God Is Doing A New Thng

 

  Recently I went shopping for garden soil I plan to use in my new garden box.  I’ve never used a garden box before and look forward to utilizing less space for my garden, as well as, seeing less weeds!

WEEDS GROW QUICKLY

There was discussion between friends about how weeds will grow twice as fast as any seed you plant in the ground and even after being pulled out, seems to have enough gumption to come right back again!  

          I can attest to this, since my husband and I, before he passed, traveled.  We’d, with great 'delight’ plant our spring garden, be gone a few weeks, and by the time we got back we could barely find the row the seeds were planted in!  It looked like we had never planted.  Instead it left the image of neglect and misplaced energy!  Just finding the plants were challenging!  

SPIRITURAL WEEDS

When I consider our spiritual lives, it can actually be a bit similar.  As believers when we are focused on fellowshipping with other believers regularly we are reminded of the importance of studying God’s Word daily. Meeting with others regularly, and living a godly life, are more godly habits we tend to do a bit better.

But when we are absent for several weeks regardless of the reason, it's hard to 'get back into the rhythm.   Whether it’s traveling, not feeling well, making the decision to ‘get things done around the house’ on our day off, or a hundred other reasons to stay away from church, it’s super easy to ‘forget’ —or neglect -- the habits we’d been so careful about before.

GOD DOES A NEW THING

Sometimes we must be jolted back to reality.  God does a ‘new’ thing!  It may or may not be to our liking!  We may find we’ve lost the hope that God still works in our lives.   Or we may have need to let go of a past hurt or our focus is far off.  The weeds growing in our lives have crept in and taken over what was once a beautiful flower (or vegetable) garden!

When this happens, and we reflect on ‘our’ plan, we see we’ve gone down a completely different path.  While God wants to get us on track, sometimes he takes us down an unfamiliar ‘side street’ we’d never expected.  We are asked to wait while his timing comes to fruition, and it doesn’t look at all like what we expected!

GOD SEES THE WHOLE PICTURE

This can leave us frightened and even more confused!  How can we trust in a God who doesn’t seem to make sense?  We are told Biblically God’s ways are not our ways, nor are our thoughts’s like God. (Isaiah 55:8-9)  He can see the entire picture.  We are looking out through a very narrow lens.

FEAR CAN IMMOBILIZE US

Fear can keep us from recognizing new opportunities, we’d never noticed before in an uncertain future.  Sometimes we doubt our personal abilities and just want to wait until everything works out.  

      But it doesn’t "just" work out, and we still wait, not sure what's next while no longer trusting in the God who knows everything. Sometimes, we get impatient and we attempt to  take 'control' and make decisions which make the weeds even worse!

WEEDING OUR SPIRITUAL GARDEN

The weeds in our spiritual garden often need to be confronted and ‘dealt with’ and ultimately destroyed.  The fear we feel, doubt, and waiting for things to ‘look right’ are not from God.  Those are Satan’s attacks on our relationship with God.  Satan wants nothing more than to keep us confused and afraid to move forward.  He wants us to miss God’s nudging, so we miss the opportunities of seeing, ‘God is doing something new’ and the new ‘thing’ is often just what we needed!

Photo Credit: Garden Prep

Photo Credit: A Weedy Garden Photo

 Credit: Fear Can Immobilize Us

Harnessing The Silence

 

        Have you ever noticed that people don’t talk to each other anymore when you’re in a doctor’s office, or anywhere where ‘waiting’ is an essential part of the journey?  Even at the vet office when an animal is getting a check up, conversation is stilted and often abrupt. It’s like people don’t know how to socialize anymore.

I tend to be the odd person who will attempt to start a conversation with people in a long line at the cash register, or waiting in a doctor’s office….unless they are honed in and focused on their digital device, which is often just a game to pass the time.

Even in a restaurant people will have their phones right beside their plates so that if it pings they can take care of the message immediately.  I admit, I get horribly frustrated.  It's like the person across the table--with whom you're sharing a meal, is not nearly as important as the person sending the text you're getting from your phone. 

Other people will have some kind of noise in their home, like the TV or something to drown out the silence.  It almost seems like quiet is too threatening, and intrusive to the way we want to live.  I’m the reverse!  I want the quiet and can’t think if it’s noisy! 

I like music, but even with that, if I’m trying to focus on something, even that noise is a distraction!  

Some will say we’re afraid of our thoughts if it’s too quiet. I wonder if that’s true?  When it’s quiet, our thoughts come to the surface…our fears, doubts, questions and more.  I wonder if we think about those things we’re afraid we’ll somehow expose of what we don’t want others to know; or are afraid to even know about ourselves?

For me quiet is a place of peace.  It’s a place where I can find myself.  The quiet allows me to connect with God at times where I couldn’t, if it were ‘noisy.’  I like my quiet times when my mind wanders all over the place; sometimes flitting in so many directions, it seems like a cobweb, with absolutely no connectivity! 

But many times when my mind is jetting off somewhere, it’ll land on something I can seriously think about, write about, or even pray about.  I like the opportunity to work through the tangle and see where it leads me.  

It seems like in the silence is where I learn to trust God.  I know God can still the storm, both a physical one and the one in my heart when it’s fighting to make sense of loneliness, restlessness, impatience and a desire to make a difference.  It gets so twisted inside my head, I have to let Him sort it out.  

      But there is power in the Holy Pause.  God has the ability to calm me in the midst of chaos.  I still quake often when things go sideways, but I know if I’m steady in the ‘quiet time’ with Him, the meltdowns are a lot less dramatic!  

Photo Credit: Patients waiting using Social Media 

Photo Credit: People in Restaurant on Social Media 

Photo Credit:  Noise at home 

Photo Credit: Silence 

Be Still And Know That I Am God

  I watched the video of Ilia Malinin skating to the song ‘Fear’ by NF.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqfLVv9Rqtg&list=RDKqfLVv9Rqtg&start_radio=1    The performance was incredible, as was the music. The lyrics  (to me) describe an overwhelming fear of the darkness that’s beginning to knock at his heart and mind’s door, as the world around him is caving in.  He cries out to God as he’s spiraling in the depths of despair. He’s lost his will, his joy and everything that ever mattered to him. Oddly enough, this sounds a bit like Job from the Bible.

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERLOAD

Our world is filled with noise from all sides and we don’t know what to do with it.  We have constant social media posts which keep our eyes, ears and mind in continual motion; news from all sources that rarely focus on anything positive, our phones which ding and ping with texts, and videos and political coverage which is overwhelming.  Add to this the time spent playing games and scrolling on our devices, means it never stops.  All this noise and constant movement doesn’t allow for a moment to rest our minds.

                                                                              SO MUCH NOISE 

I read recently an article that suggests this overwhelming of our minds could possibly be the catalyst for some of the mental illness phenomenon across our country.  Even the words from the song Ilia Malinin was skating to was someone struggling against the noise in his mind!

      We are inundated with negativity, the constant bewailing of all the ills of whoever is posting on social media, lies that infiltrate what we hear and read in the news because it’s skewed to the perception of the announcer, or a vindictive person who can’t tell right from wrong.  What if ‘stillness’ could be the best medicine for mental illness? 

WEAK AND VULNERABLE

Our bodies, when pressed with continual fatigue will falter.  Our immune system becomes weaker, leaving us vulnerable for illnesses, breaks and bruises, causing heart attacks, migraines and a huge host of other symptoms directly related to the over use and lack of care, for our bodies!  It isn’t something we planned on; we just go, go, go, because that’s the expectation of society.  Busy means productive.  Productivity means progress. Progress means a bigger paycheck, a chance to climb another rung on the proverbial ‘ladder’……

OUR MINDS EXHAUSTED

Could our minds perhaps have the same dilemma?  With the negativity in our
world, compounded with the stress of expectations in our workplace, our day to day lives, to our schedules, families, extracurricular activities, and to-do lists, could we be causing overload to the point of break down?

BE STILL

But then there’s the single verse from Psalm 46:10 which says, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’  I’m one of those people who find it difficult to just slow down.  While I’m not into all the media hype and other noises that could cloud my day, slowing down is hard for me.  I write, think, and seem to process all the time.  It seems there is always something to be preparing, to write about, to share!  

  Yet, God whispers ‘Be still’.  Perhaps on those days when I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with what I’m working on and God whispers those words…’Be still’… I need to just stop and listen…. What’s He telling me?  What does he want to tell me? Am I listening?

'BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD'

Are we missing the moments with God that are simply an invitation into His presence, where we can find calm, peace, fullness, and ease the sense of striving?  What would happen, if literally, when we feel a bit overwhelmed, or hear his whisper to ‘be still’ we took a deep breath and for just sixty seconds, invite God to take control and allow Him to release the tension that’s threatening to pull us under?

When we do this, we are allowing God to work in our lives.  That's presence.  God does not tremble at the noise around us.  He has total control and wants us to allow his power to reign as only He can, offering us calm. 

        ‘Be still’…and know He is God!

Photo Credit: Man Ice Skating

Photo Credit: Social Media Overload 

Photo Credit: So Much Noise 

Photo Credit: I Need A Break!

Photo Credit: "Be Still And Know That I Am God'