I can by nature be pretty much into systems and processes. They give me a plan to operate by. When I start something, I usually like to finish it. This all works for me...until it doesn't and I'm finding myself operating by some rule instead of in the freedom God gave me in Jesus.
The last four years, I loved "reading" the Bible by listening to it spoken by Brian of DailyAudioBible.com. It was so meaningful and I loved the community developed around it from all over the world. But I began to recognize I was listening to it as I fell asleep and was hearing the Bible more as stories than as what can change my very life on a day-to-day basis.
So this year I decided to read through the Bible in a year on a plan that sounded interesting to me - chronologically. But you know, I'm just finding that I'm getting stuck in monotony. I love that one can receive important truths from anyplace in Scripture, but Ecclesiastes just isn't cutting it right now for me, since Solomon must have been in a slump in life and wrote how there was nothing new under the sun, that it was all meaningless.
Today therefore I decided it's time to change. I'm hearing my Savior speak to me instead to, "Just come aside with Me. Come BE with Me. Rest your heart and body with Me. No performance. No rituals. No rules. That's not what I'm about. I am about loving you and you knowing and loving Me. Just come."
My hands are empty. My heart is open. My body is tired. My heart is a bit anxious about how I can be with our adorable two preschooler granddaughters for a week and survive physically. So all the more, I eagerly come. I listen with anticipation. I rest with and in Jesus. His voice is true and tender. His love is deep and forever. His strength is sufficient for anything and everything.
