Don't Put It Off | Fuel For The Weekend

I like spring cleaning. I know it is not for everyone, but there is just something so satisfying about sweeping away the cobwebs, shaking out the rugs, and polishing the wood furniture. It is so refreshing to open the windows and allow the fresh air to blow through the house. I miss having my own home and being able to do all of those things.

Tonight I was able to do some deep cleaning. My kids have been lax about putting away their clothes and things. There was so much stuff that it was impossible to neatly organize it. I feel bad that my children do not have their own rooms and we are still not in our own home. But, that does not mean we should not be good stewards of what we have been given. So, this evening I helped my children sort through clothes, art supplies, memorabilia, hygiene products, you name it! We have bags full for donations, some bags full for the landfill, and bags for the storage unit. We briefly had the window open and the fresh air was much needed. It was so nice to see the room transformed before my eyes.

As satisfying as it is, deep cleaning is a lot of work. My kids both have medical conditions that cause pain and hinder them from doing certain movements easily. More than once I heard complaints and groans and sighs of exasperation. I allowed some breaks but I reminded them we must stay on task and focus. It is similar to how we must be on our Christian journey.

We are to daily take up our cross and follow Jesus. Do you remember reading that? LUKE 9:23 "And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." The first part is to deny ourselves. Deny ourselves what? EPHESIANS 2:1-3 (1)And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: (2)Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (3)Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Let's deny ourselves conversations that lead us to envy, or desire what others have. Let's deny our flesh the desires that will cause us to be distracted from following the laws of God. We must deny our thoughts to creep in that keep us thinking about what the world is doing. Are we worried? Are we anxious? What is the status of our mental health? We were once just like the world. The first part of falling in step with Jesus Christ is to let Him do the leading.

Step two in walking with Jesus is to daily take up our cross. We must put on the mind of Christ. PHILIPPIANS 2:5-8 (5)Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: (6)Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: (7)But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (8)And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The mind of Christ is humility and obedience to His Father. He obeyed all the way to the cross. He knew who He was and He knew who His Father was. He was willing to do anything the Father asked Him to do, including lay down His life in a sacrificial offering on the cross. Daily taking up our cross is carrying the burden the Lord gave us to do. It is not hard. 1 JOHN 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous. He did not ask us to do anything that He didn't do Himself. His commandments are not hard. He does not give us heavy crosses to bear. MATTHEW 11:28-30 Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29)Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30)For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. What an invitation! We can rest and learn about Him and draw strength from Him. How often? Daily! All day long the invitation stands. We must not just take up our cross when others are looking, or if it is convenient, or if we want to that particular day. We must make a choice every single morning before we start our day that we are going to pick up our cross and carry it wherever He says to go.

The third and final step to walking with Jesus is to follow Him. He has to be the leader. We cannot run ahead and hope He follows along. We cannot just go out and do our own thing and think He should bless it and honor our own way of doing things. No, Jesus said to follow Him. MATTHEW 4:19 And He saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. Jesus does not want us to play a childhood game of Follow the Leader. No, He wants us to follow Him so we can know Him and know His will for us. He wants us to be fishers of men. I like the phrase I read once, We catch them, He cleans them! We are to go and make disciples so we can reach the whole world in telling them about Jesus. Remember the young man who had kept all the commandments from his youth and asked what else he lacked? MATTHEW 19:21-22 (21)Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me. (22)But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.  Follow Jesus and do not work for money and chase the purse all the days of your life. Jesus is able to meet our every need and we only must trust Him and love and serve Him. 

So often we have comfort in our riches and in the things we possess and we do not want to get out of our comfort zone. We are afraid we will be poor and destitute. The rich young man had no idea that serving Jesus would give him a richer life than his fortune ever could, and the rewards are eternal. MATTHEW 10:37-39 (37)He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. (38)And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. (39)He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it. Jesus made it very clear, we need to deny ourselves, daily take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Let's not put it off and procrastinate. Let's not wait until we feel like it or everyone else is doing it. We may be the only one doing it but if we love Jesus we will want to.

My daughter was ready to give up when we had accomplished so much. She only had a little work left to do. I pushed her gently because I knew she would feel so much better when that stuff was all cleaned up and put up nicely. Afterward she admitted she was glad it was done. She saw the effort paid off in the end. We may be struggling along on our journey with the LORD. We may not see a break coming up and only see the overwhelming work everywhere we look. Do not give up friend. You can keep going. Take a break with the Master. Rest in Jesus and learn about Him. Then go set the world on fire for His glory. He is so worth serving and loving. He is such a good and wonderful King. He is helping you. Will you do it? Don't put it off. The rewards are coming.

I hope something I have shared today has made you take a look at your daily walk with Jesus. I was procrastinating on sharing a post today. I told God, "I just don't think I have anything to say." He said to me, "You're right. You don't have anything to say, but I do." I understood and grabbed my laptop and my Bible. I am so glad I did. This was like a deep cleansing of my soul. I am so thankful for the nudging of Holy Spirit to help me hear and obey. I hope as you start your weekend you think about what I have shared today and that it gives you strength for your journey and light for your way. God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens

What Nation Are You In? | Wednesday Bible Study

God told me there are two nations: PROCRASTINATION and DETERMINATION. He asked me which nation I am in.

PSALMS 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.

Procrastination is delaying or putting off something that must be done. Sometimes God tells us to do something but we don't want to do it. Maybe it's hard, or we risk rejection, or we're concerned what others will say about us, or it could be time-consuming or unpleasant. God tells us to do things out of our comfort zone so we can stretch and grow our spiritual muscle of faith. When we put things off and delay our obedience it is the same as disobedience to God.

God told the prophet Samuel to tell king Saul to attack Amalek and completely destroy all they had. He further instructed him to kill men, women, infants, nursing babies, sheep, oxen, camels, and donkeys. Nothing was to survive because God remembered what Amalek did to Israel: the secret ambush of Israel as they came up out of Egypt. God said the task was total destruction!

Saul organized 210,000 troops to complete this mission. Ten thousand men were from Judah. They fought and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.... EXCEPT king Agag, the best of the sheep, the best oxen, the fattened calves and lambs, and all that appeared to be "good," but anything they decided was worthless they destroyed. He failed to follow the instructions of the LORD God. Yet Saul thinks he has done a great thing. Let's read:

1 SAMUEL 15:13-23 (13)And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD. (14)And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? (15)And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. (16)Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. (17)And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel? (18)And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. (19)Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD? (20)And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. (21)But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal. (22)And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. (23)For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He hath also rejected thee from being king.

Samuel had the hard task of telling Saul God rejected him as king. Samuel wept all night for Saul. He cried out to God to change His mind but God was angry with Saul for his disobedience. Samuel told Saul where he messed up and he became like Aaron when Moses asked him why he made the people a golden calf. Remember that? Saul blamed the people. He said they took the best things but it was to sacrifice to God. Samuel asks the question that is more of a statement: God would rather have obedience than sacrifice!

What things has God specifically put on your heart to do? Write the book, start a podcast, host a Bible study, share your faith with a family member or friend? Maybe he is calling you into the ministry and you're afraid. Friends, do not be in disobedience. Remember the scripture that says "When I am afraid I will trust You?" (Psalms 56:3) Don't be a part of procrastiNATION! Do not delay to do the thing God is telling you to do. Saul said they were going to kill the oxen and things but not until later...for a sacrifice. God wanted the job taken care of that day! Do not put off what God is telling you to do. It is so important to obey quickly. I am searching my heart today for things I have delayed to do so I can do it now!

God wants us to inhabit determiNATION. Determination is using will power and resolve to get something done. God likes when we get the job done once He tells us to work. Jesus said in Luke 9:62, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God."

One who plows must have the discipline to look ahead. The rows need to be straight and that is not easy to create straight rows if we are always looking back. We cannot reminisce about how good it used to be. We have to focus on the straight and narrow in front of us. 

If we have the plow in front of us but we look back it affects the depth of the row. If the blade is not deep enough the rows are too shallow for the seed to take root. A heavy rain can wash it away. If we are not committed to what God is calling us to do, the enemy will come in like a flood and drown us. We have to hold on because God said when the enemy comes in like a flood He will raise up a standard. We don't have to be destroyed when the floods come.

Conversely if we are looking behind us we may have the plow too deep in the ground and it can damage or destroy the blade. If we break the tool in our hand then we have nothing to work with. We lose time and resources fixing something that should not have been mishandled in the first place. We must pay attention to what we are doing and focus our energy on the task at hand. We cannot afford to get sidetracked.

Lastly, if we look back it can hurt those who are trying to help us. A plow that is not in the ground properly could potentially damage the legs of the animals pulling the plow. If we are not centered where we need to be in God, and we keep looking to what others are doing, then when God sends provision and resources in the form of helpers we could potentially hurt them. We have to make sure we are lined up.

There is another king in the Old Testament that did the right thing in God's eyes. His name is Jotham and he patterned his behavior after his father Uzziah. 2 Chronicles chapter 27 tells us that Jotham was 25 years old when he took the throne and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. King Jotham did a lot of construction work in his reign. He rebuilt the upper gate of the temple of God, did extensive work on the wall at Ophel. He built towns in the hill country of Judah and forts and towers in the forests. He conquered the Ammonites and that year they paid him 7,500 pounds of silver, 60,000 bushels of wheat and 60,000 bushels of barley. Then they did the same thing two more years in a row.

2 CHRONICLES 27:6 Jotham grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the LORD his God.

You don't have to be a king to enjoy the benefits of serving God. Jotham grew mightily because He did things that pleased God. He made sure to do what needed to be done to further the Kingdom. Someone in great need is waiting right now on the other side of your obedience. Will you do the thing He has put in your heart? Will you sing the song, teach the class, invite the friend, speak to the neighbor, call that man or that woman? What has He been asking you to do? We all have something to do for the Kingdom.

God told me that if we move our tent out of the valley of procrastiNATION and choose to build upon the solid foundation of the Rock of Jesus in the high country of determiNATION that we will have an amazing destiNATION in heaven waiting on us: paradise like we have never seen! Do we trust Him? Are we willing to do the harder right than the easier wrong? Can we push our feelings and insecurities to the side and step out in faith? If we start moving He will help us. He will guide our feet along the paths of righteousness for His name's sake! He will lead and guide us into all truth. He will be the voice telling us, "This is the way, walk in it."

What nation are you in? I am doing some heart-searching too. If you don't like your address, the good news is that you can move! Get a new residence in a better neighborhood. God is calling you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Let's be children of the light.

I hope something has encouraged you, helped you, given you a sense of direction. My prayer is that something I shared today has been strength for your journey and light for your way. God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens