I was listening to a sermon given by our Associate Vicar in our church service a while back and I resonated with it so much that I just had to share it with you in my own words.
The talk given, and this post, is based on John 21:1-14 where Jesus appears to some of the disciples whilst they were fishing.
The disciples were going through a waiting season after Jesus had left them. Each of them had no clue as to what was going to happen next. They had seen Jesus a few times after His resurrection, but they were at a point in their lives where they thought, “Now what?”
Definition of adapt: Adjust to a different situation or condition.
Bible Definition of adapt: Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2
Recently, I’ve found myself feeling tired and weighed down with the way my health has been and the situations I have found myself in. This is on top of the journey/waiting period I’m going through of finding who I am. Where do I fit in and what is God calling me to do? My mind has been working over time and spiralling down a slope.
I think we all have seasons where we don’t understand what is happening. Something in our life is not going the right way, and no matter how much we pray, it just isn’t happening. We can be down on our knees begging God to show us what we are waiting for, or we can be throwing our fists in the air angry at why He has not provided answers.
It’s come to the time of time of year where we start to think about the different traditions we do when celebrating Christmas. Something which is familiar to us that we have always done. Maybe it is a particular decoration that is hung in a certain place in the home, or the type of food we eat.
I love to go to the midnight service with my husband at our church on Christmas Eve, something we do every year and is now very familiar to us. This is always then followed by the mad dash of getting the remainder of the Christmas presents wrapped before we go to bed, with a glass (or two) of sherry on the side for help. This is something else that is very familiar, but we try and change it each year (and I’m referring to wrapping the presents really late – not the sherry drinking!)
~oOo STOP oOo~
Let’s put Jesus at the centre of our hearts.
Familiarity brings about a sense of security. It’s about knowing who we are and where we have come from. It’s comforting. When people lose familiarity, they sometimes also lose a sense of identity and control.
I struggle with this time of year because of the familiar stress Christmas brings (and I’ve gone and done it big time this year with extra EXTRA things going on). I am finding that the familiar stress that Christmas brings is what causes me to lose my identity and control.
However, over the last year or so I’ve had a longing to make things different. Something special. I have needed something to focus on to slow me down in this hectic period to get me focused on what is the most familiar reason for this season.
Maybe you feel this too?
Let us knock on the door to The One that matters most!
So, to overcome this familiar stress, I am creating a new familiarity to be intentional about focusing on the real reason for this Season. After all, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas if it wasn’t for One person…Jesus!
Somehow, this kind of gets forgotten in all the hustle and bustle of organising and preparing for the big day. I’ll admit that myself too, that I am too busy wondering what presents I need to buy and who am I going to send cards to. I forget, momentarily, that we celebrate Jesus coming to this world.
I want to change that.
Angels sound the trumpets at the arrival of the Messiah!
I’m still going to buy the presents and write those cards, but what I need to prepare most is my heart.
To slow myself down and create a new familiarity – one that will prepare my heart – I am going to be reading “Come, Lord Jesus” by Kris Camealy. This is a very timely book that is much needed for anyone who is in a “waiting” period, and also for anyone who wants to prepare their hearts over the advent period.
And what is better still, Kris is hosting a book club for her book where we can gather together with other like minded people who want to be intentional about preparing for Christmas.
“Come, Lord Jesus: The Weight of Waiting” is available to buy at Amazon.
I wrote this post as a response to the Five Minute Friday word prompt “familiar“. Click here to see what other people wrote when they were prompted with this word.
I am still being taught the art of patience. How long can this go on for? Everyday something happens to remind me that I need to either slow down or I need to have more patience.
I subscribe to receiving e-mails from Joyce Meyer. If you have never heard of her, well, you need to! She is such an inspiring woman. She has been through so much in her life and she is using it now to show people how God can turn ashes into beauty. Anyway, yesterday’s e-mail was entitled ‘The wait is over!’ How apt is that? She says that God is passionately waiting for us more than we are waiting for God. She writes the following…
‘We each have things we must do to align ourselves with God. Things like putting Him first, receiving His grace, letting go of bad habits and negative mindsets, forgiving those who offend us, and trusting God with our circumstances. And as we become determined to do so, that’s when great things start to happen.’
As I wrote my first blog a couple of days ago, I let a few people know that I went “live”. From that moment I was constantly checking my e-mails, looking on Facebook and accessing messenger to see if I had any updates or if they had seen my message. Who would be the first person to respond? Would they like what I have written? Will they reject me and what I stand for?
As I write, this is quite obvious to me now that checking my e-mails, etc could be a really bad habit to get into. A friend of mine, who has been blogging for 5 years now, was a little nervous for me as she knows how emotionally draining it can be to get all this started up. She didn’t have anyone there to tell her that it was going to be hard, so I guess she was telling me some hard hitting stuff to help me out. “You are going to be disappointed,” she wrote. “It is more often than not, our own expectations that set us up for disappointment.”
I need to learn to trust God to reveal His plan to me in His own time. For now, I will write and be creative because that is what I love to do. I love to find the hidden beauty that is all around me. I need to focus on Him in all I do, to let go of the bad habits and to be obedient to what God is asking me to do.
As I wrote my first blog a couple of days ago, I let a few people know that I went “live”. From that moment I was constantly checking my e-mails, looking on Facebook and accessing messenger to see if I had any updates or if they had seen my message. Who would be the first person to respond? Would they like what I have written? Will they reject me and what I stand for?
