I always feel uneasy during the week between Christmas and New Years. After thinking about it, and over-analyzing in my own personal neurotic way, I believe it is because I am not busy.
Why am I not busy? Well maybe because I take off work most of the week, and procrastinate on the million projects I have planned for this space in time.
Get tax stuff together…..
Clean out cars, and drawers, and other scary places that haven’t been cleaned for awhile….
Do stuff with my kids who are off of school….
But, it doesn’t do the trick. I have anxiety and in the end I only tackle about 30% of the planned projects.
Is Down Time a Waste of Time?
What it comes down to is that if I totally relax, and just hang out at the house, I feel I have wasted precious God-given time. Now this is totally ridiculous because as a counselor I would tell anyone else “You deserve downtime. Even Jesus rested when He needed it.”
What About the Momentum?
Running through my analytical scripts I settle on my fear of not being able to re-gain momentum.
Think about it.
Pre-Christmas is all about momentum. Can I get all of my work done, my gifts bought, parties attended and a Christmas feast complete for Christmas day? I am all about praying and thanking Jesus as I merrily run around getting everything done. People need me. My kids are already off school. Excitement is in the air. There are beautiful Christmas programs to worship at.
Then Christmas is over and I can finally take a breath.
But what if I crash. What if I can’t get momentum going again.
I guess it comes down to fear.
When all is quiet, who needs me?
He Knows How I Feel
Then I think about Jesus. He served and healed and we still didn’t really understand our need. He died on the cross at our hands and still sacrificed for us even though we didn’t believe we needed Him. Only because He loved us.
I remind myself of this.
Thank God I have a Savior who came and became one of us. Because of this I know that He knows. He knows how I feel. He has faced much, much worse.
Then I remind myself I take care of my family because I love them, not because they say they need me.
I serve my clients because I care about their needs.
If I Focus on Him
Once New Years is over and my schedule is back to normal I will start writing consistently again. I will start seeing clients again. And my kids will be back in school all too soon.
I must remind myself that if I stay focused on the Lord…
…..He will bring me work.
…..He will calm my fears.
…..He will recharge my energy.
Unfortunately, if I don’t stop fretting, I will still have many projects put on hold til the next holiday.
This is an annual tradition I don’t want to continue.
Instead…..
I will move closer to God.
I will trust in His strength and guidance.
I will get some projects done.
I will read the novel I just purchased….sit on the porch with my dogs….enjoy quiet dinners with the kids…..and kick off the New Year with a bang.
How about you?
From the post:
“I must remind myself that if I stay focused on the Lord…
…..He will bring me work.
…..He will calm my fears.
…..He will recharge my energy.”
I keep re-reading this, ensuring I have the context right (and actually I hope I am dead wrong). I just don’t see this assertion as biblical in any way. There simply is no biblical basis for a connection between faith and prosperity, the central claim by all prosperity gospels.
I have observed that such beliefs have a rather nasty element to them that is often overlooked… entitlement. God does not owe us, and does not ever owe us no matter what we believe, do, say, etc. We are indeed promised a reward of merit but such is in heaven and I see no indication in God’s Word that promises a reward in this lifetime.
Lets look at Job… we all know Job… we all are so much (well I am not) NOT like him. Now lets look at the period of events and especially time between his foolish friends and God’s heaping of earthly blessings on him. (key there is blessings… as in undeserved, based on Grace).
In that middle period the MOST staggering and important fact is that Job put his faith in God FULLY IN DESPITE of his circumstances. He was amazingly faithful but not perfect in his time of trials, no doubt. However, God certainly (as usual) did not apply any sort of element from ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ when he questioned Job and gave Job a bit of a reality check.
Is there any indication that he was ‘owed’ and that God would in fact end the nightmare and much less heap blessings upon Job? Every martyr in history and sadly (even more sad that so many Christians do not know this happens) even now would certainly be a testament that is fully contrary to any sort of entitled laden prosperity gospel.
The sad fact is that we are taught by God’s Word that we can go through a life full of strife and yet be nearly blameless in the areas of ‘working hard’ (oft the mantra of the entitled) and faith overall.
Oh, now don’t get me wrong… I so wish this was not the case. I really really really wish that there was a system of ‘karma’ that God enforced and ratified.
I hope this doesn’t come across as vitriolic, hateful, spiteful, etc. I admit there is some frustration in my heart at this very second, but mainly I am just confused and hurting very bad now. Through my pain, God has clearly opened my eyes to the reality of His wanting our placing of Him in our lives before, and regardless of, our circumstances. I pray that no one goes through what I have yet two facts stop me cold.
1) tons of people have it worse (especially those martyred
2) if the Bible and Church history are any indication, this method of breaking people in order to build them up and well… be the tool of God by whatever that is, well it will continue and happen a LOT
Oh, and if you are asking why I came here and saw this (my first ‘view’ of this site) I am seeking with all the strength God has blessed me with, to find kindred spirits. I believe that indeed God can and will bless people and organizations who abide by His Word and place God as the cornerstone of their business. I really do. But I just don’t see any indication that this is in any way guaranteed or ‘deserved’. I loathe that word, ‘deserve’ as it is full of entitlement and pride and does the exact opposite of giving the glory to God.
My dream is to run a successful (by Earthly and Godly standards) business that dares to put Jesus as its cornerstone. One that dares to have and uphold ethics, principles and convictions. My prayer is to do this. I have no expectation of failure or success even though my hope and dreams do and all of this for the reasons I stated above. If I am successful in God’s eyes but fail by the world’s ever changing standards, then well… I guess that is the real goal. (but oh yes, being debt free and wealthy would be a nice cherry on top, lol)
Today I was reading more of Acts… my favorite book. Poor Paul just can’t seem to win. I wish I had his faith AND his persevering attitude.
I don’t want to let this be negative, because I know it sounds that way. However, all I am really trying hard to say is that we are commanded to work with excellence and that our reward is in Heaven. Paul knew this through all his trials and ‘ran the race for the prize before him’ (paraphrased of course).
I say this as I sit in a house that who’s mortgage is paid by family, my family medical bills as well… ok, pretty much everything since I have not had an income in 8 months. I have more faith though today than ever before but not a single atom inside of me believes for an instance that I will be blessed… such would be nice, but why set myself up for disappointment? If it happens… WHOOHOO! What a blessing that will be for me and my family, but I have been doing some news perusing about Christian life in the middle east and I am humbled to the point of shame and tears.
ok, one other thing to chew on… since Job was blessed only AFTER his realignment with God’s idea of what Job’s faith should be based on that says one thing. However, there isn’t any indication of the time it took for his blessings to begin much less to climax or end. It could have been 30 years or so, who knows now but God? (btw, he was blessed with offspring of multiple numbers… that takes time)
Jason, I can see that this is a difficult time for you and really hate that my post would cause more hurt than help. I am with you on the prosperity gospel. I do not believe that God promises prosperity, although I credit Him with any that I have. I became a Christian late in life and truly see things differently now through God’s view. I used to try to do everything in my own strength. If I was worried I would kick into to control overdrive and at times head myself off a cliff. What I was thinking when I wrote this was 1.) Jesus knows how we feel because He has gone through betrayal, suffering and a horrific death at the hands of people He loved 2.) I need to turn to Jesus rather than take the reins and try to make things happen on my own and, 3.) When I do lean in to Him I put things back into His perspective which is to focus on loving others for no reason but to love. I can see you have tried to align your will to God’s will and not just expect Him to fill what you want. I believe that is all we can do. I do want to put my business on a foundation of Christ. I do want to live a life that is pleasing to Him. And yes, I know too, that it is by faith, not works that secures us the reward in Heaven (an eternity with our Savior). And I do agree that we do things in excellence and as James says our works come from our faith (major paraphrasing). But I also believe in God’s promises. In Romans 8:28 he says 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. I believe this and I believe it for you. I know He doesn’t give us a time and for me personally, it never seemed to be my timing, but I know it to be true. I will keep you in my prayers.
i also pray that if anyone else reading takes this post to mean I believe in prosperity or blessings as a given or entitlement, that they will know that in no way do I believe this or mean for this to give this message. Again, I just know that when I am anxious the only answer for me is to move closer to God. Thanks for taking the time to share your heart.
There is a difference between a gospel of blessing and a gospel of prosperity.
God isn’t a credit card, to be whipped out when are running short of funds.
But we do have to acknowledge that our everything comes from Him. That’s the difference. Praise God from Whom All Blessings flow — and trust that He knows best on our care.