Something Different

…You have seen with your own eyes all that the LORD your God has done…The LORD will do the same…where you are going. Do not be afraid…the LORD your God himself will fight for you. ~ Deuteronomy 3:21-22 NIV

Change: something different.

Growing up, things were constantly changing. I felt like nothing could be trusted. For a non-military family, we were moving all the time. When I grew up and moved out, all I wanted was stability, consistency.

We’re currently in a season of change. This season has had “immeasurably more” blessings (Ephesians 3:20-21), but also mountains of crushing stress. Unfortunately, my response has been to try to hold everything together. The other day, the stress was so overwhelming that I felt tightness in my chest. The following morning it was still there. But I climbed into my God-chair and put on worship music. And in natural response to my God, I lifted my arms to worship Him. It was with my arms lifted that I could take a deep breath and all the tightness was alleviated. That’s when I remembered what He had said to me during our fast at the beginning of the year, “When you’re choking, you lift your arms to open up your airways and receive oxygen, which is needed for life. When you’ve choked out life by trying to hold it so desperately in your own hands, open your hands and lift them up to the Lord in surrender. For only then can you open yourself up to receive His life.”

Life taught me to try to hold it all together. But Holy Spirit has taught me to surrender it to Him. If you’ve been holding on to something so tightly that everything within you is bound up, lift your hands in surrender. Draw in God’s sweet breath and exhale, allowing everything within you to release. Releasing everything to Him is safe, for He is trustworthy.

©Heather Potts 2017

Trust & Go

The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."  But Samuel said, "How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me." ~ 1 Samuel 16:1-2

How often do we hear the word, “Go” and fret about it the way Samuel did?  We hear God calling us, but somehow His words fall flat.  It’s as though we trust that He was big enough to create the world, but not that He’s strong enough to protect us in it.  I’ve started reading Linchpin, by Seth Godin.  In his book, Godin talks about being indispensable in our jobs or in the things we are passionate about and doing so by standing out, taking a chance, and following the road less traveled.  He said, “No one is a genius all the time…But we are all geniuses sometimes…[Our] problem is that…we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability,” (1, italics mine).

That’s where Samuel was—and where we often are—when God calls to us: stuck in apparent stability.  But if we’re going to see the promises of God fulfilled in our lives, then we must trust the One who’s sending us.  We must trust the One who made heaven and earth, who so intricately knit us together in our mother’s womb, who hemmed us in on all sides, that when He says, “Go,” He will journey with us, (Psalm 146:6; Psalm 139:13; Psalm 139:5).

Lord, thank you for opening my eyes to how foolish I’ve been in hiding behind my apparent stability.  Thank you, Father, for your promises to walk with me and to never leave nor forsake me.  Thank you for gently loving and nudging me the way you do.  Only You could love me so well.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.