Daily Details

 

I have 1001 details to attend to every single day - well, that may be a slight exaggeration. At times, I feel like I am drowning in them. They wash over me and force me down into their depths.

As a young adult, I learned to make lists of my daily details every night before I went to bed. This helped me to stop thinking about them, so that my mind would shut off and I could fall asleep quicker.

I prioritized them and made sure that I had everything staged to achieve them as quickly and efficiently as possible. The next day, I crossed the chores off the list as I accomplished them.

I felt a sense of fulfillment and pride as the list got shorter by the hour. However, there were always items left on the list at the end of the day. Therefore, I added the new details to them that night and prioritized them for the next day.

My life was ruled by those lists, except when unexpected interruptions caused me to abandon the index and deal with that issue before referring back to my detailed catalogue of chores.

As I learned to walk in the Spirit, I continued to make the list, but not to prioritize the items. I listened to the Spirit and checked off the chores as He led me to deal with them. The list got shorter much quicker that way.

Over the years, I stopped making the lists altogether. I learned to listen to the Spirit each moment of the day and to obey His prompting for each one of them. I found that I accomplished more during the day than ever before.

Sometimes, God's Spirit would lead me to do several things at once, and also point out to me details that I would have forgotten to jot down on my list. I went to bed at night with my mind clear and no agenda hovering over me to control my next day.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for the leading of Your Holy Spirit, which keeps us in the center of Your will through the mundane moments of our daily life. Sometimes, I still get overwhelmed by the magnitude of details that are my responsibility in a short day's time; and as I age, they bother me more often. However, thank You for freeing me from the demon of perfectionism, and for helping me to simplify my life by forsaking the details that are actually not important.

Now, I can expect less of me and more from You. You work out even the tiniest issues and the most challenging details by Your Spirit, and You often do this without any help from me. You are amazing, God, and I thank You for adopting me into Your family and giving me the privileges as Your child in both this world and the next.

Thought for the Day:

There are no more unexpected interruptions in my day, because I learned to expect the unexpected as I follow the Spirit's guidance throughout each moment; accomplishing more than mere human effort could ever produce, I experienced the wonder of His work in and through me. 

- Proverbs 3:5-6

Surviving Our Past

During the formative years of our life, many of us experience physical and emotional wounds perpetrated by family, neighbors and friends of our family.

These events caused parts of our soul to splinter off and embed in our subconscious mind. We are disjointed and incomplete, because our basic human needs in these areas were never met.

Some of us barely survive our past experiences, and we drag the wounds with us into adulthood. Victimization took away our choices and we feel trapped.

We even mistreat our self by either putting our needs last and allowing other people to take advantage of us, or punishing our self with further pain and neglect, or becoming obsessed with our own needs and walling our heart from further hurt by shutting down our emotions and becoming self-sufficient.

We may allow the demon of perfectionism to control our life, because we fear further rejection or feel the need to earn love and acceptance; or we may adopt a lackadaisical and carefree attitude, unthinking and callous to the needs of others.

God leads us on the path of healing through sanctification. As we embrace the parts of our soul we left behind, we experience a wholeness and completion, which we never thought was possible (Colossians 2:10-15).

We integrate the pieces of our self, which we rejected in our past, and learn to relate to people and the will of God for our life as healthy individuals who are growing in the grace of God. ( www.theophostic.com )

God teaches us to set boundaries in our life to prevent future abuse and gives us a new heart in order to love others as He loves us.

God's healing in our life sets us free to shed the shackles of negative emotions and to be more aware of living fully in each present moment with unceasing prayer and by walking in the Spirit.

Prayer:

Father God, You were right there with us during those times of abuse and neglect in our past. You understand our thought processes now and the negative emotions, which plague our life. You became a man and died for us. This act of selfless love now gives us the sense of being valued and unconditionally loved.

As we align our self and our beliefs with Your Word, we find fulfillment in this life, which we never thought possible on this side of heaven. You supply all of our needs according to Your glorious riches (Philippians 4:19). You restore our soul, anoint our head with oil, set a table for us in the presence of our enemies and our cup overflows with Your blessings (Psalm 23).

Thought for the Day:

We can relinquish the need to control life and other people in a misguided attempt to keep our self safe from further abuse and neglect, when we insist on taking part in decisions which affect our life, and trust God to work out even the worst circumstances for our good - Romans 8:28

Changed from the Inside Out

 

As I learned to enter God's rest and walk in His Spirit, I experienced intense withdrawals from my former codependent lifestyle. I acted like a schizophrenic.

One moment I would say or do something codependent and the next moment I would step into my new role as a Spirit-led Believer and say or do the opposite. I confused people by this dual personality.

Gradually, I decreased in my role as a codependent and Christ increased in me. I learned to say "No" unless God told me to say "Yes." He taught me to let the job go undone; so others whom God was calling to that role would step up and do it instead of me.

I started to see and appreciate the gray hues and tones in life, rather than seeing only black or white. My flexibility increased and my rigid extremes decreased.

The demon of perfectionism left my soul and I found joy in the messes of life as I had more time to enjoy other pursuits, which God called me to do. I actually left dishes in the sink and went to bed.

God's Spirit slowly changed my perspective from a carnal, earth-bound outlook to a spiritual, heavenly-minded one. He also healed my wounded soul, traumatized and dysfunctional since childhood and young adulthood ( www.theophostic.com ).

I released the shame and feelings of defectiveness attached to the wounds of the past and accepted His divine character and the fruit of His Spirit in their place (2 Peter 1:4; Galatians 5:22-23).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for exposing Satan's lies, which made me believe that I had to earn love by my behavior. Your Agape love opened me up to expect unconditional love from the significant others in my life. The fear, insecurity, defensiveness and over-sensitivity, which plagued my life decreased as I learned to trust You in spite of the untrustworthy people in my life.

You taught me the reality of the fact that You work out everything for our good, even the negative experiences in our life, which threaten to choke the very life from our soul (Roman 8:28). You trained me to look for the seed for a miracle in every trial. You are our worthy, benevolent Father and we are completely loved by You.

Thought for the Day:

Self-destructive behaviors - driven by frustration, anger and a wounded soul - diminish as we learn to enter God's rest and bask in His peace and joy, which are our true source of strength. - Nehemiah 8:10