Saturday Sabbath

Get Fit Friday - 100 Day Challenge - Week 5

These past 2 weeks have been... interesting.
I don't really have a specific update so far as my 100 day challenge goes other than to say that this whole process has opened my eyes to many things.

I have presented the following thoughts numerous times in present tense and today I am intentionally using past tense:

I was such a CHICKEN. I was so afraid of failure that I was paralyzed to move forward in anything. I'd been told that I dream too big for so long that I believed it. I believed that if I tried to do the things I dreamed of, I WOULD fail (not "I COULD fail" but rather "I WOULD fail"). I have not taken risks... at all. I have felt that life has been stressful enough without my help (2 bouts of cancer will do that to ya).

I WAS afraid. I was afraid of failure and rejection.

I'm not. I'm not afraid anymore. I made a decision this week. I am moving forward. I am not going to let fear stop me.

Can I challenge you to do the same?
Try... with the expectation of success.  What's the worst that can happen?

This plays right in with the post from earlier this week about obedience. In everything I am doing, I am asking God to bless it. I am asking God to use me in ways that will bring Him glory. I am asking God to give me courage. I am asking God to guide me and direct me in everything. I want everything I do to bring Him glory.

This eliminates the potential to be lured to sin or to be self - serving, for which I am thankful.

"Be brave enough to do what you dream about" is NOT a challenge to do whatever feels good. I do NOT have an "anything goes" attitude.

I believe that obedience to God and patience to trust His timing has benefits.

For me, one of those benefits is having no fear when I am pursuing dreams that are in line with the ways God has gifted me.

So, week 5... my perspective has changed...again. I'm not trying to be "good enough" or trying to overcome...whatever.

Because of my relationship with Christ, I am already good enough.

I'm not perfect and ya know what? I am totally okay with that. I have nothing to prove to anyone. Because of my relationship with Christ Jesus, I already have everything I need. God has gifted me in so many ways. I need not be afraid to use those gifts.


65 Days to go!

K

Thursday’s Thoughts on... This

I sat down to write this morning’s post, excited to share a little reminder. I pulled up my blog and... what? My Google+ profile has been disabled because it does not meet the requirements. Huh? After a bit of digging around, I find out that I am a spammer. Evidently I send out unsolicited and unwanted stuff. Really? I don’t think I SEND anything out. Unless you’ve signed up to receive ITB via email, you get nothing from me. (Sigh) For a brief moment I was a little ticked off. The thought crossed my mind to figure out who I could talk to about this. I even almost played my “persecuted” card... being a Christian blogger and all.

After a few minutes I decided it wasn’t worth wasting my time being upset  and I changed my profile to a “basic blogger profile” and now I’m back on task.

Today’s thoughts are brief...

I’ve been presented with a couple of challenges these past 2 weeks. I won’t go into the circumstances, but in two completely separate situations, God reminded me that He is present, He hears me, He is for me, and obedience to Him is important. Oh, yeah, and everything is on His schedule.

So so so often I decide something needs to happen, I make a plan, and then pace around like a stubborn spoiled toddler while I wait on God to hurry up and make my plan work. The longer I wait, the more impatient I get and the more impatient I get, the more likely I am to take things into my own hands. (This never ends well btw)

These past 2 weeks I have been under extreme stress. In one circumstance, I asked God to take away a desire for something that I know is not best for my family. In another situation, I asked God to fix a problem that I was (still am) completely unable to fix myself. In both of these situations, I have tried for a while to work things out on my own.(years and years in one situation and about a year and a half in the other)

I learned something about myself these past few weeks... I have a tendency to compromise, to make excuses, and to give up quickly when things don’t happen as timely as I think they should. Bottom line... when it comes to dealing with God, I’m kind of a brat. 

Over these past few weeks, God has been very clear about two things... be obedient and be patient. 

I don’t want to say that I tested God... it certainly wasn’t that. It was more like... I have no other option; I have exhausted all my resources; I don’t know what else to do; so “God, ya gotta fix this mess.”

Now I am not gonna tell you that I heard God speak to me in an audible voice. I will tell you this... I had two thoughts that pressed on my so hard that they may as well have been audible. They were:

Be obedient and Be patient.

I stopped focusing on the two issues I asked God to fix and started focusing on being obedient to His Word and Being Patient and accepting His timing.

Let me say that tonight I am in tears, flooded with gratitude over what God has done. He answered both my prayers in ways I could not have dreamed. He completely and totally took care of both situations. 

Let me be clear... he did not give me exactly what I wanted, nor did He give me exactly what I asked for. He did not make the process painless. He did not snap His God-fingers and remove all my stress and anxiety. . He did not part the sky and send angels down to usher in the answers to my prayers...

but He gave me exactly what I needed. 

So many times I (we) want God to take care of things while we keep living by our own rules.

If things are not working for you today, try obedience. You will be amazed how much your heart will be changed when you are obedient to God’s Word. Your situation may not change quickly, try patience. Trust God’s timing. Really trust Him. Get on HIS timeline instead of trying constantly to get Him to line up with your plans.

Sweet reader, God is for you, not against you. He is against sin. He is against the lies that Satan tells us. He is against anything that pulls us away from Him.... but He isn’t against YOU.

We are designed to desire a relationship with God. If you don’t have a healthy, growing, rich relationship with Him, you are likely trying to quiet that desire with other things... financial or SoCal stability, relationship stability or fulfillment, career success, parental prowess... any of these sound familiar. The angry attitude of “I don’t want anybody or anything” also screams of a need for God, as does “everyone and everything is against me.”

If this sounds like you... try obedience to God. Let Him remove the things from your life that are strangling you, stunting your emotional, mental, and spiritual growth. Let Him put your priorities in His order. Trust Him.

Is it easy? Nah, not exactly. However, it is easier than living the rest of your life searching for some sort of fulfillment that life can’t give you... and it’s easier than living the rest of your life resigned to being empty and alone.

Okay so maybe my thoughts weren’t as brief as I anticipated... go figure.

Big hugs, 

K