Too much...refocus

There has been too much going on in my head and heart for so long that I am really becoming #confused.com.

So some good reminders of who I am and what I am here for today: to glorify God through prayer and purpose.

This song has been running through my head, as I try, intentionally, to take Sabbath rest.

Take time to be holy,
speak oft with thy Lord;
abide in him always,
and feed on his word.
Make friends of God's children,
help those who are weak,
forgetting in nothing
his blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy,
the world rushes on;
spend much time in secret
with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus,
like him thou shalt be;
thy friends in thy conduct
his likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy,
let him be thy guide,
and run not before him,
whatever betide.
In joy or in sorrow,
still follow the Lord,
and, looking to Jesus,
still trust in his word.

Take time to be holy,
be calm in thy soul,
each thought and each motive
beneath his control.
Thus led by his spirit
to fountains of love,
thou soon shalt be fitted
for service above.

To be holy. To be other, to be set apart, to be focused.  These notes are from Louie Giglio's talk: 

Louie Giglio  http://passioncitychurch.com/watch/message/Msb63Y28jkBV                    

We all need direction and confidence. We all need to rest and consider what God has done.

God wants to fill me and send me out for a purpose for HIS glory. This is the mission of God, the BIG dream, for my life.

Before God wants to send me to the ends of the earth, he wants me to look back at what God has done.  GOD CAME THROUGH!  Remember the old ways... the things God has done.

Remembering gives confidence that God HAS done it and will do in the future: prevents arrogance (I can do it myself) and fear (I can’t do it).

God is amazing. He neither slumbers nor sleeps – he is working in the background while we sleep.  We need to take a Sabbath: rest, trust, cease... to put the dream in Jesus’ hands.  Be still and know that I am God..

If God gives me a dream, he will give me what I need to accomplish it.  What God calls me to, God provides for...what God plans for, God pays for...

I just need to remember. Remember WHO God is, WHAT his purposes are. Remember To be holy. To be other, to be set apart, to be focused. Remember to take Sabbath rest and to refocus.

Focus: a digression from Ruth

Reading in Advent about Ruth in the story of Jesus, I stop short at verse 6 in the first chapter.
When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

Yesterday, I didn't notice that the Lord had ended the famine and blessed his people with food. How often do I neglect to see Him at work in my life and in the lives of others?

Psalm 35 reminds that God does indeed come to our aid against our enemies: against those who wish us harm or gloat over our misfortune.

Keep focused on HIM.

Not a 'Nowhere Man'...

Reading Isaiah 65 this morning, I found the words of John Lennon's 'Nowhere Man' running through my head:

He's a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody

Doesn't have a point of view
Knows not where he's going to
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere man please listen
You don't know what you're missing
Nowhere man, The world is at your command

He's as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere man, can you see me at all
Nowhere man don't worry
Take your time, don't hurry
Leave it all till somebody else
Lends you a hand

I wondered why.
Then I looked at the Isaiah passage again. God says:

“I’ve made myself available to those who haven’t bothered to ask.
I’m here, ready to be found by those who haven’t bothered to look.
I kept saying ‘I’m here, I’m right here’ to a nation that ignored me.
I reached out day after day to a people who turned their backs on me,
People who make wrong turns, who insist on doing things their own way...

But you who abandon me, your God, who forget the holy mountains,
Who hold dinners for Lady Luck and throw cocktail parties for Sir Fate,
Well, you asked for it. Fate it will be: your destiny, Death.
For when I invited you, you ignored me;
when I spoke to you, you brushed me off.
You did the very things I exposed as evil;
you chose what I hate.”

So there are consequences.

Those of us who follow Jesus do not have to fear - He has, by his grace, saved us as he does all who choose him - but this is still an encouragement to keep focused, to keep on 'running the race' as Paul did,

Going somewhere. Run with me.