Empty Hands

"Shall we never permit out hands to be empty so we may grasp what only empty hands can grasp?" Karl Barth
It's so easy to fill our lives. There's always something to add to the calendar, one more thing on the unending to-do list, or a phone call to make.
How often do the pleasures, purposes and plans we set about doing fill us to such an extent there is no room for God's?
It's a good thing to sit with empty hands in his presence.

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Fruit in the Wildnerness

The last several weeks and months, life has been harder than usual for me. I've been more irritable, frustrated, and discouraged. I knew my stress level was higher, and while I could point to some outside circumstances that were contributing to it and adjust things accordingly; down deep I knew there was something on the inside of me that simply wasn't clicking like it needed to be.

In the past, a season like this would turn into a full-out battle. Against myself, to ship shape and get it together. And/or against others, if they would just ship shape and get it together. And yes, sometimes even against God, surely if he would do a ship shape, it would all get together and be just fine. Something like... 'Oh God, can't you just deliver me out of this?'

Thankfully, He's led me through a few of these wilderness seasons and I'm not battling as hard as I have in the past. I can discern the work of the enemy who is assaulting and tormenting me. I can also identify Jesus doing a deeper work of transformation in my life and setting me free. It can only mean one thing. He is going to deliver me through this. The fruit I so desperately crave is growing in the season I so desperately want to escape. (paraphrase from Jeff Manion's book The Land In Between)

While there are several things God is feeding me during this season, today a few little word adjustments are my pathway of deliverance.

"If only... then I..." While very subconscious, the Holy Spirit revealed I was held captive to the 'ship shape' mentality of works and outward circumstances again.

A few words He offered in exchange, "Because of.... I can..." With this comes amazing grace and freedom to live from the completed work of Jesus, the good plans of the Father and the presence of the Holy Spirit to fulfill my purpose with peace and joy. Today I align myself with His words, with a hearty "Yes and Amen!"

Ship, shape is a horrible way to live.

My prayer for you & I today... "may you be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and He is going to deliver me through this. so that you will walk in a manner worthy of The Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light." Colossians 1:9-12

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