Go now, a child of God. Choose well the road you take,
And the decisions you make. Keep in mind always that The God you serve continues to call to you, making you more and more every day into the faithful one God wants you to be.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

FIVE

Five

I am spending time in prayer about topics that God would want me to share and I post them here. I truly want this to be experiencing God on a daily basis for this year, today is day 5.

Baggage maintenance

I have the heart of a traveler. I will gladly go where ever if I am asked to go. If you ask my husband he will saythat is the one characteristic that “sealed the deal” that I was the one for him. My husband will tell you that this is one of the most attractive things he first saw in my personality. He could call me and ask, “do you want to go to Georgia?” Without hesitating I would say, “what time?” He could ask me to go anywhere, Las Vegas, Italy, England, or just to the hardware store, and I would say, “Yes.”

Being a practical person, when I travel, I pack necessities, then anything else. For our honeymoon we went to Italy for a week and only carried a backpack and a carry-on bag between the two of us. As travelers we know about baggage maintenance. Take everything you need, remove packaging if necessary, get the weight of what you are carrying to minimal. We don’t like to carry a lot of baggage. It gives us a lot of freedom when we travel.
Extraordinary.

What freedom are we seeking in our lives?
What are we doing to achieve that freedom?
What baggage are we carrying around that we do not need?

When you are first getting to know someone you find out about their character. Maybe there is someone near to that person you can inquire about that person’s character and so you go to him and ask, “do you know …” Mouths rarely shut when it comes to gossip, and possibly if you were to go to three or four people you would hear different things, and come to your own conclusion before you ever get to speak to that person directly. Hopefully that person would be a person of good character and you would be more interested in getting to know that person. Sometimes you might hear negative things and decide the few things you found out were nothing that you would want to be a part of. In some cases, not all mind you, some people should be avoided, but what if you missed meeting someone great because maybe that person’s character clashed with the person you had asked and all they had to say was negative things?

When my husband asked me out he already kind of knew me, he had been friends with my brother in high school and he knew my family. Now if he had inquired about me, there were some “baggage” issues I had that could have prevented him from asking me out. I was divorced with a three year old daughter. For a man without children, who never wanted to have children, this should have immediately turned him in the other direction. But he asked me out and continued to do so for three years while I did some “baggage control” in my own life. After my first marriage failed I told myself I was going to give myself the same amount of time being single as I had to being married. That length of time was 5 years. He saw the best and the worst of me during those years of dating and still decided I was the one for him. The attractive thing about him to me was that he knew what commitment is. He is dedicated to his family and he became dedicated to me. I love him, even now that we are living in separate homes. I think we are experiencing some “baggage control” in our marriage. We are still in prayer about what God’s will is for our lives.

For truths about God’s character all you have to do is go to
Psalm 103
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
6 The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.

I would not hesitate to say, “yes” to my husband if he asked me to go anywhere. Will I do the same for God? Will he put in place the freedom for me to go where he asks me to go? He asked me to write this blog about my extraordinary life, so I think he can keep my wireless internet connection, and I can post daily. Maybe my going isn’t going but staying. What am I doing to achieve this? Spending time in prayer to hear God. What baggage am I carrying around that I do not need? I’m going to trust in God to reveal, remove and restore my “baggage” to His will, established through my growing faith.

Grace and peace be with you from God our father.

Amen.

Afirmations come in through the word...
Todays devotional after I wrote this  "Trust God's Mysterious Workings" David Wilkerson

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