Perseverance

Perseverance is a word that has been hounding me for weeks... God does that sometimes to me, does He do that to you? When there is something He wants me to get, that word, thought, situation or process repeats itself over and over in my life! So it is with the word perseverance. the latest in a long string of incidents involving this is a conference call that was scheduled months ago. When the speaker was chosen and she chose her topic, just a week or so ago, she chose the topic of... yes, you guessed it, perseverance! Even more unusual at that point was another of the ladies who was going to be on the call when she heard the topic e-mailed back to everyone saying how much she needed that. I laughingly wrote back to everyone and said "you may need it but I know God intends for me to hear it!" This journey has been a long hard journey and I know that I have not been staying the course very well lately. Well the call did not happen the way we had hoped yet I am sure it is exactly how God intended. We did have a great call with just three of us sharing. The women who felt she needed the call, the presenter and I were the only ones on the call. It was a great time of sharing and praying! later in the day I received an e-mail from the presenter with some encouraging words and something in her e-mail got me thinking. I have been feeling a loss of passion in my life, feeling like maybe this was a time to slow down and reevaluate where I am in my spiritual life and my ministries. Maybe God was trying to prepare me for yet another part of my life to be in transition.I have been hearing “be still and know that I am God” and wondering if this is not a time of waiting in my life. God has been moving so fast and so furiously that many times I talked about my head spinning, because of the incredibly fast pace God was changing things in my life. I wondered, if this was not a much needed rest for my mind and body, to allow my heart to catch up with everything God is doing. However, after reading her e-mail I was reminded of how Satan tempted Jesus with scripture and even though Jesus was “hearing the word” it was not what God wanted for Him, so Jesus rebuked the enemy and all that he was tempting Him with. I agree that it is very tempting for me to slow down and take some time off to allow my heart and mind to catch up. Another dear friend, when we were talking a few weeks ago during my trip to NC, told me she was almost angry at what she was seeing and hearing from me. She believed it was the enemy trying to take back ground that God had already given to me…. At first I was shocked and completely resistant to the idea. Now I am not so sure. One thing I do know is that God is not the author of confusion. That would be the enemy. So since I am feeling very confused right now as to which way to allow my thoughts to flow I know that the enemy (even if this enemy is my own human nature) is at work in my life. I would ask for your prayers as I continue to struggle through all that is happening. I Know that my Lord is the victor in this battle. I know that He desires great and mighty things in my life. I also know that His greatest desire is for Him and I to have a relationship that is beyond description. I will choose to work on that for now and allow other things to naturally fall into place as I put Him in first place in my life. I know that there are good things He has prepared for me to do yet that is not His first desire for me. So I, like Mary of Bethany, will choose that which is better. I will choose for now to sit at His feet and listen to His voice. Want to join me?

Hmmmmm lots to think about and pray about.