WISDOM WINDOW

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)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

James 1:5 (MSG)

If you don’t have all the wisdom needed for this journey, then all you have to do is ask God for it; and God will grant all that you need. He gives lavishly...

But sometimes I get to thinking James has misrepresented a little.  

“All you have to do is ask for it”?  Really James?  Does it really work like that James?  For here of late I have been leaning HARD on that passage. I have been doing lots of “asking”.

Why?

I am being asked to tread into some areas that I either have NO clue as to what I am doing or have been here before and didn’t fair quite so well.  So I need that WISDOM, man! 

And then James says all I have to do is ask for it?

But then that is when the hard part comes.

For after I ask, I then need to trust.  James even says it that too!

The key is that your request be anchored by your single-minded commitment to God. – James 1:6 (V)

So that “commitment" implies that after I ask, I need to WAIT for the answer, work diligently to LISTEN for it and then RESPOND to it.  And while I am good at the asking part, desperately sometimes, I am NOT so good at the other side of the equation; the "single-minded commitment" part.

Am I alone here?

Even though James assures us that GOD wants to give those answers and give those directions, grant the WISDOM needed and lavishly I might add, James doesn’t say that if we ask on Tuesday we can go to the GOD’S WISDOM window on Wednesday and pick up the answers, the map and the communique.

NOPE.  I have to stay committed to how GOD wants to answer.

And that means patience!

One hand full of rest and patience is better than two fists full of labor and chasing after the wind. (Ecclesiastes 4:6 MSG)

Therefore while we may ask, while we exercise patience, GOD’S wisdom WILL BE imparted according to His time-table, not mine.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8 (AMP)

So sometimes WISDOM requires waiting.  Waiting not just for GOD to respond, He always responds, but waiting for GOD’S best.

Chambers reminds:

GOD wants us to pray before we do anything at all.

Most of us would prefer, however, to spend our time doing something that will get immediate results. We don't want to wait for God to resolve matters in His good time because His idea of 'good time' is seldom in sync with ours.”

So as I close this week of entries I am pausing to pray: 

Lord give me wisdom for this next part of the journey.  Lord give me the patience to understand and trust Your ways over my own, Your timing instead of my timing, Your best beyond my perceptions.  Grant me the trust that your Word, your heart and your promises are true.

FOR:

We (and I ) can be confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan. Romans 8:28 (V)

Have a great weekend…

I love you all!

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)

BLESSING BUSINESS

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)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

It is days when I am doing what I was doing yesterday that GOD blesses me a little extra.  He knows my love for encouraging others to find their voice and to exercise their call to and for the addicted and it is in settings like yesterday at the Columbus Hyatt that those little intersections tend to happen and they happened all day.

Case(s) in point:

·      Brother-in law needed help for his sister’s husband who is deep into his heroin challenge.  Connected them to the REFUGE for orientation next week!  Pray that he will see the way clear to try!

·      A lady who felt compelled to come over and “see what we were all about” hands me her card.  She has felt the call of GOD to help women allow their brokenness to bring them to the foot of the Cross.  She lives in Miami County.  She was frustrated because she felt she was going it alone.  It was AWESOME to see her face light up when I began to share names and contacts in her county who would be willing to walk with her.  It was so cool to enlighten her that Hope Over Heroin was coming to Troy, her home town, in July.  It was truly a divine moment when I shared about other women who were on the same journey that she could link arms with!  

    She teared up.  So did I…

·      The founder of a prominent recovery facility who in the past has found faith-based opportunities offensive and ineffective.  In fact he is a pronounced skeptic. “I am not religious”, I think were the words.  And yet after a quiet cup of coffee and sharing our philosophies and hearts for the hurting, he has agreed to give “my Jesus thing” a second chance and I agreed to tour his facility in hopes to potentially partner for detox services.

I could go on.

I am going back later today for round two then off to Pickerington to officially launch a new Champion’s team.

GOD knows my wheelhouse. 

And I don’t have time to mention the 4-6 individuals who asked, “How can my church get involved?” or the long discussion with my table neighbor about 2 Timothy 3.

It was a blessed day.

But why am I sharing this with you?

For GOD blessed me with what blesses me yesterday.

He is good Father that way.

Yesterday he allowed me to be…

…enriched in every way… 1 Corinthians 1:5 (NIV)

I am so grateful!

But I am not special!

GOD wants to bless all of us with what blesses us!

GOD knows every detail about us.  He knows what makes us tick, what trips our triggers and He loves to bless!

He takes pleasure when good things happen – Psalm 35:27 (V)

So pause for a second.

Has GOD blessed you with what blesses you of late?

Pretty sunset?

The laugh of a grandchild?

An enthusiastic greeting at the door by your beloved pooch?

An unexpected text?

How about a pat on the back just at the right time?

GOD is in the blessing business friends!

Don’t miss ‘em!  Thank Him for ‘em!

“God is always trying to give blessings to us, but our minds are usually too full to receive them.” ― Shannon L. Alder

I love you all!

Be blessed!

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)

PEDDLING

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)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”– Albert Einstein

 

….forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead…press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-15 (ESV)

 

Ever suffer from analysis paralysis?

Over thinking and under praying?

Or perhaps even “over-praying” and under doing?

 

Don’t get upset about that one. 

 

We have all done that.  Someone has offered a wonderful opportunity to serve or an assignment that in our heart we KNOW we should be DOING but we give it the old “let me pray” about that because we just “really don’t want to do it”.

But do we really pray?

Come on…be honest.

Or is that just the best “churchy” answer to avoid the assignment?  To not peddle?

 

I was just with a new Pastor friend a couple weeks back who was deeply hurt by “what was behind” and had lost sight of “what lied ahead”, which was a new church opportunity, a congregation that was slowly perishing.  They needed him but a previously ugly separation from a church made him reluctant.  

He was having trouble balancing because he had stopped peddling.

Yet the leaders kept pursuing him and he kept saying “he was praying”.  But as he later admitted to them and me, he wasn’t being completely honest.  He even went so far as to say he lied.  He might have been doing a lot of “talking to” GOD but he wasn’t doing much listening.

But GOD kept working on him, encouraging him to no longer stand still in what had happened but to put “that bicycle” into motion and get moving again!

 

So he half-heartedly waded into the new church opportunity.  He even admitted to trying to sabotage things a little.  But GOD had a different plan.  GOD kept things moving.  GOD continue to press to what was ahead.  He just had to peddle.

 

And what was ahead is a little church that started with 8 has now grown to 158 a couple of Sunday’s ago. The little building they occupy can’t hold them.  They are making plans to expand.  They are growing weekly.  This Pastor was now peddling furiously to keep up with all that GOD was doing!  Those past hurts are now a fading memory. 

 

How about you today.

Stopped peddling? Out of balance?

Allowing the paralysis of past pain to stall you?

Or are you praying so much, doing all of the talking with GOD that you have failed to LISTEN? 

…your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21 (ESV)

 

Your ears can’t hear if you are doing too much talking. 

Yes even in prayer we can do too much talking. 

Is it time to be quiet and listen?

Or maybe you have heard the "word" and fear has made you unwilling to PRESS ON TO THAT PRIZE that GOD has called you too.

 

Is it time to start peddling again?

“Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.” – Earl Nightingale

 

I love you all!

Be blessed!

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)