Assignment begins below. Please take the course of your week to complete. If it takes you longer, that is okay. Be patient with yourself as you thoughtfully think through it all.
Goal
In every lifestyle change, life will throw curve balls your way and knock you right off your game.
Recently, I have personally felt overwhelmed by the tasks in front of me and the resources to fulfill it all. In fact, if I’m going to be totally honest with you, I have felt attacked and abandoned: Attacked by the enemy, abandoned by my Savior.
And that is where your circle comes in. Suddenly, I started receiving messages that I needed (sermon links, scriptures etc.) so it was apparent that SOMEbody had been praying for me. Or maybe…just MAYBE…I wasn’t abandoned at all? It’s taken me a couple of weeks to sort through it all in my head but let me give you the gist of it and save you the time and trouble.
Every message had a common theme and it opened my eyes and heart to different perspectives on stories that I had heard a million times over but missed key elements. Example: the story of Jonah and and the whale. I always hear/read that story and think of only the perspective of Jonah. I was forced to go back and revisit the perspective of the sailors. We aren’t always Jonah. Sometimes we are innocent bystanders experiencing the storm of another but still have to do the heavy lifting to get this Jonah person off your boat. That could set you free all by itself. But the most common theme I’ve heard was this, and I hope you are ready:
“If you are believing God for it, why aren’t you preparing for it?”
A little more bluntly: You can’t possibly think that the rain is coming if you haven’t started building the ark.
And that slapped me. It was the common theme in all of my text messages, all of my sermons over this Lent, all of my conversations with friends and family members…and so I must believe that it is the direct message from God Himself. And so I pass it on to you.
Are you in a “stuck” spot with this lifestyle change stuff? Resources dried up? Can’t see a way to accomplish this huge dream you’ve set? Don’t change the goal to accommodate what looks like impossibility. BUILD THE ARK. Just start with what you have. It’s a way of praise and worship. God sees you. He will meet you. Just start building…
Identify
I didn’t mean to get all spiritual on you this week. I’m literally overwhelmed with these messages right now. So now it is your turn. How many arks are you behind on? Open your journal, and start listing areas that you are stuck on. Then start listing small things you can do to build the ark foundation. Big dreams require us to show up, even in small ways. Do you think Noah knew how to build an ark? There had never been any rain like this so what is an ark??? But to start laying down planks of wood and nailing them together is a good place to begin and the rest, God will meet you with in the right moment.
Make your list.
And then…BEGIN.
If you are believing God for it, why aren’t you building?
Affirmation
“I am believing God for it, so let me get to building!”
Post it. That’s the tweet right there. Write it on your mirrors and everywhere.