Laying it Down...

     Just recently I had a conversation with a good friend about being stressed with life situations and unmotivated to do the things that she (or we, because I am right there with her) need to being doing in our daily lives. She stated that she knew that she just needed to lay everything at God's feet and leave it there... not pick her situations back up again and try to carry them on her own... but didn't know why she kept picking them back up again.

     I understand exactly how she feels. I know that the problems, circumstances, and situations that I am faced with in my life belong at Jesus' feet and not on my shoulders; but for some reason I feel the need to constantly carry them with me. When reflecting on our conversation I was reminded of a screensaver that I had made for my computer at work several years ago. At the time, I was trying (on my own) to deal with a lot of stressful situations that were going on in my life and had decided to make a "Corbie's life motto" reminder to keep in front of me at all times on my computer. (SEE PICTURE) It was just a small reminder for me to lay everything at His feet and leave it there. As time went on and I became interested or focused on other things,  I changed my screensaver to another picture and forgot about my "life motto" reminder until our conversation the other day. Just as I had forgotten my reminder, I also had forgotten to leave my situations at His feet and not try to carry them on my own.

     
     All too often we get caught up in the things going on in our lives ... the stress, the worry, the overwhelming pressure of dealing with the things that life throws at us daily... that we forget that we don't have to carry those burdens ourselves. God has offered to take them from us and actually instructed us to give them to Him. Psalms 55:22 speaks of casting our burdens on the Lord and he will sustain us. And in Phillipians 4:19 we are reminded that our God can supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory. There are many other places in the Bible where we are reminded of our Lord's constant and timely provisions for all of our needs, situations, and circumstances.

    

     So... why do we insist on handling everything on our own? Why do we refuse to lay it all down at His feet and walk away from it? Perhaps it is a spirit of independence that we have developed over time. An independence that should be turned back into a dependence on God to take care of our every situation, problem, or need.

    As a result of God's gentle reminders through casual conversation, I have been brought back to my "life motto" that I came up with all those years ago. Because of this I will begin again to focus on leaving it all at His feet and walking away. I will remind myself again to focus on His glory, unconditional love, and ever timely provisions. Just as we read in Phillipians 4:6-8, I will turn it all over to Him and trust that He will take care of it all as He sees fit. I will choose focus on Him and all that is good in Him, and hold fast to the fact that I am His and that He will give me peace that surpasses anything I could possibly understand. That is why I am simply laying it all down...

Daily Pop Quizzes... on Obedience!

Every morning the Bible app that I have on my phone sends me a notification to read that day's verse and passage. It's pretty convienent and has really caused me to stay in the Word on a daily basis. I usually read the verse and passage that it has scheduled for that day and then try to keep that particular word in my mind and heart, and really focus on it as I go through my daily activities. The verse that comes up each morning is just an individual scripture that is randomly selected for that day; so... when I started using this app, I decided just to trust that God had picked that particular scripture for me for that day and go with it! Several times just during this week it really seemed to be that God was using that randomly selected verse to teach and test me on being obedient to His word and will.

On Monday, both my husband and I were struggling with trying to understand God's will for us and the fact that it may not match up with our wills at this time. My verse for that day...  Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on you own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. When I read that verse on Monday morning I couldn't help but let out a little giggle and say, "Thank you God! Thank you for reminding me that You are in control and all I have to do is trust in You!" And as I went throughout my day, every time I felt myself falling back into discouragement and questioning "why?" I would pull that scripture back up and read over it again. Then... God impressed me to text that verse to my husband. I was like, "ummm.. okay God...  he is gonna think I'm weird just texting him a Bible verse randomly!" But I trusted Him and did it anyways, and that night when we were getting settled for the night my husband asked me if I had picked that verse especially for him or if it really was my random verse for the day. I explained that it was just my random scripture and all said was "hhhmmm... .okay!" That was enough confirmation for me! I knew just by the tone in his "hmmm" and the look on his face that it was the perfect scripture for him at that time. So... not only did Monday's little pop quiz on trust and obedience lift my spirits and reassure me that God is in control; but it also encouraged and ministered to my husband. That's pretty amazing!!!

Tuesday's pop quiz, on the other hand, was a little bit tougher! Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Now when I read this on Tuesday morning, I was like "oh yeah... I got this one! I don't talk corrupting talk!" Ummm WRONG!!! I should have known that if Eph 4:29 was my scripture for the day... I was going to be tested on it. As soon as I got to work on Tuesday, it seemed like everything thing that could have gone wrong...DID go wrong. It was a stressful day, I was in a bad mood, and EVERYONE around me was talking corrupting talk! Nothing good for building up of anything or anyone and definitely no grace at all! I was overwhelmed with the negativity and felt myself falling into the complaining and murmuring that was going on around me. And then I realized what was going on ... I started repeating the verse over and over and OVER again to myself. I think I probably looked back at that verse 15-20 times throughout the day and asking God to help me control my thoughts and my mouth! And then He did... all of the sudden, in the midst of everyone else complaining, I said: "my scripture for today said for me not to let any corrupting or bad talk come out of my mouth. So I'm not talking about this!" I thought to myself, "wow... did I just really say that out loud!" and all the others around me just kind of stopped and stared at me for a minute. I didn't even really care that they may have thought I was weird. All I know is that I was obeying God and they stopped talking negatively about everything (at least around me anyways)! But wheewwww... what a test!!!

So now every morning when I read my randomly selected scripture, I realize it isn't really random at all! It is God's little pop quiz for me on how well I am going to obey Him that day... and I like it! I feel like He is training me and preparing me for bigger and more life-impacting situations that may come along in the future. So I'll keep taking these pop quizzes on a daily basis and pray that God teaches me unconditional trust and obedience through them!!!