It has been awhile since I have written… Not sure why, but I just have not felt led or “compelled” to write. When I did, I didn’t have the time and the moment or inspiration faded with the activities of the days. I started sleeping in again which limited my time to do things like write, workout… and spend time with the Lord, but I am back on track now… hopefully I will stay consistent with this for awhile :)
I have been struggling with depression the last month or so. I was going to start the FWO group up on January 6th but no one was able to come so I was wondering what the Lord was doing. I felt like he was doing a “new thing” (Isaiah 48) but at this point I am still waiting. Then I made an email mistake with the FWO group that got several women very angry with me and that was very hard on me. Then I got a job opportunity presented to me that was VERY tempting but after prayer I felt the Lord reminding me that I already have a job and if I took that one, He would fade from my focus and the job would become my God.
I have felt like the Lord is telling me to “forget the former things”… to look to Him and not do my normal follow-up emails and check-in’s with the girls but to let them go and trust Him with them. I have done my part and it is now up to them and Him to go forward. I tend to slip into my “fix-it” mode and try to prop up and encourage and convince these women of what they need to do, but they have to WANT to do it… if they don’t, no amount of propping, encouraging or convincing will help them.
This morning I was reading about the book of Jeremiah in Adventuring through the Bible and was reminded again that we are called to be “obedient” to what God is asking of us… not “successful”!!! The results are completely in God’s hands not ours. Jeremiah spent 40 years serving the Lord without success in the worlds eyes… ignored, persecuted, rejected, imprisoned and with no apparent results of his dedication, prophesies and words to the kings of his time.That seemed to hit a cord with me this morning. I have spent 10 years pouring my heart out to women who come to me, looking for help, but then when I tell them what they need to do, they either reject it, or say it is too hard and go back to the way they were. Very few of them really “get it” and do what they are supposed to do and then see the desired results.
Ray Steadman’s final comments for the book of Jeremiah are “God is greater than our circumstances, our setbacks, our disappointments, and our opposition. He is bigger than anything and everything else in our lives. No matter how depressing life may seem, the God who has called us is the same great God who is able to sustain us. If we take our eyes off our circumstances and fasten them firmly on God, then we will be strengthened to rise to our task and to achieve true success: obedience to God.”
This was a good reminder for me!! All I am called to do is be obedient… to abide, to fix my eyes on Jesus and trust God for the rest!! Thank you, Jeremiah, for your life and example to all of us to endure and be obedient no matter what happens, or doesn’t happen, in this life.
Father, I thank you for “being bigger than anything and everything else in our lives” and that your plan is the best, no matter what it looks like to me!! Help me Lord to keep my eyes on you and not my circumstances. Thank you for my perspective adjustment this morning. Help me Lord to remember this and not to allow my circumstances to dictate how I feel about things in my life. In your precious name Lord, amen!
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