CHOOSE: ACTION

CHOOSE: Action Verbs might have been a better title choice.

Trust is a noun. Trust is also an action verb when one chooses to "trust" God.

Trust God whether you "feel" like it or not. It's an action of the will.

Like choosing to be faithful, choosing to trust, especially in the hard places of suffering is an internal action. It's a first step. A step that starts in the mind.

When one is hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not despairing, not feeling abandoned in the midst of persecution, or  struck down, but still upright and functioning, those folks have chosen to take action and choose to trust. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

That first step can lead to courage in action. A heart strengthening. Hope. (Psalm 31:24) As The Message states, "Expect God to get there soon."

Courage, strength, hope---all results of one action verb----trust. 

Choose to trust Him, knowing "soon" is the adverb of His timing.

SPIRITUAL PLUCK

5/22/11 I have been “in a mood” lately---though not exactly one you would dance to. I feel stretched, tired, and the last three days physically ill with the “crud”---sinus drainage and a persistent cough that is robbing me of much needed sleep. So, quiet times/prayer times have been sketchy at best. If I continue to listen to these moods that are resulting from my physical condition, I’m going to lose my spiritual hold. My pluck. I don’t mean to beat myself up. But……pluck, that part of me that decides to “pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again,” as Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers dancingly demonstrated in old b & w movies, needs to be active. It’s called discipline.

Moods, at least mine, tend to be rooted in the physical part of my make-up. “Pluck” on the other hand is more of a spiritual/moral condition and is garnered through choice or as an act of my will. “Incarnate pluck” as Oswald Chambers dubs it. (MUFHH, May 21) is the strength that is ours when we abandon all to Him. Too often, my “moods” have me carefully mulling over how I’m going to “fix” things. Thoughtful concern (a euphemism for worry) over the practical details of my life can thwart the work of the Spirit within. “Incarnate pluck.”

I need to practice Matthew 6:25. “Take no thought of your own life,,,,,,,,,,” In my life that takes effort. Bringing every thought captive is hard work. It takes relinquishing. A continual effort not to listen to my “mood-induced” thoughts but to focus on hearing from Him.

Where’s your spiritual pluck? Are you making excuses like I am? Are you listening to the voice of reason or are you listening to the voice of the Spirit within. Maybe we both need to “pluck” up and allow God to control all those details that are so worrisome.