The Lord is a great designer. I believe I created this blog five years ago. It was first named Living Mindfully. I did not know how much that would mean to me in the next couple of years. Living mindfully has become something that I've become passionate about. Being intentional is something I am more and more aware of.
Just this past year I started a podcast also. The podcast is called Into the Water. I had been reading on the Israelites and how God had let them out of Israel. We all know the story. If you don't it is completely ok! The story spoke to me at that time in my life so much. God had this big plan for them. He had set them on this journey. Not just a journey but a triumphant one, at that. What should have tak
en them, what is said, to be eleven days. Took them forty years. I always said this astounded me. WHY! Why did they choose to wait so long and step into what would have been paradise for them!
I then had to step back and realize we all do that. The Lord has sent so many tools and opportunities for us to be triumphant. To walk in his best design. We choose to complain when things don't look our way, though. Just as it is recorded the Israelites do. We choose to coward down in fear when we come across what appears to be a giant to us. Just as the Israelites do. We go around the same mountain many times until finally we get it. Well sometimes people don't sadly. When I started reading that and learning, I told the Lord no more God. I don't want to keep going around the same mountains. I feel stagnant. I feel like I'm not getting anywhere.
It's sad that sometimes it takes us getting to our breaking point to finally realize, I'm meant for more. I'm not meant for a mere relationship with God. I'm His child and he is my father. If I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it all the way. We are not going to be grey. It's black or white. I'm going to live out the word or I'm going to lay down and be a door mat for Satan. Who wants to be a door mat though.
This year there is one scripture that keeps coming up to me and I have pretty much gone through in the last post or the one before that. The scripture is "let us throw off that hinders and the sin that entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked for us." This is my heart's desire. To walk a walk that is fruitful for the Lord. Scriptures and stories come to mind of those in the bible that were obedienct and delighted in the Lord. How the Lord never forsake them. I want to be as one of those people. I want to hinder what the Lord can do.
This post says this is what I want, what I want. The reason I am saying this right now, though. I was speaking to my sister and law yesterday. We were talking about our relationship with the Lord. She said it is encouraging to hear another sister truly wanting to live a life after God. I thought about it. It so is! I want to encourage you. If anyone reads this that has the same heart do not give up. If no one around you has a heart to change for the Lord, you are still not alone.
Don't try to fit in with others. Yes, we should love others. We are called to love. We are also called to be the children of God. As children there are definitely great benefits. We have a protection around us that non-believers don't. Elishah, the prophet, and his servant came up against many enemies in their path. The servant was afraid because they were outnumbered. Elishah saw something that the servant didn't at the time. Elishah asked for God to reveal to the servant what he saw. When God did this, the servant saw the hills filled with horses and chariots of fire. You can read about this in Second Kind 6:7.
Beyond the benefits we have a responsibility. A responsibility to represent God, to trust Him, to learn His ways. As you truly dig into what the Lord has for you, you will want to say no to things that would hinder the Holy Spirit. "Throw off all that hinders you..." Let us go forward and be proud of who we are in Christ. Who he has called us to be. Let's be mindful to how we live. Let's step into the water and cross over to what God has for us, just as the Israelited were directed to do. Let's Live By God's Design.
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