What's your plan?
Last night I laid down on my couch and made myself stop everything I was doing. The house was quiet, and I needed it.
I watched the white lights twinkle on my tree and I wondered how did my life get so crazy and busy these past few months since coming out of quarantine.
The slowing down of quarantine was needed for my heart and my soul. Even despite an unknown virus making its way into our world, I still felt the peace of ceasing most activity.
I picked up my prayer journal last night and spilled my heart into words on the lined paper. I told Jesus that I missed Him. I missed the times I had pulled away from my busy life and sat with Him. It had been a while since I had done this.
My bible reading has become fast and furious as I check off my reading plan for the day each morning. I have not taken the time to let it resonate and root down into this heart so desperate for Living Water.
I notice the change in me when I am not rooted and grounded in prayer and God's Word. I notice the lies that begin to take hold again, the piercing arrows of the enemy telling me that I will never ever get this right.
The unbelief. The doubt. The attempt to control things, outcomes, people. It slowly floats up and I feel that suffocating again. It feels like literal hands around my throat, taking the life out of me with each squeeze.
Can you relate? Have you find yourself on a downward spiral and you cannot seem to change course?
As I read my Bible slowly this morning. I let His Words penetrate deep. I read some passages over and over and over. I needed to absorb His Truth. Often, very often, convicting and artery hitting.
I notice how even as I type, my eyes are drawn to the lights on my Christmas tree. They beckon me to gaze at them. To take in the beauty, the stillness, the peacefulness.
I take it in. I breathe in deep the Peace.
We were made for the Light.
12When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12
I realize and remember why Jesus often withdrew to quiet places. He longed, He craved, He hungered to be with God.
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5:16
Could it be our hearts are just poverty stricken?
We have fed it so much junk that it does not even function properly. We have fed it fear over faith. We have fed it worldly information over Truth. We have fed it newsfeeds over Psalms. We have fed it fiction over God's Promises.
What we need MOST is time with Jesus. Even when we cannot get away, we need time with Him in our souls. To rest our worries, cares, and burdens at His feet.
The world is hungry for Jesus. We don't need a cure for Covid to solve this soul hunger, We need more of Jesus.
I don't think I am the only one feeling this way. I have had countless conversations with people the past few months about this.
Jesus is beckoning us back.
He is calling His sheep back to the pen. We have wandered. We have been lured by the world.
It is time to return.
However, we need a plan.
We have been reading through the Bible this year. We must continue.
We must return to the Light. The Truth. The only Way.
My plan is to stay the course. My plan is to make more time to let His words resonate instead of rushing through the passages.
Your plan may be different from mine.
Maybe you need the discipline and the structure of a reading plan?
If so, The Daily Walk Bible is a great way to read God's Word.
I have read it through several times now.
It will keep you on track. It will keep you in God's Word.
Let's hold each other accountable, shall we?
I would love to know your plan to stay close to Jesus this upcoming year.
Set the goal.
Have a plan.
I came across this quote in my Bible commentary yesterday....
"I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I ask every man and woman that from this day on they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in the daily perusal of the Great Book." Woodrow Wilson
I am in. How about you?
back to the sheep pen,
jill
