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

True Wisdom

Most people dedicate their life to making this world a better place, but someone comes along right behind us and takes the credit or destroys our lifetime of accomplishments.

God has used many individuals to change our world, such us Richard Pearse's airplane, Charles Babbage's computer, Madam Curie's radium, Alexander Fleming's penicillin. Yet, we use their products without recalling their name or contribution.

The self-help gurus and life coaches in today's society teach us that our real power comes from within our self. They tell us to trust our heart or our gut feeling. They promote intuition and self-reliance (Jeremiah 17:9).

They revel in all sorts of ungodliness and encourage others to do them as well (Romans 1:30-32). They set us up for failure, because apart from Jesus Christ we can accomplish little of any importance (2 Timothy 4:4; John 15:5).

We work diligently to inspire others; yet, we are just spinning our wheels. Apart from Christ in us we can do absolutely nothing that matters now or in eternity (Philippians 4:13).

Hopefully, as you sit in your quiet place, you will contemplate the presence of God in this world, realize your lack and cry out to Him for His salvation (Psalm 46:10).

Only when we come to Christ do we have true light and wisdom within us (Colossians 1:27; 1 Corinthians 2:14). With God in control of our life, we have the understanding and direction to accomplish His will for our life (James 1:5; Ephesians 2:10).

His Word lights our way in this dark and perverse world in which we live (Psalm 119:105). His presence gives us all that we need to live a Godly and fulfilling life on this earth (2 Peter 1:3).

Prayer:

Father God, teach us to prioritize our life according to Your principles and values (Ephesians 2:1-22). Humble us before it is too late for us, so that we can receive Your instruction and discretion rather than worldly gain (Proverbs 8:9-11, 17; Psalm 91:14; John 14:21; James 1:5).

True success in life comes only from pursuing You with our time and energy (Proverbs 3:16; 8:18, Psalm 119:1-2, 128:1-2; Matthew 6:33). Thank You for providing the opportunity for us to inherit Your Kingdom as co-heirs with Christ (Proverbs 8:21; Romans 8:17).

Thought for the Day:

God wants to give self-confident fools His true wisdom and truth along with an understanding heart. - Proverbs 8:5; Isaiah 32:6

Tiny Tea Cups

Read: Philippians 4: 11-13

“Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” – 1 Chronicles 4:10

While browsing in a bookstore, I saw a painting of a fairy sitting in a tiny teacup! This reminded me that as young Christians, our cup is very tiny. Few people can share in its refreshment. However, the Lord expands our cup so that others may come to drink of that which God invests in us (Psalm 23:5). This realization made me very nervous and insecure because of the changes about to take place in my life.

When God enlarges our territory, we apprehensively watch our tiny world breaking out of its comfortable mold. We tremble with concern as the unknown replaces the familiar. “What if”-questions storm our thoughts. Having to rearrange our life to fit these new circumstances and obligations into our routine causes extra concentration and planning. As we prioritize, we have to say “No” to some of the responsibilities we once accepted. This risks hurting people’s feelings or causing them to be disappointed in us.

After years of walking in God’s protection, however, I am learning to find contentment in His wisdom and to trust in His providence. Godliness with contentment brings great gain (1 Timothy 6:6). God proves repeatedly that He is able to make all grace abound to me; so that in all things, at all times, having everything I need supplied by His generous hand, I will abound in every area of my life (2 Corinthians 9:8). With this contentment, I also have the comfort of knowing without a doubt that God will never leave me or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5).

As God cleanses us from carnality, He chooses to use us as an instrument for His noble purpose (2 Timothy 2:21). He makes us holy and fruitful in our service to Him (2 Corinthians 9:8). He is able to do immeasurably more through us than we can ask or imagine because of His power that is working in us (Ephesians 3:20).

Many blessing come to us, to our family and to those in our sphere of influence, because of what God invests in us (Isaiah 50:4). He makes us servants of His gospel by the gift of His grace and the working of His power in us and through us (Ephesians 3:7). His joy is always our strength in meager times as well as in prosperous ones (Nehemiah 8:10).

Prayer:

Father God, Your awesome power astounds us, Your mercy and grace amaze us and Your forgiveness humbles us. Thank You for using us as Your servants to spread Your Word and Your Kingdom to the ends of the earth. Bless us and keep us and let Your face shine upon us now and always (Numbers 6:25).

Thought for the Day:

The Lord is able to turn bread and water into toast and tea for His Saints.

Jesus As My Center

Read: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” – 2 Corinthians 4:18

When we take stock of the priorities in our life, we often find them out of order. We are tired, depressed, irritable and stressed out because we are majoring on minors in our life. We assign too much importance to certain activities and people that need to be lowered on our list of priorities. There are many verses in the Bible where Jesus tells us to seek first His Kingdom, to love Him with all of our heart, to die daily, to lay our life down for our church family. God does not give us Biblical mandates such as these for His benefit, but for ours.

God knows that as humans, we tend to take the road of least resistance. If we do not commit to putting God first on our list of priorities, we may slide away from living a spirit-filled life and settle for a carnal, fleshly existence. Even worse, we may slide into sinful behaviors, which will rob us of our righteousness, peace and joy. God knows that if we compromise our values, we will not reap the benefits He has for us both in Heaven and here on earth. Jesus loved us enough to die the horrendous death on Calvary’s cross for us, the least we can do for Him is to give Him first place in our life.

Jesus does not demand all of our attention, just the first portion. He wants to reign as King in our life. Putting Him first does not mean that you have to get up early enough to have a morning devotion. The priority is to have a devotion time, no matter what time of the day you have it. Evening, morning or even the lunch hour is a good time to focus your time and attention on God, as long as it is in a quiet place at work, home or in nature.

Well, you know He is not in first place if you share that top spot with anyone or anything else; or if our calendar and checkbook have more notations for worldly events and giving than spiritual ones (Luke 12:34, Matthew 6:21); or if we have something come up during regular times of worship or Bible study and we do not choose worship over that person or event. In the conflict of priorities, a spirit-filled person always chooses God first.

Take an honest look at your financial spending and your time. Evaluate where most of your time and money are spent. That is your priority. Once you consider the depth of God’s love for you, the vision of where you want to spend eternity, the quality of life you want to enjoy here on earth, and your intensifying desire to be one with God’s Spirit, you will realize that your priorities definitely make a difference. Rearrange your priorities so that your goals are the ones God has for you. This realignment may need readjustments often, because the stresses of life often push us off course.

Start by acknowledging your need for Jesus as your Savior, answer His call on your life, desire to grow in your knowledge of and relationship with God each and every day, and make Him your number one priority. God planned our birth and life for His glory (Revelation 4:11). He purchased us with Jesus’ blood and our life now belongs to Him (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). He wants to have first place in our life (Exodus 20:3). Putting God first does not negate our responsibilities to our family, job, church and our own needs; it simply means that we prioritize all of these things in relation to God as our first priority.

God desires that we care for our bodies, because it is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). He states that those who do not care for their own family are worse than barbarians (1 Timothy 5:8). The Bible tells us to obey those in government and business who have rule over us (Hebrews 13:17). When we put God first, everything else lines up in order. You cannot have any relationship without spending intimate time developing it. Developing our relationship with God gives us the energy to care for our body, our family, our ministries at church and the duties at work (Philippians 2:1-8).

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, help us to prioritize our thoughts, words and action. Remind us to spend time with You through Bible reading; times of concentrated prayer in which we not only talk, but also take time to listen; corporate and private times of worship and Bible study; following the leading of Your Holy Spirit throughout our day, and doing only those things which He inspires us to do; putting God’s work first in our calendar and finances; and rejecting any thought, word or deed that is contrary to the nature and commandments of our Father God. Help us to realign our priorities by making a list of our current priorities and praying about God’s will for each moment of our time. We know that true peace and freedom only come when we develop a submissive attitude to the will of God for our life.

Thought for the Day:

Those who surrender their will to God’s will are the most fulfilled and blessed people on the planet.