Gratitude. Praise. Appreciation. Applause. Honor. Grace. All are synonyms for Thankfulness. All are offerings I want to give to my Creator and my King.
Give thanks in everything...
means give thanks for Now.
I am eager to thank the Lord always for the good things He has done for me. That was my purpose behind blogging in the first place. It is good and right to remember His works.
I am equally eager to thank Him for what I know He will do. He will come back! He will rescue me from this place and take me Home. He will restore everything Satan has stolen and broken. I will see Him someday!
Someday is where I live most of the time; I have a thrilling preoccupation with Heaven. I like to hang out in Yesterday every now and then, too. But I rarely lay my picnic blanket down in the backyard of Now and just enjoy it for awhile.
I see this in my daughter. She's forever looking to the next thing, unaware of the beauty of the present moment. It makes me so sad for her, but how do I teach her a different way when I am Christmas shopping in July? The irony is, that I am Christmas shopping in July so that I can enjoy December. But if my shopping is done, I will most assuredly spend December planning for the events of spring.
A friend and I were recently discussing the value of the journey to where we are going. Without it...well...we just wouldn't get there! But joy in the journey must, I believe, be achieved through discipline, if it does not come naturally to a person. That's me!
The Lord dropped this in my heart last night about one in the morning as I tried in vain to sleep. 40 days of...40 days of what, Lord? 40 days of all potatoes, all the time? 40 days of digging deeper into Deuteronomy? And then I got my answer this morning: 40 days of Now! Yes, If I look to the past, I will see the hand of God. And someday I will see my Jesus in Heaven. But if I choose to, I can see Him today. Right now. I don't have to wait. He's here, waiting to reveal Himself in a million different ways.
So, His challenge to me is to find Him every day for 40 days. I'm feeling up for it! Oh, also, I'm inviting you! Do you want to join me? I hope you do! It would be ever so much more fun that way. I will be posting every day. If you want, write down your own Now thoughts in a journal or your own blog or you can tell about it in my comments section below.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:19)
Count me in!!!
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to do that for quite some time. Loved this and you can count me in too.
ReplyDeleteI've actually been doing something very similar for a few months now and I would love to hear what you all have to share about your journey. I started praying for God's will for me NOW, this moment, this day. I've become intentional in my prayers throughout the day to seek Him. I have also prayed that Jesus would show me His people through His eyes and this world through His eyes. God has begun to reveal Himself in all of His love and power and glory to me through this; I would have never imagined the ways in which He uses us and our circumstances to glorify Him! If we only ask!
ReplyDeleteMy closest friend actually passed your blog onto me and I've enjoyed reading it the few times I have been here. I actually came to it tonight to re-read what you wrote about the word in your dream because I had a man tell me a similar story tonight. I wanted to read it again and share it with him.
Anyway, thanks to you and I look forward to this.
Oh, yay! I just knew somebody else would want to do this, too! So glad to hear from all of you.
ReplyDeleteI'm just now getting on the bandwagon here, but excited about the journey nonetheless! I'll be playing catch up for a bit :) What a sweet word from the Lord. My heart is full as I think about laying my "picnic blanket down in the backyard of Now!"
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