Fresh Vision 2018: I want to be different.

Last week started off full of discontentment.  I started off feeling defeated and my old stinkin' thinking habits starting to overtake me again.

During the week I went to the secret place and confessed my discontent.  Of course then I started receiving encouragement all over the place including some great emails from my coaches.

I also started reading a fantastic book by a fellow Single Sister named Joy Beth Smith called, "Party of One".  It's definitely going to be a Recommended Read on this blog.  She has one of the most honest, transparent, and non wolf ticket books on singlehood I have ever read.  

I was so greatly encouraged by someone putting a voice to my most secret and embarrassing thoughts.

Yes, I was so sanctimonious on Saturday evening as she reminded us that God created us for his Glory. (Isaiah 43:7) God didn't create us to get married or worry about this.

THIS is still happening

On Sunday morning still so sanctimonious and self righteous, I decided that I was just going to focus on singing, the glory of God, and learning.  

Um....so that was a no go.  I cannot unsee THIS. 

BUT yesterday I realized something: I want to be different.  I don't want to be inconsiderate, controlling, overbearing, take charge, and aggressive.  I don't want to be that at all.  I want to be different.

Instead of doing what I always do and getting what I've always gotten, I want to be different.  Instead of asking God to change the circumstances, I want him to change me.  I want him to make me:

• empathetic
• considerate
• PATIENT
• Surrendered
• submissive (Ooooohhhh did I really say that?  Yes I did)
• PATIENT (2x for good measure)

I want to be different.  To me this is a real sign of maturity.  I don't want God to change the circumstances.  I need him to change ME.

I feel like I'm getting the same lesson over again and this time I am determined to pass.  No matter what comes of it, I want to be different.

After I decided this, I felt a burden lift.  I felt a weight lift and I released the anxiety, stinking thinking, and What should I do?  mode.  I said, "Lord make me different"

GET OUT, LET GO, AND RELEASE

So what was the sermon about yesterday?  So glad you asked.  

It was about how Abraham left his homeland to receive God's promise (Genesis 12) for a new beginning.  He didn't know where God was taking him to, he didn't know the plan, but he went.

That was one of my favorite points yesterday:  God doesn't let us know the plan because we would want to be faithful to the plan/formula rather than to be faithful to the planner.  

Exactly.  That's what I love about Joy Beth Smith's book "Party of One".  It absolutely refutes the legalistic teaching that is rife in many churches regarding single people.  They want to teach people a formula: Pray, Fast, go to every church service, and give us all your money...then God will bless you with a husband/wife. 

So many churches teach people that if they "do" enough, then they'll be good enough for marriage. 

That is legalism and sets people up for anger and disillusionment.  That's exactly what happened to me and I was angry at God for years about it.  Now I know that is false teaching and I am going to make it my business to help Joy Beth Smith spread the word that it's wrong.

There is No Perfect

There is no perfect

Abraham was faithful and yet he was not perfect.

Abraham was like us regular folks in so many ways including:  

• he was afraid so he lied (he lied about Sarai being his wife)
• The promise was taking too long so he came up with his own plan
• He tried to help God along and created his son Ishmael

Yet the Bible still says He was faithful.  Even his mistakes did not disqualify him from being counted as faithful.  We're human so we will make major mistakes and that doesn't mean God discounts us.

It's time for me to GET OUT, LET GO, and RELEASE. 

I am not perfect either and Day by Day it gets better

Bishop Garlington said all those years ago when I first heard him, "If you don't like where your life is, then it's time to say something...different.  Well I'm ready for something different, a different experience, and a different result"

Lord make me different

FOR YOUR GLORY!!