Dear Readers:
Please forgive me for this 8 month hiatus from this blog. I have plenty of excuses and lots of reasons but I will not bore you with these sillies. Instead, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14
Our excuses can get in the way of everything, can’t they? Its our excuses that keep us from moving forward, or gaining ground, or having victory, or claiming the prize. Even in our walk with the Lord our excuses keep us from pressing on. We often use our “reasons”, which are true and well founded, as our excuses.
As you know this is the year of the WORD. READ ABOUT IT HERE. Turns out when God calls you to something, two things happen:
1)You put a definition to the “calling” prior to God ordering your steps. “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”Proverbs 16:9
2)Your reasons and excuses get in the way, if you let them….
I planned my way through the year of The Word and determined to WRITE more WORDS. Including, but not limited to, this blog and writing of the Biblical Counseling Exam questions. No words have been written on this blog since February and the Exam has not been penned since March. Instead, God opened up HIS WORD and drew me to it like a thick soup in the dead of winter. I got stuck and drowned myself in the Word. It felt good and awkward and rewarding all at the same time.
One of the great benefits of this time from March-November, is that a group of women from my church gathered together in early October for a retreat with the theme….get this…Women of the Word. Yes indeed, the Lord establishes his steps. We took time to learn a new way of studying God’s word or at least took time to renew our fervor for studying the words, not just reading them. I’m hearing over and over again that not only the teacher for this part of the teaching, is growing in the LOVE OF SCRIPTURE, but the women as a whole are living transformed lives because of our time together! AMAZING, THE WORD OF THE LORD.
And then there are excuses and reasons….sucking the very life out of The Word in my days. Honestly, I laid down all my “reasons for loving life and being filled with joy” and have had this weird stripped down, unjoyful, distracting, ugly last handful of months. It started with an emergency surgery (well probably before that, as I look back now the reason for the surgery was draining me prior to the actual surgical event) but it ends now!
This last week I’ve been looking at what steals my joy and what adds to it. I’ll share more on that tomorrow. For today, I leave you with this thought:
What are your excuses and reasons for not reaching that Goal you set months or even years ago? Are you trying to establish your own steps? Where do you need to let the Lord do the establishing of steps?
Get back to The Word. I just finished memorizing Psalm 1 and the words are powerful to me, they remind me that as my delight is in the law of the Lord, so shall my prosperity be!
The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked
1 Blessed is the man[a]
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law[b] of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Psalm 1
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