One of my favorite trees is the oak tree. When I was growing up we had two beautiful oak trees in front of our home. They had been there for decades and were firmly rooted. Even when the winds blew they stood firmly in place.

We should be like an oak tree and remain planted firmly. The winds of life shouldn't knock us down. But what should we be planted in?

1) In the Word of God. Make time each day to read God's word. Just like verse 2 says we need to be in His word daily and meditate on it throughout the day and night. The Bible should be our guide book for every decision we make.  This is the only way we can make sound decisions.
2) In the church God has placed you in. God has a church for you to be a member of, to serve in, and to grow in Him! Allow Him to direct your path to the place He has for you. He led me to a wonderful church and I love serving Him there. It's wonderful to see God's hand in my life.
3) In God's will. Sometimes we know God's will for our lives but we chose to go a different way. It will be easier, we think. And God allows us to make our choices all the while knowing what will happen. Praise the Lord we can always come back to Him and ask His forgiveness! But wouldn't it be better to resolve to be planted in His will no matter what it is and no matter what we think about it?

Once we are planted is that all there is to it? Of course not. I can read my Bible and gain nothing if I'm not purposeful in my reading. I can go to church and just go through the motions if I don't focus my attention while I'm there. I can be in God's will but have the wrong attitude and feel deprived.

In verse 3 it says "his leaf also shall not wither". If we are planted by the water the way we should be, we will be drinking the water and our leaves won't wither. We have to be purposeful to drink the water to grow and nourish ourselves. Get in God's word on your own! Don't just wait for church! We also have to be focused on drinking the water God provides in the messages we hear at church. And we have to keep the right attitude to enjoy being in God's will.

God has so many good things for us to enjoy! Let's be like a tree and be planted where God wants us and make the choice to drink the bountiful water He has supplied!

Course Altering Possibilities

One small thing can alter the entire course or your day, week, and even your life. For me it was a possibility, a glimmer, that a dream could come true.

I have always wanted to be married and raise a family. Because this dream has always seemed impossible and distant I have poured myself into my work. In some ways you could say that I have married my work. I am overly committed to it at times. I pour everything I have into my job which causes me to work longer and harder, on and off the clock. I love my job and have great aspirations of continued growth and opportunities with this company. But now I'm asking myself if this is realty where my focus should be or how much of my focus should be here.

Sometimes one small occurrence can cause you to question the direction you are going. Is this really what I want? Is this really what God wants for me?

Last week a potential opportunity came up and reminded me of my deepest dream of being married. I realized that maybe I've settled in my life. I have an amazing job but maybe, just maybe, I've let go of the dream that God has for me and replaced it with the dream I created because I was tired of waiting. I was tired of being lonely and tired of being patient. To diminish the pain I turned all my focus to my work instead of God. My job isn't evil and it's not wrong to move up within the company; what is wrong is letting my job take first place over God. I didn't realize this had happened until I was faced with the choice between a company picnic and this possibility. That may sound silly but I don't think it was an accident that they would occur on the same day. I believe it was a God thing.

I did choose the possibility over the company picnic. I realized that if I continued to hide behind my job that's all I'd ever have. After taking this chance I see things in a whole new light. The things that really matter have come to the surface of my heart. Obviously my job is still important for my livelihood but God is first. Serving Him and living for Him must be my focus.

The potential opportunity is still just to possibility. A beautiful and exciting chance for my deepest dreams to come true. I don't know how the story ends but I know God is speaking to me and helping me focus on Him.

There are small occurrences in life that take us away from the path God has for us or takes us back to His path. We have to be close enough to God to discern between the two. We can always grow closer to God and this is my goal.

God bless,
Linda