So much going on…and I do need to provide an update on GN. But, despite these many happenings any the long list of things I need to accomplish today, making time for the Lord isn’t just necessary it is vital. So, I’m starting with the Lord today. He taught me something last week, and I didn’t make time to share it. I was thinking this past week, with all my work and responsibilities, making time for God is more like squeezing Him in, rather than God first and then squeezing work in. I had felt God really impressing on me a reminder to start my day, end my day and in the middle of my day make time for Him. I am an avid prayer. I pray just about all day. Making meals – praying, brushing teeth – praying, shower (most favorite time with God ever) – praying, when I work – all day on/off - praying…praying is just something I can honestly say has been growing in my DNA. (I’ve come a long way, baby!) But, so it’s clear, I am not talking about the one-way street praying. You know, “God bless Ma, Pa, Granny, the neighbor down the street for driving too fast. Please forgive me for…” No, I pray and seek and wait for His reply/direction. But, I’ve felt God impressing on me about making time for just Him – no “multitasking”. Which, I am the queen of multitasking! I have so much to do, I need to bundle my load to get it all done. Yet, I felt him impressing on me, by doing this time will expand and the burdens will be lifted. I know it seems almost silly to think of time actually expanding. But, I think the ability to achieve more was really the point. Anyway, today’s devotion (from Jesus Calling), a written reminder of this very thing…”I am life and light in abundance…as you spend time “soaking” in My presence, you are energized and lightened….through communicating with me you transfer your burdens to My strong shoulders…Be willing to fight for this precious time with Me. Opposition comes in many forms: your own desires to linger in bed, evil one’s determination to distract you from me, the pressure of family, friends, and the critic inside you that keeps you pushing to be productive…” This is my paraphrased excerpt. It was a great reminder, today. Casie, keep pressing into Him, keep my eyes on Him, turn it all over to Him and He won’t fail me. He NEVER fails me.
We have been hosting the “Experiencing God “bible study at our home. This week is the last week. I really like it, and I feel the timing has been perfect. If you’ve done it, do it again – if you haven’t, it has been a great study! I’ve learned a lot about purpose, and one thing I really saw this past week was the change in belief. You know, as you are seeking the Lord, pursuing a relationship with Him, the opportunity will come where He will extend an invitation for you to join Him where He is working. And, when this happens, so many of us (me included) wait before responding. We wait, saying, “let me pray about that”. And, in so many cases He doesn’t want us to wait and pray about it. He wants us to respond and act. I’m not saying all decisions or situations are a respond on the spot kind of situation. But, what I’ve now learned is sometimes if you don’t the moment passes by and the opportunity is lost. During these invitations, we will encounter what the study calls crisis of belief. I had hoped to write this last week, but my busyness got in the way. So, here it is today. Crisis of belief requires you to be willing to have a change of belief. Let me better explain, how God did this for me.
Everyone has beliefs, opinions, and thoughts on just about any topic there is. Last Sunday, a man with a reputation for high wire/sky wire walking, was televised during his walk across the Grand Canyon. We really didn’t know his history or much about the event, except we stumbled upon the advertisement earlier in the day and the children wanted to be able to stay up and watch it. Honestly, Troy and I both had an opinion about this event. It went something like, “what in the world?! Seriously, this is ridiculous. He has a wife and he has children. This isn’t smart or necessary.” But, our 8 year-old son Connor, wanted to watch this event. He didn’t want to miss any part of it. So, we sat. And, we watched. Originally, the show had planned to have an open mic, so to speak, for open communication back and forth. However, due to various conditions, the hosts decided not to have a free for all open mic, and instead decided it was best to allow the gentleman to stay focused and kept the channel open/free. The only two speaking were the man walking (Nik) and his father, who was giving him encouragement and status updates of the progress (time, how his son was doing, how the wire looked, etc.) Because there wasn’t open talking back and forth, what you mostly heard instead was Nik as he spoke. And, for about 90% of the walk, he prayed. He called out praise to Jesus; he called out glory to God. This man, in every step thanked Jesus, gave glory to Jesus, and called out to Jesus to calm the winds, and continually – over and over – lifted Jesus’ name up. I won’t lie; I was one of the many out there criticizing what he was doing. How crazy it was to risk his life, knowing he has a family. How stupid (yes the “S” word) it was to do all this to break some record or be placed in some “Guinness” world record book. And, I won’t lie by saying, as soon as he started praying my view stopped. No, actually, when he started praying I was thinking…”Come on, God expects you to use some brains and what?....you want Him to calm the winds so you can walk across a wire extending from one side to the other of Grand Canyon? Seriously?” And then, it happened. Watching him…hearing him…and hearing the sincerity of his simplistic affirmations to the Lord…goose bumps and compassion began to fill my heart. “Change of Belief” ladies and gentleman. This is what is called, change of belief. And, it was right there, as simple as it might be, it was right there. All of the sudden, I realized, this man has a purpose. His purpose is to use his gifts to glorify you God, and his gift may make absolutely no sense to me, but it was glorifying God. So, does it matter? He spent every step thanking, praising, giving Glory to God through His son Jesus. He made statements like, I’m nothing without you. Oh man!
Now, check this out. Look, this channel airs in 223 countries, of which this specific show aired in 178 of those countries. This ranked as Discovery’s highest rated live event. It had over 13M viewers during the walk. There were over 1.2 billion tweets in that one day alone on the subject. On Sunday, this topic was over 70% of total topics being tweeted about. This doesn’t account for the 2.9M streaming live video, as there were multiple camera views if you went online to watch, vs watching on TV – the day of the event. Since Sunday, there have been 6.8M page views from 4.8M visitors (oh, and that statistic is from 4 days ago). Think about how many people experienced, saw, and witnessed the power of prayer. How many more will experience, see, and witness through watching and rewatching the videos over the coming days, weeks, and months. This man’s continued and unfailing love and faith in God was proclaimed and displayed for the entire world to see. He gave all the glory to God. Y’all, I seriously experienced a change in belief. Something simple and it wasn’t as if it was really related to me. Oh, well…ah ha! Maybe…it is related to me. Through this, I was able to finally understand.
Lord, I know I am too comfortable in my life as usual! Forgive me. You have an assignment that is God-sized and to accomplish it I must have adjustments to my beliefs and faith. Show me how, I am willing Jesus. You may change my circumstances. You may change my relationships. You may change my thinking. You may change my commitments, my priorities, and my actions. You have permission to change my beliefs, even those I have so proudly held on to for so many years. Change whatever is necessary for me to carry out your assignment. I surrender to You. I depend on you entirely, and I wait for your call to action. I want to think your thoughts, act in Your ways, and focus on your purposes. Make me ready to obey. I want to EXPERIENCE You. Thank you for caring enough about me to want to change me.
[thank you Experiencing God for teaching me this very important message – prayer above is modified from Experiencing God study, thank you Nik Wallenda for being obedient to God]
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