Monday, November 27, 2006

The Power of Repetition

WE SERVE A PERSISTENT GOD!!

It is amazing how stubborn and hard-headed we can be about change in our lives. I am continually amazed, yet thankful, that God is more stubborn and more persistent in chasing us down when change must take place. In those times of my life where God is trying to do something huge, it is God's repetition of the message that typically proves successful in providing change.

In the last couple weeks, God has been diligent about speaking to me regarding the busyness of my life. I even wrote in my blog a month or so ago about the need to say no, but I did not heed my own advice. In the last couple weeks I have read a book called "What Matters Most: when No is better than Yes" and heard two sermons on the need to re-prioritize my life. Coincidence...I think not!!

When it comes down to it, it is not about never being busy, but knowing how to schedule your life in order to provide ample time for rest and recovery following busy times of life. Our lives are full of peaks and valleys of busyness and rest, and a lack of respect for these times of rest can prove costly to our health, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Do you ever find yourself saying the phrase, "I love doing ______, but I just haven't had time in a couple years."? There is something fundamentally wrong with that statement, because if I were to ask you if you have really enjoyed all that 'stuff' that you have been doing instead, you would probably say "no." Why is it that we don't take time to do the things that would really give us energy to push on through the busyness of life? Why is it that we will do a million things that we don't really want to do, but will never take time to do the things we love most in this world?

May we be the kind of people who really know how to work hard and accomplish much in the name of Jesus, but who equally know how to rest hard. May we respect ourselves and our Creator enough to honor the way he created us biologically. May we figure out what in our lives is most important and what could easily be eliminated, and have the strength to actually get rid of some stuff in our lives that isn't needed. And may we hold each other accountable, in our words and prayers, to be the kind of people God has created us to be. God Bless!!