is your cart too full?

Sometimes as girlfriends in the ministry it's so hard to balance it all.

The cell phone is ringing, guests are coming over, the baby needs to be changed, and you have yet to get into the word or get plugged in for yourself. However we still find time to blog, twitter, check facebook (and let's not forget texting)! We seem to find the time for the things we want to do and desire to do, but the things that are most important get brushed under the rug.

Let's pretend our life is a grocery cart - or buggy, depending on the area of the country you live in. All the things that we're doing pile up as we shop through life. Daily tasks, business and life fill our carts, but at what cost?

We ask God to give us things, not just material possessions but also ministries, and we ask for opportunities. Then when he gives them to us we end up pushing these carts that are full to overflowing. We've lost the simplicity of "drop everything and follow him". Our carts are so full that we have lost sight of our neighbors, the grocery clerk, and the moms in the park.

I know in ministry our lives are already so full, and we share our husbands and we are under a microscope, but do we count the cost? We can always take our carts and walk back through life and put things back on the shelf.

We want and we want and we want - but so often we don't think of what the cost is going to be. We walk through life thinking we have to have this ministry or we have to have this item and the fact is we can't afford it! In our spiritual lives are we really ready for what we're asking God to give us? Can we really afford it? We each determine what our cost is going to be.

Luke 9 talks about the cost of following Jesus.

"As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

He asked his disciples to leave it all and just follow him.
No procrastination.
No backward looks.

You can't put God's kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day. Girlfriends, it may mean taking the coffee date with our bff out of the cart to make time to meet with a single mom. It may mean inviting someone into our home that will stay all day. It may take you emptying your whole cart and putting it on the shelf and having a zero balance at the register so you can be available.

It cost Jesus everything for you and me to be free, what will it cost us to see just one other person follow him? Are we being personally effective and making a difference? Or, as my friend Brandi Wilson posted recently, are we only effective by association? Wow.

In Matthew 7 it says we will be recognized by our fruit. Are we counting the cost and bearing healthy luscious fruit or are we allowing our carts to fill up and squash the fruit? What are our priorities?

So here are my questions:
Is your cart full of the things you have asked God for?
Are you effectively counting the cost?
Are you willing to leave those things behind and put them back on the shelf to follow his commands in the uncomfortable places where no one is looking, and where your effectiveness is not based on your church?

Can't wait to read your responses!

© CLUTCH, 2010 unless otherwise sourced.
Use allowed by express written permission only.
Tweets, trackbacks, and link sharing encouraged.

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don't blow it!

Oftentimes in ministry it is easy to get stirred up and angry. As women we often go through our day working in our offices, changing diapers, and figuring out when we can get the next thirty things done on our to-do list.

With our crazy, busy lives we often end up with a short fuse and hurt the ones we love because we have exhausted ourselves to the point of becoming a snapping turtle. Yup, biting everyone’s head off. I have to admit that I can be an angry woman sometimes. Does that hurt me? Absolutely.

I find myself upset at the silliest things and able to pacify a smile to everyone I come across. However, pretending to all of them that I'm a peaceful woman can only last so long. Once I snap, my poor babies and husband look at me like a firecracker just went off. I find myself anxious and angry and looking in the mirror asking myself is this what God wants of me? Is this how he wants me to behave? Ask yourself the same thing; it stings.

Ephesians 4:26 says "In your anger do not sin." So does this give me permission to be angry and upset? I almost got a smile but then I decided there had to be more to do this and I must be missing something. So I decided that yes, I can be angry as long as I'm not sinning... how long do you think that can really last? My thoughts exactly!

Sometimes you just have to walk away from your anger. Jesus did. In Exodus we find him telling Moses to take the Israelites into the land flowing of milk and honey, but He also said "but I will not go with you." He called them stiff-necked people whom He might destroy if He goes. So even Jesus knew that sometimes you just have to walk away.

Ephesians 4:26-27 goes on to say "do not let the sun go down while you’re still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold." First Peter 5:8 talks about the devil roaming around like a roaring lion... waiting to devour you! It also says "be self-controlled and alert." If you are sinning in your anger then your self-control is gone. Lions hunt at night. Hmm maybe that is why we are instructed not to let the sun go down on our anger, because He knows the devil will be hunting for us in our sleep.

Sometimes you just need to proclaim Psalm 4:8 over yourself before you go to sleep."I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone o' Lord, make me dwell in safety."

Sing in the morning! "I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in time of trouble."

So today I invite you, when you feel that short fuse being lit up, to remember what the word of God tells us.

I may not like the circumstance or have control over it but I will not sin in my anger, and I will walk away and not give the devil a foothold. I will cling to His safety and sing of His love in the morning!
--
Rachael

© CLUTCH, 2010 unless otherwise sourced.
Use allowed by express written permission only.
Tweets, trackbacks, and link sharing encouraged.

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