I talked a little about how I had a meaningful conversation with a friend last Tuesday.
Two takeaways from that.
First is it’s apparently okay to hope, but you need to manage your expectations. You shouldn’t be putting all of your focus on what you want to happen. There’s so much more to life to devote time and concentration on.
You respect what you want by giving it the focus it deserves – no more, no less. And if I’m not stressing the point enough, you actually disrespect what (or who) you want by giving it more devotion and attention than is necessary.
Second – It’s that God’s hand is always with us. At least in the Body of Christ. My friend proved what I kept telling our folks in the congregation (or those who bother to give me time and attention when I speak, anyway) – That no matter how far ‘gone’ you think you may be, the Spirit remains with us, convicting us of what is good and what gives life, regardless of how hard we push for the contrary.
I’m not going to go into details, but I’ll just say that when we’re saved and made new creations through Christ, my friend bore witness to how we have new minds and new priorities and preferences – in the light, and in the darkness.
Thought I’d just share that before I kept going today.
Oh, by the way, I went ahead and asked Grok for a purely Bible-based approach to getting out of a slump. I asked it to integrate a verse which has kept me going in this season (Psalm 46:10) and to end with something revealed to me around a year and a half ago (Flow, Trust God, Thank God); Then, finally, I told it to simplify the entire thing, and this is what we ended up with:
Still → Act → Trust → Thank → Repeat
I realized that, in a way, I’ve been doing this here. I mean, here, as I write, I’m trusting the Lord and thanking Him (by dwelling on His Word and responding), after a quick sweat session (Acting).
What’s funny is that I’m doing this cycle of exhausting my mind and my body with the mindset that it gets me into the ‘mood’ to do what I’m actually supposed to be doing… but as long as I’m not in that ‘mood’, that’s bringing me to procrastination.
….aaaand that’s where the disconnect is. I need to manage my expectations by removing that bad one. I don’t need to be in any ‘mood’ to act. I just need to act. Rather, I need to be still, know that the expectations are superfluous, know that my God is my faithful Father who is with me no matter what I think, and I act – Emptying myself as a vessel in all that I’m supposed to be doing, trusting and thanking the Lord during and after, before repeating the cycle.
And with that being said, I realize that the stillness, is peace, it’s rest, and it’s power. I don’t take the first step off of a mood. According to the Word, and according to words we discussed with my late good Dad… we take one step back (stillness) and two steps forward (to act).
Well, isn’t that nice.
Let’s be still.
Thank You, Father, for the reading of Your Word.
Psalm 68 is pretty long, so I’m going to quickly dwell on the first portion of the composition:
1 Let God arise, Let His enemies be scattered; Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.
2 As smoke is driven away, So drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad; Let them rejoice before God; Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly.
4 Sing to God, sing praises to His name; Extol Him who rides on the clouds, By His name YAH, And rejoice before Him.
5 A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.Psalms 68:1-6
Two things I want to write and place on here before I forget – When we praise the Lord, and when we devote time to meditating on His word and conversing with Him, that’s not the only thing that’s happening.
I mean, I get that Jesus told us at one point to pray in private, and to give discreetly – but the point there is that we shouldn’t be flashing what we do for and from God to project religiosity. What I’m trying to say here is that we may be putting much activity aside when we zero in and devote more, if not all our being at one time to revelling in His presence… But in the midst of all of this, the Lord moves.
He rises on the clouds, scattering His enemies, and causing those who declare themselves His enemies to be driven away from Him, as smoke is blown away.
See, as we praise the Lord, and as we who have been made righteous (by Christ’s death and resurrection) take time to rejoice before our Father, we are well taken care of during those moments.
I had to stop there to check out other translations for verse 6, and here’s what I got from the Amplified, thanks to Bible Hub:
God makes a home for the lonely; He leads the prisoners into prosperity, Only the stubborn and rebellious dwell in a parched land.
Well. WELL. Thank You, Lord, I happen to be feeling lonely and imprisoned. And… well, here’s what we all ought to keep in mind, even as we rejoice in His presence – it’s not that things are idle. The Lord is working, indeed.
And about that other thing I want to write here before I forget – While we would do well to intentionally put things aside to meditate on His Word, and to rejoice before Him, the Truth of the matter is, even when we’re working, Christ has paid such a great price to guarantee that we’s ALWAYS abiding in His presence, and we’re ALWAYS being made clean by the Word He speaks to us.
What I think I’m ultimately trying to say here is that the Lord doesn’t just make us productive… and, yes, as I love to keep saying, our Father is faithful to make all things work for our good… No, the Lord doesn’t just make us productive, and He doesn’t just make what we do and what others do around us productive, He IS our productivity.
Sure as the Lord is our motivation, so He IS our productivity. He moves and works in and around us, so that no time is wasted. We may be taking time and running to His throne of grace, prostrate before Him doing nothing else but seeking Him… Or, we may be taking things into our own hands, and working towards our wants, needs and desires… Or, we may be brought to paralysis of analysis trying to balance this and that…
…but in my wandering around like a headless chicken, on in my self-pity sessions of not seeing what I want out of life and trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with me, I’m brought to behold our Father, who is our Motivation unto Productivity, and our Productivity unto Motivation, partnering with us when we move, and convicting us by the Holy Spirit every step of the way.
Let us move as He moves, and let us move in peace unto power, and power unto peace.
I need to head out. Sorry for sort of ending this quickly.
As always, God bless us all.
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