I'm ready. Ok I thought I would be ready for Sabbath (sunset Friday - Sunset Saturday). Shoot i'm not ready! In the bible there are accounts of people getting ready for Sabbath. The preparation in my opinion is for 2 reasons: 1) Sabbath is a special day of every week; like a special date with God and when i'm looking forward to a special day I get ready! What about you? 2) Because the Lord has declared that Sabbath is a day to rest, I don't want to fill that day with a bunch of running around, fixing, and preparing. I want to enter that sweet 24 hrs having done as much preparing as I possibly can so i can take full advantage of resting.
Today (Friday, June 23, 2017), I got up and felt this lull. I wasn't sleepy. I wasn't tired. I just felt solemn. Quiet and wanting to hear God's voice. I searched for His voice. But I can't front my search kept getting interrupted with distractions. Distractions like my curiosity about what took place the night before on social media. I wanted to find out if there were any emails that I needed to respond to. My mind was moving away from the quietness that in a sense felt safe.
Eventually, I got up and went for a walk. Stopped at the dollar store, made another stop at the market where I get our produce most weeks and came home. I felt restless. I felt stuck. One thing I have learned, is that when I am feeling something that is odd i'll ask a few trusted folks to pray for me. This time was different I asked several people to pray for me. I ended up praying again, this time with my husband. We prayed, we listened to each other pray and we listened to what God was saying in response to what we were praying.
Long story short, today God set out to prepare me. The preparation required that I sit still for a few hours. God didn't care that I had not soaked and cooked the chickpeas, cut the lettuce for tomorrow's salad, or washed our clothes!
God had an agenda for me today instead of me having an agenda for God today.
This stillness reminded me of moments when I was sitting in a hair salon getting my hair straightened, or when I have gotten a massage. Waiting for the moment when the stylist turns around in the chair and you see the finished look. Stillness is virtuous, can be uncomfortable and is downright beneficial.
On this preparation day - God interrupted my busyness for His business of healing, transformation, and restoration. God doesn't want to just heal, restore, or transform me. The Almighty desires to do the same for you. He wants to prepare us for the next big or small thing! He wants to prepare us for a special day when we'll be recognized for something amazing that He equipped us to do! God desires to prepare us for the next big race! God desires to prepare us for the hate that will be flung our way. God desires to prepare us for
V I C T O R Y !
Maybe God will interrupt your preparation for a special event, meeting, or day to prepare you. Maybe The Lord will disrupt your complacency with hope or your fear with a reminder of how fearfully and wonderfully made you are. I don't know what you need to be prepared for; but God does. And I would hate for any of us to show up on that BIG DAY and we are unprepared.
Today I encourage you to invite God into your quietness. Pray. Ask the Lord what is required of you in order to be prepared. Then declare to The Lord that you can't be ready unless He prepares you and trust that God will do it! Then listen to what God has to say in response.
.png)