Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day (Friday 12/31/2010, Happy New Year's Eve)

Sometimes You Need To Leave It Right Where It Is…

Acts 5:38-39 (Amplified Bible)

³⁸Now in the present case let me say to you, stand off (withdraw) from these men and let them alone. For if this doctrine or purpose or undertaking or movement is of human origin, it will fail (be overthrown and come to nothing); ³⁹But if it is of God, you will not be able to stop or overthrow or destroy them; you might even be found fighting against God!

Acts 5:38-39 (New Living Translation)

³⁸ “So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go. If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown. ³⁹ But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”

            I have this practice, when I am out shopping.  If I see something that I really like, but I had not planned to buy it, I will not buy it on impulse but I will go home pray about it, or contemplate whether I really need it or not. Sometimes I have to weight if it is a want or if it is a need, and the practicality of the purchase.  Many times the result is leaving it right where it is. Sometimes even when it is a need I have to ask is it a high or low priority need and make my decisions based upon that.  That is often how I evaluate people in my life as well.  If there seems to be constant issues with no clear resolution I will pray and ask God for insight, I pray for God to show me whether this individual is a lifetime person, a seasonal individual or whether they have only appeared in my life for a reason.  In periods of transition God will give me insight that I have to leave them right there and our time together is over and they can go no further, or else they may become a weight, a stumbling block or a distraction.
            The other day, I was praying and mediating.  As I began to evaluate and pray for guidance I could hear that a lot of the things I had been through this past year along with a number of individual were to be left right here in 2010.  That my future was indeed a place of purpose and destiny and some individuals that had been holding on for the wrong reasons I needed to cut the strings and move forward.  But it did not just end there were memories, events, behaviors and perspectives that I could not carry into 2011 with me. In those moments I realized that what was going on was bigger than me, and God was demanding things of me that would cause me to stay in His will and seek His wisdom without hindrance, and to be able to follow instructions without an extreme amount of outside voice trying to influence my decision making or my obedience to God. For us to carry people things and behaviors that do not fit our future tense from our past into our future could be disastrous and produce only what the flesh can manifest, and we might even find ourselves fighting the will of God when we refuse to leave people and things right where they are. 

God knows best what we need for the days, months, years ahead and it does not always seem like what we are used to or what we may even understand, but we have to understand that we need to leave the design and the purpose to God and let Him guide what moves with us into our future and what stays behind. We need to understand that God will never ask of us something that is not for our growth, development and movement. So whatever it is that He has been speaking to you about, letting go of, and leaving in 2010 or cutting off or out our lives we need to have an ear to hear, listen and obey.  For today’s manna, can be tomorrow’s worms!