I’m not too sure where this writing comes from; I found it in my files.
“To be at peace is to stop and think and be still focusing on a facet of God’s provision usually found in His Word but sometimes a thought that you know is not yours because it’s a bit of wisdom that is completely new, but has an awareness of awe around it. You stop and write it down before you forget. Think on it during the day. It’s part of your provision for the day.”
Sometimes the provision comes from or through other people like this Scripture given to me some time ago that addresses an area I struggle with frequently.
“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 22:19)
There are things in my life I intend to do but don’t like acknowledging the Christmas cards containing yearly updates from friends that I treasure and fully intend to answer. Every year after I take them down from the wall where we admired them through the holidays and put them in a guarded stack on my desk. I intend to answer right away and keep them where I can see them so I don’t forget. The days turn into weeks, months, and the year is gone I haven’t done it.
There is another larger group of cards in a bag tucked away on one of my book shelves that I meant to answer. They’re all the cards and notes we received when Mary, our daughter-in-law, died two years ago. I made thank you cards with her picture right on the front but I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to look at her picture until time passed. So they’re still there on the shelf, they haven’t moved and I haven’t either.
This struggle has been a puzzle to me over the years. Of course it’s procrastination my form of control. I get a lot accomplished most of the time, but there is this area that I am submitting to God this year. I haven’t done it before because I thought I could do this myself or someone would come and teach me how to reset my inner clock. Zig Ziglar almost did when he gave me a round TUIT pictured above. I didn’t have to wait until I got around to it, I had one so I should be able to just finish things. I was to hold it and keep it in my pocket to remind myself. I put it in the drawer so I wouldn’t lose it!
Out of sight, out of mind!
My friend Susan sent me this excerpt from Andy Stanley: “There is a little snippet in the Bible that gives us a stunning insight about time. In Psalm 90:12, Moses prays, “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
These words actually establish the context for every decision we make and specifically what we cram in and what we pull out of our schedules. Moses is saying that when we recognize the brevity of life and live as if our days are numbered, we immediately gain a perspective and can better decide what to do with our time.
Put another way:
Our time is limited, so we need to limit how we spend our time. Yet too often, we act as if our time is unlimited, that our days are not numbered in terms of how we schedule and what we prioritize. We assume we will always have our kids, our parents, our jobs, our health . . . and if we’re not careful, one day we will get to the end of our lives with many regrets.
So I think of how I have procrastinated last year and years before and I choose this year to continue to listen to God but to respond to what he says or sends to me through other people. Other things will make it to the list, but this one thing I choose to do.
I’m sharing with you one of my inner most struggles. I don’t want this in my regret list. Blessings and peace to you for this new year.
Father God, do this in me. Amen.