Your posts are quite intriguing. But, I’m still wondering if you’ve sat down and knocked out your goals for 2011. Don’t let this year rule you. You must shape your life by managing it with plans, goals, and vision.
Verse 12 of Isaiah 58 gives us a unique value to fasting. Fasting gives us the appetite to rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the age-old foundations of our life. What ancient thing(s) have you seen crumble in your life? Perhaps it was a marriage, an employee to employer relationship, or a pastor to member bond that used to be healthy. Have you ever considered holding out the olive branch—a symbol of peace—to that person? God may be using this fast to repair something that had been ruined in your past.
I would not discount something so precious as God concerning Himself with a private area of our life that you’ve moved away from and now think it unimportant. Pray about it! If God speaks to your heart to shoot someone an email saying: “You were on my heart and I wanted to say: I miss our times together. I wish the painful things didn’t occur; but I want God’s best for you.” Maybe one of the benefits of this fast is not just getting you to move in a new level of spiritual vitality, but also to shift your heart to want to rebuild the age-old foundation of reconciliation and friendship.
Share your thoughts.
I was just reading this this morning in your book, Journey to the Mountain of God (2006). I was reading day 10, "Getting Rid of Excess Weight." It spoke about letting go of past problems to reach to get to the next level in my relationship with God. He always has a way of confirming His promptings. One of my goals this year is to deal with a past family issue that I have been suppressing for years. I figured if I just left it alone it would work itself out. Through my devotions, this fast and this post; I realize that it hasn't, it won't and its time. I believe that this reconciliation will build courage on both sides. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI didn’t plan on putting another weight loss goal this year, however after much consideration; I decided I will give it another try. In the discipline of Teams, Jon Katzenbach relayed that “There is a discipline to weight loss and that is to eat less, eat wisely and exercise;” so with the help of the Holy Spirit, I will most definitely try my best this year.
On a more serious note, I have a question, what if I go ahead and try to make peace with an offender by holding “the olive branch” and in turn, instead of accepting, they beat me up some more, what would happen then? While I’m not too crazy about the olive branch synopsis, I think it’s a great idea if one wants to consider it because the Bible calls us to peace and not harm one another. Now as far as today’s reading, I didn’t look at v.12 in a sense of reconciling with an offender but I envisioned it as a form of reconciliation with self. I saw it as a way to forget the former things whether they be painful mishaps or judgmental errors on one’s past. I looked at it as a fresh start by making use of previous experiences and known information that can be used to either do a self reinstatement or inspire another to achieve greater things. I like to encourage myself and others, so I think this year is up to a great start already.
wh
Sometimes people want to define us by how they met us. But by Gods grace, His mercy, and His resurrection power working in our lives, people and seasons change. I have discovered that people can be in our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Sometimes its hard to discern the kind of relationship one is involved in. When I have experienced disappointment, I have found it is not always fruitful to reconcile after forgiveness. Insanity can be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
ReplyDeleteOne of my goals is that the eyes of my understanding would be enlightened so that I may know where I fit in God's workmanship and what role I am to play. And that I would not be misappropriated, misplaced or manipulated into a function I was not called to perform. That I may know the hope of God's calling. This goal is really a prayer.
I am asking that the Lord give me all the right people to work with and for me, so that "together" we work unto the Lord. I pray that God will clear paths and open doors so that I may work with people in community and not competition. I pray that I recognize Gods Divine answers.
I have begun to write some S.M.A.R.T. goals that fit into the six domains and I believe it will get accomplished as in years past. Although I have dragged my feet at times, I have "always" experienced a more profitable year, whenever I have written S.M.A.R.T. goals!
However, as I get closer to establishing goals for 2011, I get the sense that this time, God is going to share with me more about who He is, than what He wants me to do. There are things that God has been preparing me for, that are deeply relational and not task oriented. May God empower me to make positive and significant deposits into other people's lives.