Words have power. Written words provide proof. You can read them, and reread them whenever you want. They can speak life to someone who needs encouragement. They can speak death to someone who is being deceived. The choice lies within you. How is it that you want people to remember you? Encourager...that is the gift that God has laid on my heart. To use my written, spoken, and/or sung words to lift people up. To be one link in their road to healing, restoration, joy. I have been without those things, and I claim them to be mine again. If you want me to seek God on a prayer for a specific situation...that is why I am here. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to pray God's Word of Life over you.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Distracted

It was Sunday afternoon. It was an interesting Sunday morning. Not bad interesting. Not odd interesting. Just unexpected, interesting. God interesting! I got fired up. Renewed some passion for God’s giftings in me. Fell more in love with my Savior and got blessed by Him.

I don’t know about you, but Sunday afternoons are a day of rest for us (if at all possible). My youngest son usually passes out on the way home from church. That Sunday was no different. But because of the extreme cold and wind when I opened my van door…he quickly got jolted back to being awake. We ate a quick simple lunch, thank you Crunch Berries ;), and all in the family laid down to rest.

I awakened to find myself wanting to go over the 4 pages of notes I written that morning during the sermon. (I told you it was God interesting!) I knew that those notes would result in a blog post…so I opened my computer up in preparation. What I got…was distraction. Three of my four children suddenly decided that my bed was a wrestling mat. I then had a choice. Get angry and send them away so that I could write about my God interesting day. Or enjoy my blessed distractions and work through it.

I love it when I make the right choice. =) I can be distracted by many things. Right now I am thinking of how it hurts to type anything with my left ring finger. Did I tell you that story? Ugh…for the sake of feeling the anger stir up again…I will keep it simple. I fractured my finger while chasing our great dane ‘puppy’. If you heard the story previously…you will notice that I am again referring to him as “our” dog instead of “my husband’s” dog. Ha-ha! I visited our local emergency room early one morning to get my wedding band and engagement ring cut off because my finger was so swollen from my fall. =(

I am thinking now of how I got distracted while writing this post. I originally started it on that Sunday I was referring to. That was now a week and half ago. Seems a bit ironic doesn’t it? I got distracted while writing a post about become distracted. Annoying actually! Anyway…I will press on!

The enemy is good at distracting us. He wants to make us as ineffective as possible. So he fills our days with nonsense. How many times  have you yourself thought…”I can’t sit and do my devotions…(Fill blank here)” with whatever nonsense you talk yourself into. For me…it is noise, dishes, laundry, church, children, food, sleep, sickness, bills, clutter…um, my stuff is in the bedroom and I am already sitting in the living room. Honestly. I have days that that is just how awful I am. Each of the above are distractions. Excuses.

Let me make myself clear. I am not telling you to go on strike from all of the above mentioned excuses. (If that were the case…I would’ve led that band wagon years ago. Ha-ha!) I am telling you to take notice. The enemy is sly. He has us guilting ourselves into finishing just one more thing before we make time for God. When our head finally hits the pillow we realize that one more thing led to the rest of our wasted day. And now…you lay with a choice. Meet with God, or promise that tomorrow will be different. I so understand!

Why do we let this nonsense stuff rule some days? I think it is because we forget what God saved us from. We don’t view it as an intense saving from an excruciatingly awful sentence. We know it…but we don’t always live like we do. If we really lived it…we would not be able to see someone lost, hurting and broken, and allow them to stay that way. We would jump at the chance to witness to these people headed for eternal suffering.

Witness. Does that word intimidate you? It does me. Kind of like preach. I can talk to someone. I can talk to a group. But witnessing…preaching…those are not for a meek mannered person. Ha! I totally believed those lies for years too! Oh he is sly…but as I have said before; this enemy we war against…he is not the brightest crayon in the box is he? He doesn’t know who I am in Christ. He doesn’t realize he is the one who should fear ME! (Oh…those words make me anxious. A good anxious. That is how I know they hold power. They make me excited. Happy. Smile. They make my heart race just a little bit faster. I can almost see him shudder when he reads those words!)

Witnessing is really just striking up a conversation with a divine purpose. Telling the person/people you are talking to a God moment in your life that forever changed you. Making it seem as though you aren’t even witnessing. Ha-ha! Just talking about who you have become in Christ…and maybe some roads it took you to get there. From your obedience it is up to God. He will work on the hearts of those you reach out to. Maybe not immediately. But when they can handle it and are ready. He will.

The enemy though…we know he will be whispering lies to you.

“It isn’t your job to save them all.”

“That person will reject you.”

“He/she is too intimidating for you.”

“Many have tried and failed…leave the hard ones to someone else.”

Liar! Each one is a lie. If I remembered daily what my earned future should be…I would live differently. I would speak often and with urgency. I would try to help change the eternal sentence of those that I encounter. I would be more concerned with their lives than mine. Rejection would not intimidate me. I would fear God more than man!

This is my prayer. To be reminded of this. I will pray for you as well. Whoever you are. If you want me to pray by name…send me a message. Call me. Text me. Get a hold of me however you can. I will pray for you because a focused Christian is a powerful one!

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