Christians, have you ever been doing something, going somewhere, experiencing an event, and you find yourself just going through the motions? You are physically there, but your mind is somewhere else. I know that many times for myself, I have not been fully engaged. I have been waiting on God before, I have been in the midst of doing different things, but my mind was thinking about the next place, next trip, the next event. I would envision how if my situation were changed and I had a chance to do this again, how different I would be, or act. I could never really enjoy the activity or place because I wanted the circumstances to be different, so I could have the experience I imagined I wanted and then enjoy fully.
This is not how we are designed to live and function. We are created to give God glory despite our circumstances. He does things for us, to us, through us, and we see how great those things are and we then glorify Him. However, if we are not Fully Engaged, we do not see how great those things are, and then we give no glory to God. We then have a bad time, or we get upset because it did not go how we thought, and we become frustrated.
I have been on the other side of waiting, and I’ve even experienced things I waited on God for to be different. The thing is, even when the situation had changed, I still looked at the situation, the one I wanted, and I found things that I would STILL CHANGE. I finally realized that I need to be fully engaged, fully in the moment, the way things are, no exceptions. Now I am taking it one day at a time, one event or place at a time. I try to be fully engaged in whatever God has me doing and it’s amazing! The situations do not always change quickly, there are still things I desire to do, or that I would do differently if I was not waiting, but I refuse to dwell on them. Instead, I see God at work in this situation, I do what I can do, no matter how small or simple, I feel whole and complete. I feel engaged and excitement wells up inside of me over the simplistic, easy, small, and maybe mundane things I am doing now. I then find myself giving God the glory He deserves.
It is not always easy, I still have not perfected it yet, but the better I feel, the more it makes me want to be fully engaged for all the days of my life. I have spent enough of my life living in the future in my mind, while missing out on fully enjoying the present in God.
I challenge you, wherever you are, whatever God puts in front of you each and every day, to forget about your circumstances and situation. Do not focus on what God has not done yet and focus on what God is doing now. Commit to Him that you want to be fully engaged in each and every circumstance He puts before you. You will find yourself glorifying Him, you will achieve deeper levels of intimacy, and you will accomplish your created purpose, in Jesus name, Amen.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. I Corinthians 15:58 (NIV)
For I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18 (NIV)
Paul has a section in the Bible where he “boasts” about his sufferings, I include this here, because Paul was fully engaged in the process of serving God, and he did not wait until his situations had changed to praise God, it begins (II Corinthians 11:16-12:10) with everything he has went through and ends with:
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. II Corinthians 12:8-10 (NIV)
So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. I Corinthians 10:31 (NLT)
written and posted by Daniel Poggensee | 2019
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