Jingle Bell in the Junk Drawer

Yesterday I was searching for a particular screwdriver. Not finding it where I thought it to be, I went on the hunt. This included The Junk Drawer. Every home has one or two, so you know how that can be. By the time I got to the junk drawer I was fairly frustrated; this search was delaying my project in progress. I needed to be resting after the long drive and stressful concern for Jake. I needed to be, but I wasn’t; I was determined…no, driven to do my stupid project and I needed that stupid screwdriver! That’s when I heard it…a jingle bell.

The tinkling sound of a jingle bell in June will catch your attention. Turns out there was a jingle bell in the junk drawer. Not one of those little ones either like my mother used to sew on my petticoats when I was a young girl, although, that would have been weird enough. This was a decent size lone jingle bell. Jingle bell in hand, I felt the holy tap. I was neither resting my body nor my mind as I went thru the crazed motions of searching for a screwdriver. God didn’t use a 2X4 to get my attention, He used a jingle bell.

Mark 6:31a And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 

Exodus 23:12 (KJV) Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

Philippians 4:6-7 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind."
 

Our earth bound bodies are God’s creation and it is our job to take care of them. When we stay too busy, physically and mentally, we are in jeopardy of running them down and sapping all the strength available to us. Not one of us is soooooo important that we are exempt from God’s intent and plan. I don’t know why or how the jingle bell came to be in the junk drawer, but God can and does use anything He wants to make a point. Slow down and listen for God’s message; you never know how it will come but it will come!

The Thinker Strikes Again

Jeremiah 29:11, ' For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope'.

I am, indeed, my own worst enemy. To explain for those of you that do not know me well on a personal level, let me say I have had a lifetime of over analyzing things to death. I am a thinker and I think way too much. I blame it on being ambidextrous. Since I can use both hands, I believe I am the victim of having to think enough to appease both left brain and right brain. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.   

I ponder, analyze, look at something from as many different perspectives as I can come up with and, in general, can think myself into a paralyzed position. This has saved me on many an occasion and, sadly, been to my detriment on others. I have a friend that once told me I would shop myself out of everything I ever wanted…meaning I would debate with myself about justifying the purchase and put things back on the shelf more often than not (even in the grocery store), certain I would find it somewhere else for a better price, only to find I lost out on it in the end. I believe I do the same thing with all that prolonged thinking and pondering. The right side of my brain wants to go with my gut instinct, to jump off and try new things, to explore and delve into adventure. The left side considers the logical points and potential speed bumps in the road of life. If you think this sounds convoluted and hard to follow, you should try living in my head! On top of all that, I am a writer and I see storylines in almost everything…they live in there, too.

I had a ‘light bulb moment’ this afternoon about this very thing. I have been stuck in a crossroad and making myself, and anyone who would listen to me, absolutely crazy about what I should or shouldn’t do, which fork in the road to take, what direction to turn…blaa blaa blaa! I’m sick of hearing myself talk about it. So today, as I was reading yet another article on seeking God’s will for my life, God took the Left side of my brain and had me edit and distill the information. Like me, it was too wordy. Then, I distilled it again, seeking the essential nuggets within. When I got it down to the bare bones, the Right side of my brain kicked in and said, “Well, DUH!”

These are the bare bones God revealed to me which are involved when wanting to discern His will for my life:

First, if you really want to know God's will, you must be willing to do it even before you know what it is.   check

Second great principle for knowing the will of God is nothing can be the will of God that is contrary to the Word of God.    check

Third principle is the daily and even hourly fellowship with the Lord.   check

Forth, you must be prepared for the Lord to guide you into new ways.  check

I have looked for that postcard from Heaven with detailed instructions (left brain) while the desire for change (right brain) has struggled trying to walk a thin line to make sure I didn’t step out of His will or get ahead of Him and His timing. Being "in His will” is not a location or vocation or any one thing or another, it is a lifestyle of living for Him, serving and keeping your eyes on Him! So, as long as what I do or where I go falls within all of those parameters, I will be walking in His will for me. I have made this a much more difficult time and decision process than it needed to be. Good grief! That’s exactly what I caused myself, much grief. Can you imagine my relief as this sunk in?? I wanted to dance.

'The steps of a righteous man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way' (Ps 37:23).

God's Timing

Romans 11:33 How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

What’s it all about, this thing named ‘a calling’ from the Lord? When you ‘know’ what it is the Lord has chosen for you to do in a deep spiritual way, reservations take a backseat to determination and you march on, head up, trusting He will show you the way. At least that is how it was for me. God’s vision for my life of service became my vision and I was determined to be faithful to that even though it seemed as remote and unrealistic as it could be for a little girl from small town Texas.

Catching a vision of the special contribution God wants us to make through our lives is exciting and inspiring. Once the initial ‘honeymoon’ phase of recognition has faded, we ask ourselves: Now what? What happens next?

Usually, the next step after catching a vision is to see it die. There is a special reason for this: our vision often contains a combination of godly concerns and human perspectives, so God engineers a way whereby the godly concerns remain and the human perspectives are changed to divine perspectives. His way of doing this is to cause the vision to die. This is a Biblical principle that can be traced from Genesis to Revelation. The vision Abraham received of being the father of a great nation "died" when he found his wife was barren. The vision Moses received "died" when he was rejected by his people and was forced to flee into the desert for forty years.

Why, we ask, does God bring a vision to birth and then allow it to die? For this reason: the waiting time in which we find ourselves during the death of a vision is God's classroom for the development of godly character in us. It is in the waiting time, as the vision "dies” that such qualities as patience, persistence, perseverance and self-control are built into us. We are molded by His hands so we are able to be more useful. Obedience and willingness to follow the vision came first, now we are going through refining process. He, alone, knows what will be required of us and what we lack to face the challenges ahead. His judgments and plans are perfect; we tend to get a little 'jiggy' about things and jump in the deep end before we learn to swim.

Has God given you in the past a vision of something that you knew was definitely from Him - but now the vision has died? Then don't be discouraged. This is the way God works. He is using the waiting time to change your ideas to His ideas and your perspectives to His perspectives. It's not 'over' by any means; things have not even begun to happen! Hold on for the ride of your life!

Getting ME Out of the Way

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask. and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

In the Christian world we like to quote this scripture from Matthew often. I think it is a beautiful verse encouraging people to pray. Sadly, there are those that believe it is guarantee that God will give you anything you want, rendering it more like a child’s wish list for Santa - seeking His hand of giving, rather than words to bolster faith and seeking His face.

Oh, yes, we do have the confidence that our God is ready, willing and able to meet our needs and longs to give us the desires of our hearts. Scripture says so:

Psalm 37:3-5 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.

This passage in Psalms is loaded with action verbs and you know how I love those action verbs! God will faithfully do His part and we are to Trust in the Lord…Do good…Dwell in the land…cultivate faithfulness…Delight yourself in the Lord…Commit your ways to the Lord…Trust also in Him. Then my friends, notice the biggest word in the verses…AND. Once we are trusting, doing, dwelling, cultivating, delighting all in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. When we have committed our ways to the Lord, trusting in Him and He will do it.

We cannot make out our ‘wish list’ of what we want to see God to do in our lives and sit back and wait. We cannot walk out our carnal desires and expect God to rain down blessings on us. We can’t live and act like heathens all week and then approach the alter on Sunday with a To-Do list for God.

1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him.

Notice: if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. There it is…bold type, red, and underlined. He hears us when we ask according to His will. Our prayers and our lives and our request must all line up with His will. HIS will, not yours or mine…HIS will. We can play mind games with ourselves and others and pull scripture out of context and quote it till the cows come home, makes no difference if we are not in line with the Will of GOD.

And there, my friends, is where we have to step aside, lay down our free will, and give ourselves unconditionally to His will. We have to be willing to step aside of what we desire for our lives and commit to His will for us. His desires for our lives is far better than anything we could come up with anyway when we desire what He wants for us. Here I sit, committed to getting ME out of His way…that is my prayer and it is one I know He will hear.