Have you ever had one of those days where it seems like a thousand things are going on and they're all colliding in your head? I'm not talking about a medical crises here or some deep mire of sin that we've gotten ourselves into. No, I'm just talking about a day of demands from multiple directions, a day of bills coming in that you didn't expect and a deadline that moved way forward and the people you love most are needing things from you and suddenly you can't figure out anything anymore and you really did think that you were turning each one of these "things" over to God and yet here you sit, overwhelmed.
Is it just me? I see people who appear to handle life so seamlessly like a beautiful bird in flight, - nothing seems to rattle them - and I wonder, "how do they do that ALL THE TIME?" Whew - phone just went off again, you didn't hear it of course, but it's just THAT kind of a day. Time for me to practice what I know!
Like we learned in session one of SINK, SWIM OR STAND - "If we don't stand on what we know, then we will flail about, perpetually exhausted and never put our legs down and ultimately drown in our circumstances." In context, I am talking specifically about what we know about God and the instructions, He has given us in His word on how to STAND FIRM regardless of our circumstances.
On this day, I admit it, I'm just not cut out of the stuff that allows one to thrive in chaos, I need space to breathe and be quiet, even if it's just for five or ten minutes. But today, all that is at my disposal is to WILLFULLY fix my mind on some scripture that I repeat over and over in my head. When I felt my emotions going all raucous on me, this came to mind, "From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." Psalm 61:2.
I used to would have kept on trying to figure out how to make everything work and how to get everything in order and before the day's end, I would have spoken harshly to someone I care deeply about and then beat myself up for a week or so for being a failure, but not today.
This verse that I used to pull out of my arsenal during only the tough times is applicable right now. I'm learning that God loves me deeply in ways that I can't comprehend; I'm learning that I'm in a relationship with Jesus and that the Holy Spirit points me to Him so that I can learn and stand and "act like a citizen of heaven" EVERYDAY.
Yes, I have learned from a hard life with hard lessons that God is bigger and stronger than anything EVER. But I am actually still having to grasp that He is ever-present, that He is always near everyday, not just during a crises or to get me out of trouble but in the mundane of the ordinary everyday that happens - - well - - everyday.
THAT everydayness (not a real word) of God is an amazing realization. Verses like Ephesians 3:16-19 "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." are meant for all our moments not just dire straits moments.
"being rooted and grounded in love"!
Don't miss that phrase for this is one of the ways we stand. We can stand strong in the knowledge of the breadth and length and height and depth of His love for us every-single-second-of-every-single-day! Let that take root, meditate on it and drink deeply from the Living Well and those roots will grow deeper still. Jesus said, " Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."
John 15:4-5
Abide in Jesus, be rooted and grounded in His love. When? E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y. You can't be a part of a vine one day and not part of the vine the next day and try and jump on the grapevine and "grow" only when you need something or life gets difficult. Jesus used a very practical example that most all of us can understand. If you pull a branch off of a vine, it will die. The branch has to stay on the vine continuously in order to produce fruit - in order to LIVE.
One of the first principles of getting to a place of standing firm in our faith and not floundering around and drowning in our circumstances is to ABIDE in Jesus. In order to abide, you must first know him personally and then it is CRITICAL to read and study His word consistently. When you do this, then whether you're having a real crisis or just a "thousand things day", you will be able to shine in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Comments