"Can we talk?"

Thursday, May 18, 2017 (6:28 a.m.)

Holy God,

Borrowing the catchphrase of a comedienne from years back, “Can we talk?” Thoughts have been swirling in my head, and I've got wonders.

First there's the verse I came across yesterday that reminds me “Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21 New International Version). Wow! How true is that.

I can spend countless hours spinning and concocting our intentions. Ultimately it is YOU who “says what will happen” (Easy-to-Read Version). Yeah. I tend to forget that.

So here I am. Coming to You with a laundry list of ideas. Do this? That? Something else? Care? Don't care? Wonder? Hope? Trust? It all seems so banal.

And yet there truly is a call on my heart to believe You. Your Word. Your promises. So what's a girl to do? How do I allow You to right my thinking?

You know? I just have to say... I LOVE when You do that!

I started to pray, “how do I right my thinking?” And before I even had the words out, You reminded me that it's YOU who does the work in me.

Not even finished with the thought and ♫Into My Heart♫ started singing. Yes! ♫Into my heart, into my heart, Come into my heart, Lord Jesus; Come in today, come in to stay, Come into my heart, Lord Jesus♫ Mm, yes. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus!

Wanting to strengthen the believers in Ephesus, the apostle Paul wrote “When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit. And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love” (Ephesians 3:14-17).

The more I read, the more I want all this to be true for each of us! “And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (vs. 18-19).

I read these verses. These prayers. These promises. I dare to risk hoping. Yep! There it is. The Truth that comes from asking You to talk with me.

I have been playing the risks versus benefits game with You again. If I risk believing You at Your Word, I might get disappointed. My thinking is so often skewed by things of this world that I fall into the trap of clinging tightly to my hopes rather than releasing them to You.

With the plans of yet another trip coming up, my thinking is colored by many catch phrases. Just right now it was “Catch and Release”. What if I were to get into the habit of catching my thoughts [just as others spend hours catching fish] and releasing them to You?

Holy God, I desperately want to follow after Your best for us. I truly do not believe I wisely spend the time You have provided us. I think. I plan. I hope. I dream. And then I sit. And wait. Stall. Debate my thinking. Waver. Fizzle. And ultimately give up.

How I ask You to ♫Have Thine Own Way, Lord Have Thine own way Thou art the Potter, I am the clay♫ See? You just did it again! Took my thinking and turned it into a hymn. Thank You Father.

So, back to this laundry list of indecisions I have for how best to spend my time today. I want to glorify You. You reminded me yesterday that this world is not our home (Hebrews 13:14 The Living Bible). How would you have me use this day in preparing for “our everlasting home in heaven”?

I don't want to spin my wheels, stuck in a rut. Nor do I want to exhaust my energies in activities not to Your liking. Guide and direct me as only You can Blessed God. I love You. I want to serve You. And I ask You to teach me to do it well! Amen.

(745 words ~ 7:52 a.m.)