I sometimes get the feeling of being “crispy around the edges”, a sign that soon one will get burnt out if one doesn’t pull themselves away from the fire. Yes, self-driven DRIVE as well as work and life demands are DEMANDING. Even if you LOVE what you do, it wears on you. I’ve been going full steam lately – You too likely!!! Don’t wear yourself out so much that you can’t walk. Work on the most meaningful things first and not the fluff. Like a play production, you DON’T have to be in every scene. 

In the Lord’s Production of Life, we are best to be available for scene changes and for roles of service in bit parts, walk-ons, and being an understudy from time to time, as well as accepting our leading role (make that “to be led role”) that we have been equipped for and prepared for by the Lord our whole lives. Don’t get crispy around the edges as those stage lights can burn sometimes, go off stage on occasion – to grab a drink of water and maybe to read ahead for the next scene. 

Our “crispy around the edges” feelings should not bring us to rebel and walk away from life, just take a few vacation days off, take time to CHILL. For me even to work from home once in a while feels like a productive retreat. Focus time. So, no, don’t throw in the towel, use it to wipe your brow and keep moving. Wait on the Lord, ALWAYS, and look for the next stage cue. I bet the backdrop will be changed and the props will rotate. The Production is what the Lord wants us IN rather than always be the staging crew. So, let us take to His Plot-lines and BIG PICTURE, not just our aside scenes.

We don’t know how micromanagement works with the Lord. We DO know micro and mega blessings. He does know everything, we can’t comprehend that widely and yet within His Production He must and does let us have free will. Sometimes things go so smoothly and I say: “that must be the Lord blessing”. Sometimes things screech to a halt and I say: “that must be the Lord’s correction or signal to drive another way”.

Interesting how in all the years they wandered in the desert, the humbled people of Moses walking thru the wilderness, none of their feet hurt from swelling. And there was NO wear and tear on their clothes. A teaching moment of a miracle for sure. When we depend upon the Lord, FOR EVERYTHING, He will sustain us. Manna and Motivation. 

MAJOR moments of teaching came from Moses’s speeches: He said these trials were to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

This EXACT sentiment and wording is quoted by Jesus when the devil tempts Him in the wilderness because of hunger. The devil said: You are God, You can change these stones into loaves of bread. Jesus rebuked to say: a man is sustained by God’s Words, not by bread. It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 

Us too – we are to live Word by Word, listening for His cues. The sustenance of food, work, money, busyness is not our only or ultimate life-giver. Waiting on His Word IS.  In all these things, let us LET the Lord direct us, direct the day, lead us in HIS Way. … in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Amen

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Do Not Forget the Lord Deuteronomy 8:1-5

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.  Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

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Paul to the Romans 12 – and to us – 

A Living Sacrifice

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Humble Service in the Body of Christ: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

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(I have heard many times that Jesus said these scripture words (quoting Himself) to remind us (and the devil) that man himself does not need to be God to turn down the devil – man can still just be man – but we only need to listen to God more… ) Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:1-4