Daily
I mentioned in a blog last week that I had selected one word for 2015. At Highpoint, we’re choosing a word and a corresponding habit to focus on throughout the year. Keep in mind that we’re avoiding the tendency to make our habit a big and overwhelming goal. Instead, we’re choosing victory by starting small, going slow, and being steady.What you need to understand is that there is a part of me that can be compulsive. It’s odd where it appears in my life and where it’s nowhere to be found. One place that it almost always surfaces is in the area of responsibility. I can’t stand to let someone down and I like things to be done with a high standard of excellence. Even as I type that, I realize that doesn’t necessarily sound great! There are advantages to this wiring if you’re my boss, but it can be challenging if I am your boss… or if you are me! Without the Holy Spirit, I would work myself too hard too often. I must guard myself from determining my worth from my performance or productivity.As I look at the year ahead, it is packed with many anticipated milestones and multiple opportunities. On a good day, I am eager. On an average day, I am overwhelmed. How will I hit all the deadlines that accompany those great opportunities? Which opportunities are God’s best and which ones aren’t? How do I balance the opportunities with all the other things already on my calendar? Am I giving my best time to my husband and children? What can I do as God makes me aware of so many people who are struggling? You get the point. Like many people, the things spinning through my mind can exhaust me.When I chose the word “daily,” it stemmed from a desire to focus on the fact that I must trust God with each day. I must remember that “today has enough troubles of its own” (Matthew 6:34). I cannot lose sight that His mercies are made new every morning. I do not need to live a month in one day. I think of Chris’s frequent comment, “The best way to do God’s will tomorrow is to do God’s will today.” That is my prayer. I will be faithful each day. I can trust that if I daily do the right things, God will accomplish His purposes in and through me.My corresponding habit is that I will be in bed each weeknight at 10:00pm. On a practical level, it helps me stay rested and healthy. Maybe of greater importance, though, is that this is also a daily reminder that God is perfectly capable of running this world without me. Being heroic and working late hours is not trusting God. Working long hours inevitably causes me to be grumpier than I should be and to compromise in other areas.How about you? Are you looking at a particular challenge or season and feeling overwhelmed? If so, may you be encouraged to trust God each day. I hope that you, too, might consider what that one word is that you need to keep focused on in 2015. May your willingness to focus bring greater clarity to what truly matters and the chance to live out each day with a sense of peace and purpose! twitter | facebook