Fall – note to self

Fall – note to self.

While it isn’t the start of a calendar year, I still feel a sense of expectancy.  A new school year has just begun!  After all, Dylan has gone away to college in another state, and Danny is starting his junior year in high school ~ new beginnings!  I have always loved the Fall season, and feel that new opportunities are on the offing, if I want.  Every new season offers a chance to take a look at our lives, including our spiritual formation. In the last briefing, Straight Talk, http://pastorwoman.com/ReadArchive.aspx?id=1429,  I talked about power for healthy living coming from

choosing to walk with God,

fed by a regular diet of the truth of God’s Word                           

 to inform and transform our thinking,

            empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Each day I live with the following thoughts in mind:

            God created me

            God loves me

            God’s heart is good

            God has a plan for my life, and it is a b o l d adventure                                                                                                                          I want to ‘be all about it’ ~ fully engaged, living in the extreme, sold out.

Because these are so,

1. I know that God wants all of me, he is not interested in sloppy seconds; he wants a devoted follower – God is calling me to surrender myself to him. 

2. Another word I have been considering is consecrate – it means to ‘declare or set apart as sacred’, to ‘dedicate myself to living an uncontaminated life’.  First is surrender, but then is consecration … letting go of whatever entangles, entraps, or deters my relationship with God.  To be sure, it is a process.

3. God wants his children to soar … to live victorious, not defeated lives.  What would enable you to realize the victorious in your life?

Let me help you get to an answer; stop and think:

~What are your greatest dreams?

~What are your biggest fears?

~What do you want God to do for you?

            --heal your body?

            --heal your broken heart?

            --heal your marriage?

            --help you breakthrough financially?

            --make you emotionally healthy?

            --bring your loved ones to know him?

            --rescue your teen-aged or adult children?

Over the course of the last year, I have been reminded about the miraculous power of a single prayer to change the course of history.  The inspiration came from The Circle Maker,¹ a book I have referenced, in which an old rabbi literally, physically circled himself in persistent, believing prayer.  In my prayer journal, I have been drawing circles around my most heartfelt desire.  ‘What is it’, you ask?  That my family—all of us—my husband and four children, and their children—would stand side-by-side in worship of God.  As I write my prayers to God, day after day, I ‘circle’ my requests of him, knowing that God honors the persistent, faithful, faith-filled pray-er.  In addition, I have circled others consistently.  [I shall soon tell you of the miraculous ways God has answered]

4.Ask God . . . entrust the deepest matters of your heart and life to him.

5.Listen.  Our prayers are not one-sided conversations.  Listen.  Is God telling you something or leading you in some way in your life? 

6.Obey. ‘Praying hard starts with listening to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.  And if you are faithful in the small things and obey those little promptings, then God can use you to do big things.’²  Obedience is key to breakthrough living—yes, you can quote me on that!  I adhere to what the old Scottish preacher, George MacDonald said, ‘all of life’s truth could be discovered as part of an extremely simple, two-step process:

Realize who God is, then obey him.’³

7. Praise God for who he is. God is near when we are praising him. 

8. Thank God. All good gifts from the Father above.

9. Serve somewhere, someone in such a way that the love of God is spread.

This is my note to self on the precipice of Fall … any thoughts about your new season?

^{1 The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson, Zondervan 2 ibid.;   3 Knowing the Heart of God, George MacDonald, Bethany House.}