Saturday, March 8, 2014

Start Doing

Historically, Lent is about giving something up for 40 days. What are you going to stop doing for Lent, is a common question.

Is it possible to change this question to, what are you going to start doing for life?

I was at the gym this past week and I cursed twice. The first time I dropped the "F" bomb after a difficult work out. The second time I said "sh**" after a difficult workout. Then I said, "I vowed to give up cursing''. Someone asked, "for Lent"? And I said, "for life". I just don't want to do it anymore.


Upon leaving the gym she mentioned to another person, "the good Christian cursed"!
Hmmm,  I am now known as the cursing Christian! Look what I have started!

Maybe there is another way to look at this 'start doing' idea with a Psalm.
Psalms are one of my favorite scriptures because they are beautiful poetry that describes our human experience.
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I also like Acts, Corinthians, Ephesians, James....
These books provide practical advice about how to live life.
Find a brief description of these and other books of the bible at this link.
http://christianity.about.com/od/newtestamentbooks/
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Psalm 37:3-4
Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

There are several verbs within this Psalm:
Trust
Do (good)
Dwell
Enjoy
Delight
 

These are the actions we can start doing. They are very easy to do and can be done immediately. No training is required. And we don't have to consult anyone to gain an understanding of them.

I interpret this Psalm to be saying,  Keep It Simple!

God does not ask us to be GREAT at any of these actions.

And I don't think I will even break a sweat doing any of them. Thereby not needing to curse!
Instead, thinking about doing them gives me peace because of their ease. And again, where there is ease, there will be no cursing!

God is GREAT and will do ALL the work for us!

And he responds to our actions by giving us the desires of our heart!

Wow!

Do we know what those desires are?

I think the dwelling part of the Psalm is one way to find out. Listen for silence. Somewhere in that silence the answer will come. And when it does, it is pure delight.

I write my heart's desires on index cards and I read them everyday as a way to communicate them back to God. It is like I am saying, ok, this is what I heard, did I get it right?
He will let me know either way!

In Tina's post below (Meet the Miracle Worry Busters), Karen wrote her heart's desires in Spanish and read them twice a day. Look at the amazing outcome! God delivered brilliantly!

Start to trust, do (good), dwell, enjoy, delight and see what happens in your life.

Share your experience with us!





1 comment:

  1. 1 Chronicles 16:11
    Look to the Lord and His strength. Seek his face always.

    Matthew 6:33
    But seek first his kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.

    ReplyDelete