whatever your hand finds to do
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Here’s the thing… I would describe myself as someone who is continually pregnant with the plans and dreams and hopes I know God Himself has planted in me, and will bring to pass. The problem is, there is the ever-present mundane-ness of the now…
You know the deal “I’m going to change the world, right after I get out of being stuck doing this report/proposal/quote/coff
ee run/assignment/whatever it is that keeps me busy.” or “If I can just GET THROUGH this season with job X or study Y I know there’s big things in my heart for the other side”….
One of the things I’ve learnt over the past two years, aside from them being far and away the best of my life so far, is this: WHEN YOU TRULY LET GO OF THE EITHER/OR, GOD GIVES YOU THE BOTH/AND.
There are times in every Christians life when God takes you through narrow section, sections that you can’t fit through without putting something down.
I had one of these about 6 months into my new job… I had been treating my new job like it was a holding pattern for bigger things. And, although the time since has proven I was always equipped to do well in the role, I was seeing VERY poor results.
So frustrated… And it my frustration and ensuing depression was affecting all spheres of my life, not just work. I was ticked off at God for making me wait, I was ticked off at myself for “not being qualified for the big stuff yet”, I was angry at everyone in general. And depressed. Hope deferred really does make the heart sick, but most of the time the only thing doing the deferring it is our ignorance or disobedience.
So, one day on the way to work, I prayed. “God, I’m am going to give this job my full attention. I have these dreams in my heart, and I’m pretty sure you put them there and that they’re right and pure and all that, but I also know that you’ve put me where I am today. So I lay those dreams down. Not just for now God, if I never get the chance to do that thing you spoke to me that’s OK. I trust you and I want to show you that. If I am doing this same thing for the rest of my life I will do it with all my strength. I pray you’ll bless this decision.”
Dangerous prayer I know, but I really meant it.
Here’s what happened. That week, I received my first three orders in my job, totalling to more than half of my annual sales target. Anyone in sales knows this is a very good thing. In one week! And you know what, part of it was because I really did get my butt into gear, but the bigger part of it is that, because of my obedience, God was able to connect His resources into the opportunities of my present.
Since then, the road has been winding up and up. It looks like I’ll get those dreams one day, in a form a never realized I was capable of and would never in a million years have thought of before that prayer.
If you’re reading this you’re probably killing time, bored with what you were already doing, perhaps daydreaming or even frustrated with the bigness inside of you.
David was anointed as King YEARS before he actually became king. YEARS. In the meantime he just put his hand to whatever God put in front of him and did it with everything he had in him. It’s probably where his son, who wrote the verse in Ecclesiastes above, learned the concept.