- “Wherever God puts you is your place of blessing; even if it’s a wilderness.” I don’t know when I began saying this—perhaps 2021—but I sincerely believe it to be true. God can and will provide—we just have to talk ourselves out of going to Egypt or Moab.
I said all that to say that a shift is coming. While there’s an unexplainable calm in my heart, there is also anxiety about what shape this shift will take and why God feels He has to do it. I don’t often care for God’s methods of claiming my attention, channeling my focus or shifting me to a new dimension. In fact, I’ve hated every one. I’ve been thinking bargaining thoughts lately… like wondering if He would be willing to give me more time where I am if I promise to do better.
I guess that’s why I was allowed to stumble onto this message today. The video opens with Psalm 16:5 -6, verses I’d read multiple times but without context. Today, I saw that David probably wrote this psalm when he was on the run from Saul. Yet he says, “the lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places. I have a goodly heritage.” David was an absolute master of his emotions. Don’t let the thing with Bathsheba fool you. We can learn a lot from him.
2. I see and hear God emphasizing that the time is short, to work while it is day/light because night is coming when no man can work and to use and expand the gifts and talents He’s given us. While He is responsible for the expansion, it is up to us to diligently hone our gifts to the zenith of excellence. We have to give Him something to work with. It is time to cast off laziness, procrastination and hiding away and work while we have the light.
A note:
Sometimes we can be so rigid and inflexible about how we conduct our Christian walk that we are no longer able to flow with the Holy Spirit. In the Parable of the Talents, the master does not tell the servants how to multiply their talents. They had free reign as long as they multiplied. For example, we all know that social media is the cesspool/blackhole combo with fries and extra sauce. But God has allowed these platforms to exist for a reason. For the disciplined person with purpose, managing the duality of hating social media while still using it to minister the Gospel isn’t difficult.
I am sharing this because at some point, I realized that my desire to keep a low profile and remain distraction free was blocking God’s will for me to start a Youtube channel (at the time). And you know what that is called? It’s called stubbornness. And stubbornness, IMO, is just pre-rebellion. Don’t make my mistake. Don’t be so rigid that you inadvertently play small and miss what God intended.
Another example: I was doing a PM quiet time with God when a certain friend kept popping into my mind. I kept pushing it off. In my mind, the friend could wait until after my time with God. But God insisted and when I finally called, I learned that she’d recently lost a parent, amongst other traumas. I saw that God was saying to me that quiet time was pointless if I ignored windows of opportunity to minister Him in real life/real time. It was more important to Him that her need had been met. He and I could always pick back up later.
3. It is time to know God for real. It is time to trust God for real.
4. I saw this quote on IG and it grabbed me because the distractions this season have been next level:
That’s all for now. Til next time.