“I don’t know how you and dad have moved so many times, Mom,” Jacob half groaned as he passed me with yet another armload of boxes. “We’ve moved a crazy amount of stuff and we’re still not done!” Their closing is one day away and it’s crunch time. They sold, shared, and donated what seemed like enough of their worldly possessions until the actual packing and moving began. They truly have pared down to a bare minimum but it feels overwhelming when you see it all at once. I remember hearing Dr. James Dobson say that the more we own, the more our possessions own us. We obligate ourselves to maintaining more and more stuff. His wisdom has proved true time and again. We tie ourselves to our possessions, our positions, and our people and it becomes more difficult to move when God’s Spirit prompts.
“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.
These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave.
But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”
1 John 2:15-17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1jn.2.15-17.NLT
My dad surrendered to God’s call to pastoral ministry after a particularly trying season for both my parents. You could spin the details from any angle and find that he was cheated, lied to, used and disrespected but at the end of the day, God moved him. It was painful to watch, even from a distance, but my mother had a front row seat. She has, true to her vows before Almighty God, seen my dad through better and worse, richer and poorer, in sickness and in health. The same is true in reverse. They are truly inseparable and God has blessed their union many times over.
Mom texted me a prayer she found in a letter she had saved, a letter I had written. “Always date the things you write,” she encouraged me. She had dated the letter and kept it with her heavily marked Bible, one of many that had seen her through life’s rough patches. She said I had mailed the prayer to her and daddy but she wanted me to share it. “I know it was meant for us, but anybody could pray this for someone they love.” So today I pray it for my son and his wife on the eve of their closing. I pray it over my daughter and her husband in the final months of his fellowship training. I pray it for you too if you’re feeling overwhelmed. You are not alone.
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.
Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.
But take heart, because I have overcome the world.””
John 16:33 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.16.33.NLT
“God paid a high price for you, so don’t be enslaved by the world.
Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them.
For this world as we know it will soon pass away.”
1 Corinthians 7:23, 31 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.7.31.NLT
Heavenly Father, I ask You to bless my parents, my children and grandchildren, my friends and neighbors, and my brothers and sisters in Christ, known and yet unknown.
Minister to their spirits at this very moment.
Where there is pain, give them Your peace and mercy.
Where there is self-doubting, release a renewed confidence to work through them.
Where there is tiredness and exhaustion, I ask You to give them understanding, guidance, and strength as they learn submission to Your leading.
Where there is spiritual stagnation, I ask You to renew them by revealing Your nearness and by drawing them into greater intimacy with You.
Where there is fear, reveal Your Love and release to them Your courage.
Where there is sin blocking them, reveal it and break its hold over their lives.
Bless their finances, give them greater vision and raise up family and friends to support and encourage them.
Give each of them discernment to recognize the evil forces around them and reveal to them the Power they have in You to defeat it.
I ask You to do these things in Jesus’s Name. Amen
Do not ask God to speak without opening your Bible.
Do not ask God to guide your footsteps if you aren’t willing to move your feet.
A Fitting Reply 