Lord, make me a "doer!"

"I've said it for years, there is nothing good that God brings into your life by way of transformation that He doesn't bring through the funnel of perseverance. If God can get that one characteristic into your life, He can truly make you what He wants you to be." James MacDonald.

So about three months ago my husband and I started this journey through a career transition. It seems like it's been an eternity...at least in my mind. One of my favorite authors once wrote, "the primary battlefield is the mind." The last three months have been an intense battle and I can honestly say overall...I've been living in the victory that Christ has provided. I have had some very low points...a few days where instead of constantly surrounding myself with the Word, with TRUTH, I chose to allow my mind to wonder and embrace the sin of worry. So many times we write off our worrying as just part of who we are, but that's not true. Worry is a sin, the Lord says, "So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34 are you ready for this? Okay..the tense of this phrase (do not worry) is the aorist subjunctive being used as an imperative...which means in plain English..."usually forbidding an action not in progress and thus commands that it not be started." We are commanded not to worry.

After I had my day an a half of a self-focused sinful pity party, the Lord in His amazing graciousness, brought me back into focus with the truths of His word, from 1 Peter 4:19..."Therefore those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a FAITHFUL Creator in doing what is right." (emphasis mine)

Oh how I had sinned against the Lord, in allowing worry to invade my heart and mind, and not trusting my soul to my FAITHFUL Creator. God created me, my heart mind soul and body, and yet here I am not trusting it to Him. Isn't that what worry is? We start contemplating all the endless possibilities..failing to focus on the truth of WHO God is and taking captive our minds to His word. Does that mean at times I need to be in His word without a break...YES! For me, it does. That means I must abandon my daily living...laundry...dishes..whatever (with the obvious exception that I will not neglect my husband or my children) and seek the Lord. I love this in Jeremiah, "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." Jer. 29:13 I (we) must refuse to allow the flesh to win, I must, ladies we must sow to the Spirit as Paul writes in Galatians 6:8, "For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."

I love how greatly I've failed...only because I can see the depths of the kindness of the riches of the forgiveness of my Savior! I love how the Lord has allowed me to see the self righteousness that was creeping in slowly and trying to settle into my heart. I'm rebuking my flesh! I'm embracing God's word and His will and I am trusting my heart and my soul to my FAITHFUL creator who loves me more than I can ever grasp and will complete the good work that He began in me because He ALONE is faithful!!

O LORD HOW I LONG TO BE A "DOER" Ladies, cry out with me that we would be radically different by the grace of Christ and "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not mere hearers who delude themselves." James 1:22