I've been reading a book for the past two years awhile and I finally finished it this morning. It's called Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver. This book had a wonderful message with some excellent thoughts. The last chapter was absolutely timely in my life right now. The chapter's focus was on perseverance, "perseverance is one of our responsibilities in this process of being changed." I am learning what it means to persevere in many things - whether it be education, the workplace, home-life, friendships, etc. But what I'm really learning to persevere about? My journey with God.
Persevere
to persist in anything undertaken;
maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.
to persist in anything undertaken;
maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.
No one ever promised it would be easy, but exactly what is easy? If I want world changing and life altering to happen in my story, God has to be a part of it. And if God is going to be a part of it, He has to change me from the inside out. This is the process I must continue steadfastly through. The next piece of this is surrender. I have to surrender everything to Him.
Surrender
to yield (something) to the possession or power of another;
deliver up possession of on demand or under duress
I have to surrender my desire for perfection, my desire to look competent, and my desire to please others - and I have to lay this at the foot of the cross. Daily. Because my experience with God is that He'll let us tackle life on our own for as long as we want, until we realize we can't do it on our own and we're totally and completely spent. I want to gain enough maturity to avoid this type of exhaustion all together.
Mother Teresa said, "He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness." Let this be true of me ~ that I believe in His power more than my shortcomings.
While I'm on the topic of perseverance and surrendering. . .I want to ask for prayer.
Passion 2012 is coming up super-fast (47 days!) and I could certainly use prayer for strength, wisdom, energy and foresight. This four day gathering is going to change people's lives forever and I am so honored to be a part of it! Not at all a coincidence that this is when God is choosing to teach me about perseverance and surrender!
O Christ, do not give me tasks equal to my powers,
but give me powers equal to my tasks,
for I want to be stretched by things too great for me,
I want to grow through the greatness of my tasks,
but I shall need your help for the growing
E. Stanley Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment