When a reorder is in order . . .

A priority list often helps me do the first things first. The problem is deciding what should be first. I’ve a file that helps. It has a graphic-numbering system where the first item is compared to the second one and the most important one is circled. Then that first item is compared to the third, fourth, fifth and so one. When all items are compared with each other, the circled numbers are counted and the items that are the most important will have the high scores. It works as long as “I don’t feel like it” does not start messing with my good intentions.

Habit-forming gurus offer many suggestions. Most of them say to start small and set a deadline. I’ve tried both but procrastination still sets in. Some tasks are easy and some are not. I’ve a spiritual battle with praying, which is a strong priority but easy to replace with something else that does not matter as much but is easier.

However, in reading some web-sites about habits and by reading these verses, God gives me another insight: I sometimes expect too much from myself and need to simplify. The psalmist says:

“I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.” (Psalm 145:1–2)

He had a good habit of praising God every day. That habit became such a great part of his life that he knew he would bless God forever and ever.

As I read that, I thought of my long prayer list and wondered which parts of it would be ‘forever’ prayers. Some are ‘give us this day our daily bread’ prayers. Some are about incidentals like forgiving those who sin against us, which usually does not happen daily but will not be eternal either.

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. His familiar response, beginning with, “Our Father who art in heaven . . .” are often followed as a prayer in themselves, but He was giving them more an outline. Each part has significance. When I say ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ I could be thinking about messy political situations, someone’s illness, a person lost in sin, and any number of things that need His hand.

As I write this, I think of KISS — keep it simple stupid. God (and my husband) do not approve of me calling myself stupid so in this case, that second S could stand for sidetracked or scattered. I’m also remembering the good advice from Elizabeth Elliot when asked about how she scheduled her time. She said, “I just do the next thing. I always know what it is.”

Knowing the next thing, strange as it may sound, goes with daily praising God. When I slow down to do that, He gives me an understanding of His will for me in all matters of ‘what do I do next?’ It can be the most difficult task on the list, not always but usually. When that tough one is done, the rest seem quick and easy.

This devotional sounds like I’m giving myself a lecture. Maybe, but I’m also hearing the Lord’s soft voice bringing good ideas into an often and woefully scattered mind. I need to simply let myself slow down and praise Him, each day and let that turn into forever and ever.

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Jesus, thank You for all that You give me, rebukes included. My heart has been stressed — literally and emotionally. This A-fib makes me tired and being tired makes my list seem much longer. You are showing me that I only need to focus on those things that belong to ‘forever and ever’ and let go of most of the rest.

Is ‘normal’ normal?

It was normal for my mother to read the Bible every morning. She used a simple devotional guide that came in the mail every few months. When I was about thirteen, I thought I should read the Bible also. I began, didn’t understand the ideas and stories in it, but for some reason, reading the Bible became a habit, a normal thing to do.

I also kept a diary (as did my mother) and marked RMB and SMP (said my prayers) in it each day. Perhaps this was obsessive compulsion, but it turned into a total blessing because these many years later, reading the Bible and praying is ‘normal’ each day, even those crazy days that seem far from normal!

Reading the Bible is the only way to hear God clearly. While the Holy Spirit speaks into our minds, those who do not know Scripture, may not recognize His voice. Besides, my ‘I wants’ can confuse things, and the enemy wants to keep me in the dark about what God is saying.

Even so, as Tozer says, God does not bellow to the wide universe and have it come back as an empty echo. His Word goes forth from His mouth and does not return void. It is always powerful and can speak to the needs of the heart. When the Holy Spirit speaks it, it does not need an interpreter or anyone to defend it or apologize for it either.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11–12)

Some mornings I feel eager to read the Bible and hear from God. Some mornings I hesitate with a bit of fear. Like Adam, I want to hide because I feel guilty about something. Often that guilt is not real, but the voice of that old serpent who wants me to think that God does not want the best for me. His goal is to keep me from hearing God’s Word.

The Bible does many things for me. It gives me commands to keep. It pulls me away from my problems into trusting the Lord — where there is peace of heart and a rest for my soul. It also has an amazing ability to show me what thoughts are from my ideas and imaginations, and what is from God’s mind.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:11–13)

God knows everything about me. I can get confused, duped, hazy in my thinking, but the Word of God is able to clarify all that as well as make God’s will clear. The ability to find and reveal my motivations makes confession of sin easier because I know why I do dumb things. For me, a bottom-line person, this is most helpful and important to lay before God.

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Jesus, today may be a ‘normal’ day, other than needing to go out into a -20C blanket of snow for groceries. Nothing else is scheduled as every other day this week. You have also comforted me with the reminder that I can rest in You, trusting You and obeying You. If there is any need for anything else, You will keep me informed. Your faithfulness is my rest — and I want You to always be my ‘normal.’

Overcoming daily distractions

Today’s devotional reading outlines how the daily stuff of life has “separating power” meaning that today’s events and duties can blind me to the greater realities that God has revealed to me. This is evident in how quickly morning devotional truths are swallowed up by my to-do list, callers, email, interruptions and responsibilities. Even before lunch, I may strain to remember words of the Lord pondered only a few hours earlier, words like these:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)

Notice the mention here of “things present” which ties to the idea of the separating power of daily life. First, the events of today are immediate, keeping my mind, eyes and energy busy with their demands. The devotional says to take a moment to say or sing “Jesus loves me…” but that needs to be a habit. A missionary from North Africa, who discipled my sister years ago, said that learning to meditate on the Word of God would take a lifetime. 

Secondly, things present are often difficult to understand. Distance helps me with the events of yesterday, last week, last month, and past years. As the author of today’s devotional says, understanding our past, its trials, its disappointments, and its illnesses are difficult in their actual moment. This difficulty of seeing the love of God in the darkness of present trials gives them separating power. How important to know that God loves me when life takes a leap into darkness!

Third, and for me the biggest challenge, is the distraction of things present. “Life isn’t a little bundle of big things: it’s a big bundle of little things.” I want to pray but walk past something that needs to be put in another place. Instead of focusing on prayer, I’m distracted and do that little chore. In the process, other distractions consume minutes, even hours. Instead of peace, joy, self-control and serenity marking my day, the sense of God’s love begins to slip through my grasp.

Jesus did it right. He never doubted the love of God, not in Gethsemane, nor those days when demands were so great that there was no leisure to even eat. He mastered that separating power of things present, and He did it for us, for me.

Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:32–33)

In Him, I also have the assurance of God’s eternal presence and the promise of peace in a troubled world. As that missionary said, it does take a lifetime to appropriate the victories of Christ and learn to live with that assurance firmly fixed in my heart. 

Yet God is faithful with His reminders, sometimes even surprising me. My bathroom has tiles that look like sand on a beach. After reading the devotional and its verses, I went there and noticed one of the tiles has a tiny shape nestled in its “tide line” — the shape of a heart. Did He put it there? Maybe. Nonetheless, every time I see it, it will remind me that “Jesus loves me” rather than letting that important reality be bumped out of mind by daily life.