Keeping It Simple
By: Misty Grimes
Day One
Introduction:
I have been struggling all week with writing the devotions for this week. It is now 3pm on Sunday afternoon and I have spent the past several hours trying to prepare the devotions I believed God was leading me to write and they just won’t come together as my mind keeps wandering and focusing on other things, things that are just weighing heavy on my heart that I have been trying to ignore. I would type for a few minutes, read my notes, try and move on and then my thoughts would wander, a pain would pierce my heart, the tears would start to fall and that aggravating little voice would say, “you can’t do this. Just Call Pastor James and tell him you can’t do it.” I would stop, put my head on my desk and just cry, “God, help me!” It’s all I knew to say. Then His voice came and said, “Keep it simple!” So I closed out the elaborate document I was writing, opened a new, blank document and just started typing. I’m still struggling and still want to quit but I’m also still praying His Spirit will speak in me and through me as I attempt to share with you want He wants me to share with you this week. We will find out together where it leads.
Scripture:
“My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind and I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:20-24).
Lesson:
In counseling we have a term we often use known as “triggers”. Triggers are things that we see, hear, touch, taste or smell that cause us to remember tragic events in our life and bring along with it all the feelings we felt when we were originally dealing with that tragedy (while triggers can also bring about good, happy memories, the majority of the time when they are brought up in counseling they are bad memories of tragic events). Example, about two weeks ago I saw the headline of the local paper and it immediately brought me back to a horrific loss I experienced two years ago. With it came all the pain, the anger, the deep sense of loss, the guilt, and the need for revenge I still sometimes feel. With those feelings came an entire change in character: short-tempered with others, and isolation from others and that brings other things on board also, none of it good as my mind is overtaken with negativity. It often also brings with it physical symptoms (anxiety, tummy troubles, headaches, elevated blood pressure, etc). Triggers are often what cause many who struggle with addiction to relapse. When I let a trigger take over I lose all sense of whom I truly am and who I have become as I have grown in my relationship with Christ especially over the past two years. I allowed a life that was on track and going strong to be derailed and overtaken once again because I forgot not only who I am but WHOSE I AM!
The author of Lamentations, Jeremiah was in the same boat as he continually thought about his losses. In this chapter of Lamentations his words become personal. He is heartbroken and weary, discouraged and completely undone. He felt alone and helpless and very much afflicted by God. Yet, unlike me, he was able to recall the truth….that no matter what was in his past he always had hope because of the steadfast love of the Lord, because of God’s great faithfulness and because every minute of every day He gives us the chance to start over because of His mercy! There were two reasons why Jeremiah was able to do this even in his darkest moments.
One, Jeremiah spoke frankly with God; he didn’t hide his despair or his anger. Sometimes we hide our feelings from God, fearing that he will condemn us for them yet God is never offended by our honest expression of our emotions. Unless we speak it we cannot deal with it and escape its destructive grasp. Jeremiah expressing his feelings, and us expressing ours, openly and honestly with God, was an important step toward him, and us, recovering our hope. God knows our hearts anyway so why not be honest with him? Even Jesus poured out his heart openly and honestly to His Father many times. Think about his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane or his cries from the cross. God expects nothing less from us.
Two, after Jeremiah poured out his pain to God, he reflected upon God’s faithfulness. What could possibly deliver him from his terrible anguish? Nothing except the mercy of a gracious and loving God. God’s love is unfailing; his purposes, clear; his righteousness, unquestionable. We need to do the same. Then and only then will we find a peace that surpasses all understanding. Only then will our hope be restored. Only then will our joy be renewed. Only then will the truth of His Word flood our minds once again. Only then can we get back up, dust ourselves off and continue on knowing that even though there will be triggers along the way we don’t have to let them dominate our thoughts and take over our lives once again.
Conclusion:
Learning to retrain our triggers to stir within us thoughts of God’s healing in our lives and his faithfulness rather than all the negative emotions and actions that often come to mind when we recall tragic events is difficult but necessary and takes time. We will fall along the way as we learn to grow in our knowledge of Him but we also need to remember that when we come to God with our pain, we are sure to get a fair hearing. God, in his mercy and grace, will help us overcome our setbacks and gain a new perspective on life when we ask him.
Application:
Go to your prayer closet and be quiet before God. What do you need to be open and honest with Him about? Pour out your heart fully to Him and let Him speak life and peace into you.
Day Two
Introduction:
Well, the Lord helped me get through Day One by revealing to me what He sees is my major malfunction right now: a need to be totally honest with Him in prayer and remember not only His faithfulness but His promises as well. He reminded me that I don’t have to let my triggers take over in a negative way but rather when they come to mind I can continue to have hope as I recall to mind His love, His forgiveness, His graciousness, His mercies and, most of all, His patience with me his often stubborn and forgetful child! And this continues in today’s devotion as He reminds me that in the midst of it all He always has had a plan and he is continuing to work in my life to bring that plan to come to life I just have to wait on Him and His timing!
Scripture:
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and river in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19).
Lesson:
As many of you already know this verse has been at the forefront of my heart and mind for at least a year now, if not longer. It became even more true of me when several months ago I felt his call upon my life to go into full-time ministry and I surrendered to that calling even though I still, as of this writing, have no idea what that calling is. I have some idea but no clear direction and that is where I allow the old Misty to often come in and try and take over and, as many of us who struggle with impatience know, that is where the problem lies, or should I say problems. When we know God is calling us to do something but He has yet to reveal the full picture to us, several things can happen that can cause a delay in the process.
- We know the call is there and we know that certain things have to fall into place in order for it to happen. We try and wait it out and take it one step at a time yet when it doesn’t happen when we think it should happen we grow discouraged and try to take matters into our own hands. Example, when we know a time-line is approaching, more times than not a time-line we have set not God, whereupon we say, “okay, so this is happening in two weeks but that is not what I think God wants to happen so what do I need to do in order to make it happen before the two weeks runs out?” Our minds begin to go in all crazy kinds of directions and often lead us to make rash decisions that aren’t in God’s plan and cause us unnecessary hardships because we did what we told ourselves God wanted us to do rather than waiting and do what He was actually calling us to do…wait on Him!!! God doesn’t work on our time, He works on His because only he knows what is best for us and when. When I begin to think along these lines I am reminded quickly that I had to wait four years for Him to open the door for the prison ministry I am currently in (yes, I look at it as a ministry not a job because I know God put me there for a reason and I have seen that play out). And that reminds me that I need to wait because his timing is always perfect!
- We take steps we know he is calling us to take in order to begin preparing us for the new path he is putting us on yet as the time gets closer for us to begin working that step we begin to doubt that this is what he really wants us to do so we begin telling ourselves, “I don’t need to do this, not right now, the times not right, it is just me jumping ahead again.” This is our fear speaking not our hearts that have surrendered to the call of ministry. We fear the changes this step will bring and wonder how we will do it. We let our doubts and fears take over the joy and peace we felt when we took this initial step of faith in the right direction and once again we reverse course and once again sabotage ourselves because we listen to our “calling” rather than continuing to be obedient to the truth of God’s calling.
- We begin to let our insecurities in our abilities cloud our decision to surrender to our calling. We tell ourselves that surely God made a mistake when he called us into ministry because there is no way that we can do it for whatever reason. To prove it we drag our feet on taking the steps we need to take to get moving in the right direction and then tell ourselves it’s proof that we can’t do it when in fact it is our fears causing us to have a lazy spirit and thus putting off time and time again what we know God is clearly calling us to do. It can something as simple as making a phone call or sending an email that can change everything but we tell ourselves every day, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” Before you know it a week has passed, a month has passed, and still you haven’t done what God has called you to do. We let our lazy spirit tell us, “Well, if this is what God wants to happen he will make it happen” when the truth is He is telling us to do our part yet we are refusing to obey.
Change is never an easy thing and we fight it more than we should because we let our fears and insecurities cloud out God’s promises that He has a plan for our lives, a plan that is better than anything we could ever imagine. We need to remember that when God tells us he is going to create a new path in the midst of our wilderness He means it! It is not a suggestion it is a promise and we must be obedient not only to surrender to the calling but also to do our part in bringing that plan into being. God will definitely do his part even when we get in the way, will we do ours?
Conclusion:
Well, I made it through. I’m sure these devotionals were placed on my heart not only to remind me that even in the dark times, even in these wilderness journeys I must take through life, he is always there, always faithful and always working, but to remind some of you reading these of the same thing. God loves you and so do on so journey on! Be still in his presence and follow His lead because his way, his time and his plan are always the best!
Application:
Go to your prayer closet and spend time seeking God and the new path he may be calling you to. Let him also reveal to you ways you may be getting in his way and delaying the process as well as ways you are displaying a lazy spirit in doing your part in the process.