As I sit here thinking and thinking and thinking some more; I wonder just how effective sitting and thinking really is.
Bear with me here I do have a point if you will.
I have noticed a frightening and scary trend over the last several years and I will not say how many years that is.
Some truths are not to be revealed! Ha! Especially those who let others know just how old err… I mean young I am. Anyway next….
What I’ve noticed while I have been thinking so much is that man really thinks way too much!
Proverbs 10:14 says that; Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.
Reading this I am reminded God speaks and what we shoulddo is keep that close to our heart, but sadly we have a tendency to blab it to the first person who will sit down and listen.
Shoot if it’s really good (you know the kind of word where God is going to do something good for you) who knows, we may even write a blog about it or post it to some social networking site or maybe all of the above. Then we will wait in breathless anticipation of all the comments and likes we will get. (You know you’ve done it don’t lie)
We rarely if ever hold those truths close to our heart only taking them out to study them to see what God is trying to say to us.
In a day where anything and I do mean anything is available at the push of a button or the dictation of a voice assistant, knowledge really is running to and fro.
Hmmm…Imagine that…exactly as the Word of God said…
He said that in the last days that knowledge would be in abundance and boy is it. The books have lined the shelves on anything from Apples to how to raise Zebras. You can read how to do anything, see anything or be anything. If it can be done or thought you can guarantee there is a book written about it.
Back to the above mentioned scripture in Proverbs… Did anyone notice that it says the “wise” men lay up knowledge fools just spew it out of their mouth?
Can anyone give a testimony as to the foolishness of men and what comes out of their mouth? I know with the recent elections many on both sides could say they had their fair share of court jesters.
Now, does anyone really grow up and say yes! I know what I want to be mom. I want to be a fool and I want to just spit out knowledge like a lightning bolt. I want to be all thunder and lightning and gusty winds that produce no rain. I’ll roll through like a big show, but I won’t actually deposit anything of value. At least not anything that would produce something good. Na I think I’ll be a fool so all the world can be impressed with my foolishness.
I would dare to say the answer is a resounding no.
How many of you had moms like mine that would knock that foolishness right out of you? HA! Then give you some huge chore that took you all night and half the weekend to complete! Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about, don’t even deny it!
So begging your pardon for a moment, why, do we do this on a regular basis?
We walk around like we have somehow arrived on God’s stage with all the answers and we are looking for people who need all the answers. I have seen this so much its pathetic.
Instead of being humble and allowing God to work a work in us that may or may not need a voice, we walk around like proud peacocks thinking we have arrived and we are doing God a favor by being there.
Have you ever done this? Don’t lie! God sees your heart so much better than you do. I know I have, many times to my sad horror.
So I sit here and I think about this and I wonder God what can I do, this is what I love about this Father we call God, He says this to me; just hush, be quite and let me be… let me be… let me BE… Do you get it?
God says look I love you with all of my heart, I sent my Son to show just how much but seriously I don’t need your voice. I don’t really need your thoughts, what I really need and what I would really love to have is your undivided attention.When I have that then I will have your undivided obedience.
You see guys this what God really wants from us… Obedience … You say I am obedient, that’s awesome but when is the last time you just sat in His presence and you let Him be… You say what does that mean? Let God BE let Him be God… Say it real slow and real often and you will begin to understand what He is doing in my heart.
I am not above you in anyway. I am being as real with you as I can be. I write whatever I am going through with God at any given time. How else can I be?
So my family and hopefully my friends, do me a favor and today stop and think, think on God’s goodness, think about how great HE is and then let Him BE… if He gives you permission to speak then shout it loud and shout it proud, but if He ask you to, lay it up in your heart, can you trust Him? Do you trust Him enough that you know He is working something good in you.
Maybe just maybe if we let Him work out some things in us,when we do speak it out it will be way more effective than if we just spit out in a rush.
I will leave you with this example…
I wanted to make bread. I love to cook and baking is my very favorite thing to do. I am learning to make bread (I have not mastered it by the way)
Bread has a process it must go through. First you have to follow directions… (I just lost 1/3 of you right there… you know who you are, rushing through the process without reading the directions…)
You mix this ingredient then another one… I have people ask me sometimes why my recipe works better than theirs when they followed the very same recipe. My first question is usually the last one to ask, because it is the one question that tells the answer. My first question is this; did you follow the recipe in order? Have you ever explained something to someone and gotten a deer in the headlight look? This is what I get more often than not. I hear I didn’t know that I had to follow in order each step and my answer is usually, ya think?
So I say, if you follow the recipe in order like it is written you will get the desired results. Are you with me so far?
So I am following the directions and I get to the part where you knead the bread for 8-10… Now here is where you really have to be intuitive to directions (I just lost another 1/3 of you guys… You know who you are, you read the directions on fast forward)
Back to my narrative; I go ok I can knead that 8-10 times when I notice something behind that 8-10 that stops me dead in my tracks, and I go now wait a minute, actually 8-10 of them to be exact, and I go they are out of their mind, I have to knead this 8-10 minutes? Are they crazy? (I just lost all the rest of you except two who are as hardheaded as I am and will read this anyway to the floury end…) (Thank you by the way)
My husband usually comes in the kitchen right about now to console me, mainly because he has a thing for homemade bread. So yes he will cheer me on from the sidelines, you can do it honey, think of all the praise songs you can sing and the prayers you can pray in 8-10 minutes. This usually earns him an eye roll or two, then I get a brilliant idea… Hey honey how would you like to join me in my world for a little bit and you can help me knead this bread… (Ha! I just got rejoined by a few deserters) you really want to know what my husband says… right?)
My husband being the sweetheart he is will wash his hands, roll up his sleeves and he will labor with me over this bread. I love him so much. ~just a side note~ we do this on a regular basis, he gets in my world doing what I like and I get in his world doing what he likes… this way we know each other really well.
Anyway, back to my narrative we did this not too long ago. I hadn’t attempted bread making in a long time and I was hungry for some. My husband volunteered to help me as I really can’t knead anything right now. I recently had carpal tunnel surgery in both hands (another story for another day)so we went through the entire process and got to the part where the bread rises…This is where my patience ends… I don’t like to wait and oftentimes I rush the process.
So the bread is rising la, da, da, di, da, di, da… I’m waiting rather impatiently not realizing that something profoundly important is going on in the bowl. First kneading I have learned gives the yeast time to wake up and do its thing, so you knead it for 8-10 minutes so it can blend all the flour and stuff, mixing in real good. The part where it rises is the part where it works it magic. The funny thing is you will come back in the allocated time and you punch it down only to let it rise again before you begin the baking process.
To make a long story short we did this and the result was mouthwatering bread with warm butter all over it. Oozygooey goodness on a plate.
I end this diatribe with this thought(s) for you…
What if we took what we know of God and we have learned of God and instead of trying to turn out some quick bread with it, sent it through a process where it is kneaded to wake it up in us. So God can set it in us to rise, punching it down when the time He appoints comes so that when HE is ready to bake it, it will provide the right person at the right time the nutrients they need with the added blessing of the topping He puts on it to make the experience in their heart pleasurable and enjoyable.
Do we really want to settle for untested knowledge in what someone thinks they know or will allow God to lay up in us His knowledge so that we produce results that are effective and nourishing!
As always in Christ I’m dead & Hidden!
Colossians 3:3
Shawn
Searching Gods Heart 