Peace and Quiet

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12: 1-2

We started discussing flexibility yesterday, and then today, I discovered that “flexibility” is even a topic under God’s promises.

Life can make us crazy, can’t it? Pulled hither and yon, one direction to another, so fast we lose sight of what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s good, what’s bad.  A dear friend reminded me today what we need to do when life gets like this. We just need to put on the brakes and STOP. Ask God where He’s leading us, which direction He wants us to go.

Sometimes, that direction may be upstream, against what everyone else is telling you to do. Sometimes, it may be in line with everyone else. But we’ll never know until we ask God, will we?

He wants us to be TRANSFORMED. The Message translates our verse above this way:

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t be so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Romans 12:1-2 

However, as it is written:

“No eye has seen

no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him”

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

1 Corinthians 2: 9-12

I guess I’m still dwelling on preparing/planning/goal setting. This verse jumped out at me for today’s blog post.

How do you make plans? Do you pull out a calendar and fill the dates with “must do” tasks, events, chores? Or put it all into your Blackberry or online calendar?

What do you do about unexpected events? How does the unexpected affect your planning? Do unexpected events change your purpose?

I still have more questions than answers, so we’ll keep exploring. I’d love to hear some of your own insights - please share them with us.

Open up before God, keep nothing back; he’ll do whatever needs to be done. He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon.

Psalm 37: 5-6

God is so mighty, so awesome, so amazing. Yet sometimes, we feel ashamed to take our dirty selves, our filthy choices, our muddy mistakes to Him - much like when Adam and Eve hid in the Garden, ashamed of their nakedness.

We forget that He knows all about it. And loves us anyway. And forgives us. And gives us 2nd chances … and 3rd … and 4th, and so on and so on. He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to know - to believe - that He loves us, and wants us to love Him. He is the validation we all seek - the validation we’ll receive from no one else, nothing else.

Pour out yourself to Him. Hold nothing back. Pour out your hopes, your dreams, your needs, your wants, your fears, your worries. Lay it all at His feet, and then just wait. Be observant. Watch Him work in mysterious, wonderous ways that can only be His.

Have you ever discovered this simple fact? The more you look for God - in everything - the more you’ll see Him at work.

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. If you don’t know what you are doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. As boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you are going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

James 1: 1-8 (The Message)

I love reading The Message. So many verses just catch my eye - and my heart - and then I must share them. Today, when I read ” You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors” - I just had to pause and think about my life the last few months. Under pressure is a definite description, and yes, my faith-life has been forced into the open.

Oh, I didn’t try to hide it before - I’ve always been pretty open about my faith. It’s my struggles that are more out in the open, and when I share my struggles, my faith comes along with it. People ask how I cope with certain things, and I get to share my faith.

Sharing my faith doesn’t make my problems or trials or circumstances better - but it sure makes the outlook better. Knowing that God is in control, that He has my best interests at heart, that He has plans and a hopeful future for me, and that He can and will make good come of all of it - well, even in the midst, I can thank Him for using me, using us, for His good. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Would you?