Doing the next thing...

I am feeling a bit beat up lately. Not physically. Just emotionally. Every where I turn there seems to be a need. A want. A request. I am not complaining. I am just tired.


As I struggled through the day yesterday, I begin to realize that I was making the choice to feel that way. I was looking way too far in the future and putting expectations on those around me for things that may or may not happen. Because of my thought process and my fears and my emotions, I was beating myself up. I was selling God short. I was using my own understanding instead of seeking His.


I think we do that a lot. Especially if we are moms. We are so used to nurturing and fixing that we forget sometimes to seek first. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. That is what we need to move forward. His wisdom. His strength. His answers. Not our own.


I was reading a devotion written by Elisabeth Elliot yesterday. She is the wife of one of the missionary men who were killed in the jungles of Ecuador in the 1950's. If you do not know who she is, google her. Amazing story. Amazing woman of God. Very straight forward in her writing. She wrote the following:


“Does it make sense to pray for guidance about the future if we are not obeying in the thing that lies before us today? How many momentous events in Scripture depended on one person's seemingly small act of obedience! Rest assured: Do what God tells you to do now, and, depend upon it, you will be shown what to do next.”


Do what He tells you right now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not in a few years. Right now. Without the knowledge of the future. Without knowing all the answers. Without understanding His ways. Just do what He tells you right now.


There is something very freeing about that. It is the walking by faith thing. The not having natural sight but trusting in supernatural sight. The truth that we don't need to have an answer or a great word of wisdom or even the capacity to grasp the overwhelming feelings that come with the everyday junk of this world. We just need the One who does.


And we need to live each moment like we know that. Of course I am overwhelmed. I live in a fallen world of brokenness and hurt and pain. It is big and it is real. But my God is bigger. I need to live each day like I believe that. Walk in what He has given me right now. Depend on Him. Love like He does. Put one foot in front of the other and move in a direction. With Him.


So today I am moving forward. In faith. Living the day He has blessed me with. Seeking first. Doing what He has called me to do. In my own obedience, the other things will be added. Only in my own obedience will He work through me to exhort and to encourage and to point towards Him. He is the answer. He is the way. He is the truth.


As I keep moving forward in His ways, the path will become straight. And I will find myself doing the next thing. 

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; 

do not depend on your own understanding. 

Seek His will in all you do, 

and He will show you which path to take." 

proverbs 3:5-6 NLT