Category Archives: focus

Recognizing God’s Purpose for Your Life

22 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in anticipation, availability, Bible study, career decisions, Christian service, communication with God, faith, focus, prayer

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD (Isaiah 55:8 ESV).

It feels good when we know we are using the gifts God has given. There is a sense of completion in our work. But what about the times we see our service as something here, something there, but no true focus?

I have a friend who has the very strong gift of service. She is the first to respond to any need presented. She does menial things most others would not do. The majority is time-consuming and usually not the least bit convenient. But if she didn’t do them, there would be no one to clear a house of hoarder-like clutter, no one to sit with anxious patients through hours of cancer treatment, no one to carry numerous individuals to doctors’ appointments and pick up groceries and medicine for them.  My friend doesn’t feel like what she does counts for anything. She worries that she isn’t fulfilling God’s purpose for her life. I see her as a chief example of Matthew 25:37-40; that one Jesus says is being His hands and feet.

After retirement, I had some days of wondering what I was to do. I felt without direction and I prayed about what God wanted from me, how He might use me. In time, this is what I heard: Do for every person in your life what you can and with joy. Live in each day’s opportunities. Stop projecting out to new things and stop looking back at what you’ve done in the past. BE. DO. LOVE. Serve in this way.

That wasn’t the answer I had hoped to get. I had wanted some fresh and exciting project. Yet I knew I had heard from God so I set out to do what I could for family, friends, and others I felt God had placed in my pathway. I did eventually receive a new work that I would have never seen on my own; that of tutoring second grade children.

MEGAN_TATUM_AND_JIA_GREENER

Megan and Jia, George and Martha Washington Day 2012, my first reading friends. They are now seventh graders.

Having never considered myself very good with children, this would never have made it to my personal list of possibilities, yet I can tell you that this is one of the three things I’ve done in life that I’ve enjoyed most. It is so important for us to release all struggling to God so that His perfect plans can appear.

God knows what He has put in each of us to be used and if we submit and wait on Him—and follow His nudging—that thing will become clear. And we need always to remember it isn’t about what we do, but how we do it.  Jonah knew exactly what he was to do, but he didn’t want to do it. And when he did do it, it was begrudgingly and with anger. God saved many people through Jonah, yet he was blind to the eternal value. He was seeing the appointment with his eyes and not God’s. Let us not be guilty of that.

Give your questions of purpose completely over to God, then wait and watch. Don’t be afraid of the unfamiliar if your heart says it is of God. The One who created us knows exactly where we are best suited to serve. He has plans for us and those plans will be better than anything we could imagine on our own.

God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them (Hebrew 6:10 NIV).

 

Preparing for the Unknown

26 Sunday Jul 2015

Posted by in availability, Bible study, Christian service, communication with God, focus, humility, unknown future

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Psalm 78:70-71 — He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. (NIV)

I suspect there were a few during David’s time that imagined themselves to be king material.  They no doubt whispered of their dreams and prepared themselves mentally for opportunity that might come.  Other things might have been neglected as they envisioned personal glory.

But David did what was before him to do.  David tended sheep for his father.  He spent hours in the fields, keeping watch over what was entrusted to him.  David had time in his shepherding to observe the wonders of God, to think about God’s ways, and develop a close walk with the Lord.  David kept focused, and that focus had much to do with preparing him to be king.  Even more, it prepared him to be a man with an intimate relationship with God. Acts 13:22 – I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do. (NIV)

sheep enjoying the view

What a lesson for us.  To do the work at hand, as God has provided for us to do, and to do it with complete focus and to the very best of our ability.  We can look back and see that very often we have been prepared for greater things when we gave ourselves fully to the lesser ones.  When we acted responsibly to what may have seemed not that important, God watched, and then trusted us with a greater service for Him. We can never tell when we are being shaped by His hands for a mighty work yet to come. 

Mornings with Samantha

17 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in availability, communion with God, compromise, focus, love, negotiating, pets needs, quiet time, relationship, responsibility, Siamese cats, solving problems, trust, understanding

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

I love the still quietness of early morning. All seems best with my world at that time of day and it is then that I spend time with God. I need this first thing because I know if I don’t do it first, it likely won’t get done at all, and I need His guidance throughout my day. I protect myself as best I can from distractions, yet the minute I settle into my reading chair, one of my cats, Samantha, begins pacing from side to side looking for lap space. For the longest, it annoyed me and I would push her away. This was my time, I wanted focus, and her need for attention complicated that.

Samantha beside the kitty toys

Samantha beside the kitty toys

One morning it occurred to me that I wasn’t appreciating the importance of Samantha’s need. Siamese cats are very people-oriented. They can do without feline relationship but they need humans. So, I decided to change my attitude. Rather than being frustrated with Samantha’s determination to be in my lap, I would make her welcome and see if we could reach a compromise on the first moments of the day.

Samantha led me easily into the routine she wanted: a kiss on top of her head, followed by a little scratching around her ears and chin. Her eyes stare dead into mine as I croon to her how special she is.  I rub the sides of her face and she leans into my hand to get the full benefit of pressure massage. After a few concentrated minutes of attention, Samantha is satisfied enough to leave my lap and go on with her day so that I can get on with mine. By considering her needs as also important and making a slight adustment, we both now have frustration-free mornings.

Samantha at about 5 weeks

Samantha at about 5 weeks

Samantha depends on my love for her, just as I depend on God’s for me. She needs to trust my availability, just as I trust God’s for me. We are actually seeking the same things: time, trust and relationship. One thing for sure, God never pushes me away, annoyed with my wanting time with Him, and it was that reflection that caused me to rethink how I wanted to respond to Samantha.

There is a bigger lesson here: Often times, things seem problematic when they don’t have to be. Sometimes all it takes is looking at a problem from another perspective. When we loosen the grip on our need enough to respect another’s as being just as important, good, workable solutions can be found.

‘Love is patient and kind . . .  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV).

“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:24 ESV).