GOOD LIST 8.19.2014

GOOD LIST
Have you thanked Him?
Have you praised Him?
Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?
Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?
1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)
1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Bumped across this from “UPWORDS from Max Lucado” this week. I adapted it a little and posted it to the JEREMIAH TREE wall yesterday.

Everyone likes a list. Lists are reassuring. They comfort us. To list is to understand, solve, and even control. Moses brought a list down from the mountain. There are lists of the gifts of the Spirit. Lists of good fruit and bad.
Here is a little list to consider:
When no one is watching, live as if someone is.
Pray twice as much as you fret.
Listen twice as much as you speak.
God has forgiven you; you’d be wise to do the same.
Good little list huh?

I am a list kind of guy. One of the lovely by-products from a long season of hard core addiction is my memory is “sketchy”. This is especially true when it comes to my “to do” list. My old boss Tim used to mock my process of keeping a legal pad or two on hand to constantly add to and cross things off over the course of the day. But the truth is that when my endless "to do’s" significantly exceed my feeble brain’s ability to manage much less do them, this little system however rudimentary and old school at least keeps me somewhat keeled.

But Max’s list is the kind of list that doesn’t just need kept or checked off. Rather his list requires some DAILY application! It is packed with GODLY instruction; GOOD guidance for an embarking day.

Just look at Max’s first point…”when no one is watching…”
In other words strive to live a GODLY life. That is a “to do” worth embracing huh? At least Paul thought so!
Romans 12:2 (MSG)
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. …fix your attention on God.

Pray don’t fret. Another rock solid, applicable instruction!
Philippians 4:6 (MSG)
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray.

Listen before speaking. Well what do you know…?
James 1:19 (ESV)
Know this…let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak…

Could we go FOUR FOR FOUR? Forgive others?
Ephesians 4:32 (LB)
Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ.

How bout we do this…
Will you join me and putting down “our lists” for just for a second let this one settle into the psyche? Perhaps we could go so far as pausing to pray that GOD will allow this list to permeate our “to do’s” today.
I think if we do we can add today to the “LIST of good ones” once it ends.

Have a blessed day!
I love you all.
Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney