This came from Proverbs 31......

September 30, 2011

Why Am I in Such a Hurry?
Lynn Cowell

“This is how the lampstand was made: It was made of hammered gold—from its base to its blossoms. The lampstand was made exactly like the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.” Numbers 8:4 (NIV)

During the thirty-minute drive downtown, I felt nothing but irritation. Who has time for driving school? Yes, I had received two tickets in the past three years, but I was going to change. Slowing down was on my agenda!
As soon as I found a seat, my computer-like brain turned on, allowing me to multi-task while sitting in the tiny classroom. Three “mental windows” were running: my to-do list for the day; my to-do list for the upcoming holiday; and my to-do list for a home project.
Honestly, that class could not end fast enough. Finally, when I was free to leave, I rushed out of the building. Looking down at my watch, I realized I had one hour to run to the carpet store, pick out the right color and get to the bus stop before my kids did. The store was almost 30 minutes away, but I knew I could do it.
I found the perfect color carpet and was on my way home in no time. Threw the car into reverse and…BOOM! Looking in my rearview mirror, I discovered my bumper curved around a 15-foot cement store sign. All I could do was lay my head on my steering wheel and cry, “Lord, this can’t be the way You want my days to go!”
I was exhausted from the mental and physical pace I’d set for myself. I knew God had a better plan. Around that same time I was reading in Numbers 8:4, and was amazed at how God took time to attend to the details of a simple lampstand. The Bible tells us it was created out of gold with blossoms at the top. God wasn’t just concerned about the function of the lampstand but also its beauty.
I knew then that if God cared about these types of details, He cared about the details of my life, too. I also realized I needed to slow down enough to seek His plans for my days, instead of cramming them with everything on my own hurried agenda.
I decided that each morning I would start praying through my schedule. Sometimes He’d show me I had too much I was trying to accomplish in too little time. Other days He’d show me I needed to say “no” to some things so I could enjoy what He had called me to say “yes” to, instead of just flying through it.
Perhaps you too are caught in the frenzy of trying to get everything done. Do you ever lay awake at night wondering if you’ll finish the tasks on your list? I want to encourage you to try something that has helped me. Tomorrow, before your feet hit the ground, tell the Lord: “This is Your day, not mine. Whatever You want me to do, I will do. Whatever You don’t want me to do, I won’t.”
Throughout the day, as your desire to get more done in less time moves in, and stress tries to take over, repeat your prayer. Soon you’ll discover that handing the details of your day over to God will lead you out of chaos and into His plans for peace and purpose in your life!
By no means is my life perfect now, but most of my days are surrendered to the Lord’s plans rather than the busyness of my own. And, I’m learning more and more how to live according to God’s beautiful timing and pattern for my life each day.

Dear Lord, every day there seems to be so much that has to get done and so little time. I know that living life stressed and frustrated is not what You created me for. Please help me each day to only do what You want me to do and not try to do more. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

New Walk.......

I hadn't posted in a month because I was working on how vines work and how they relate to different fears.  How you can be standing there and slowly the vine grows up out of the ground wrapping itself around your legs and moving up till it has consumed your entire being.  Each leaf is a fear that feeds off the next and so on and so on.  But ...... God is about clipping vines.  He is doing away with all sorts of stuff in my life.  The things being removed have been very hard because its been people I love very much and even some things such as certain works I had been doing for Him.  Accepting change in my life has never been something I have just been able to accept but I am learning to follow my favorite verse which is Proverbs 3:5,6, Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not upon your OWN understandings.  In ALL my ways acknowledge HIM and HE WILL DIRECT MY PATHS.  Sometimes, we have to learn to accept God's ways.  The road of life is not easy but with God it is filled with love, peace, joy, long suffering and all the things that make up our Beautiful Heavenly Father.  We can't close our eyes and expect to open them to everything perfect.  We have to strive for the Lord.  We have to push through the difficult times even when we feel we can't go another step or can't take another breath. In the Experiencing God study which I am so very blessed by, it tells us that God wants a love relationship with us.  That we come to a point of a "Crisis of Belief" and we have to be prepared to move for God.  I have been asking the Lord, what do you want, what am I suppose to be doing and then getting upset because I thought He wasn't answering me but the truth was I wasn't willing to move.  I haven't been willing to make adjustments to my life because I didn't want to let go. I didn't want to let go of people and I didn't want to let go of certain things that God needed me to let go.  It's one of the hardest things I think to love people and to love certain things of God but to have to let go.  If you don't know what it is, He shows us.  We have to open our eyes up and see what is going on around us.  Letting go doesn't mean you can't still love whatever it is but it does mean that if you don't do what is being asked of you by God you could be holding that person up or that ministry up and even yourself up because God has a work for us all.  True love is coming to that crossroads with the Lord and saying ok God, I will go.  YES LORD, I will, even if its the hardest thing in the world to do.  People and things come and go but the Lord is always there!!!!  So.... I am saying YES LORD!!!  I will go and do whatever it is that I know the Lord is wanting!!  I only want to please Him, not man! My prayer is this:  Dear Father, you are my deliverer and my help!  You have brought me from the depths of despair and loved me beyond comprehension.  My Father, I want that Love relationship with You, that You are wanting with me.  I ask that You help me in this new walk as I do the things You are asking of me and I ask that You help others as well as You are molding them.   I ask that You forgive me when I have failed You.  Help me to be strong in You!  Help me to treat everyone with love and that any hindering spirits lingering within me be banished in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ.  They will not have dominion over me or my family.  Father I ask that I be filled with Your love and that I share that Love with others.  The spirit of depression and rejection shall have no part in my life, in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Father I ask that everyone be lifted up high and that they achieve all greatness for Your Glory.  Let us not be stumbling blocks but let us all be helpmates to whatever You need.  I lift up those who do not know You and thank You that laborers will be sent to them so that they will come to know Your love and Your salvation and freedom of sin.  Let us be humble and do all things for Your Glory my dear Father.  I love You always!  Melissa