I got to be a tag-a-long on my husband's business trip to New York this week. My son Tom and his wife Rebecka live there and I will take every chance I can to get to visit with them, here there or anywhere. Rebecka and I were on the subway heading to meet Tom for dinner, Mel (my husband) had customer commitments and would join us later but as we were riding and talking and people watching I noticed the t-shirt of a young guy facing me who was wearing flip flops, and jeans...The t-shirt read "easy your life"....in all caps that covered the front of the shirt. And he was playing the part.. at least on the outside...oblivious to the world around him. earphones in place and engaged in whatever he was listening to.
I casually mentioned to Rebecka to check the shirt out...we chuckled and agreed that "that" in fact is a pretty good base for living life. Kind of brought back memories of "don't worry ...be happy" period years back. Seems like we so often have the tendency to complicate life instead of "easy" it up. So many times things I have stewed over and gotten in a twit about just end up working out without my added assistance. And why is that...because God is in control...I don't know why it is that I can't get that once and for all. I know it is true, I have faith in the process...but still I grasp it or hold on to it in security and comfort and have a hard time just living life in easy.
Easy your life...is letting go of life and letting God be in control. I mean really in control...what we eat, what we wear, what we do, who we choose to hang out with, what we believe, what we have, what we don't have....all of it. God has promised to care for us and provide for us according to our needs not our wants. And he continues to let his blessings overflow around us before us and within us...we just tend to overlook them time and time again.
Easy your life:
1) Let God be in control...if it works it is his will, if it doesn't it's not...easy enough
2) Let God control our attitudes...find the positive in situations not dwell on negative...easy enough
3) Let God's peace and joy override the discontent, fear and insecurity that we allow to shake our world...easy enough
4) Let our Faith in God dominate over our fear of uncertainty...easy enough
5) Let God be the authority of our hearts and minds....easy enough
6) Let God's love be the framework from which we think, speak and act.....easy enough
7) Let God's forgiveness of us be a reminder of the forgiveness that we are to have for others....easy enough..
These do "sound" easy enough but when it comes to life application...but every one of these are things that most of us can identify as things we struggle with each day...
If we are to easy our lives we have to "ask" and "allow" God to generate the power that will enable us to do these things..they are tasks and ways of life that don't come natural unless we have asked and continue to seek Christ's presence in our lives. When times are hard and tough, it is "easy" to be pulled to and for with fear and anxiety and stress...but true "easy" is to give whatever it is back to God....and FAITHFULLY let Him handle it. Let Him work through the details and the differences and the disappointments....according to His ways and His timing. We try too often to control things according to our motives and our desires....and that alone causes friction that we bring on ourselves. If we want to easy our lives...then God is the solution...The one solution that is trustworthy and not only adequate for a foundation of peace and ultimate joy...but when we line our attitudes and our requests up with what we know to be God's truth...and God's will...it is then that we will be able to "easy our life"...for we will be within the bounds and vision that God has planned....not feathering a nest of discontent and chaos.
Matthew 11:29-30
29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Dear Lord, Life is hard and we are faced with tough situations day by day....Teach us to accept you as our chief negotiator, our chief planner, our chief delagator, our chief leader and most of all our chief advocate....I know your desire is to help us to see how much easier our lives would be...if we depended on You and not ourselves. For you are with us each day available to fill us with faith and hope and a continued sense of worth. For it is "easy enough" for you to "love us enough" to help us to "be enough" to make a difference in your kingdom and for your glory....we just have to allow you the gift of being present....and real. Amen
Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!
www.cathyjodeit.com
email address: cjodeit@gmail.com
The blog link below has all devotionals from the beginning of the year:
http://simplygod-cathy.blogspot.com/
Thursday, September 2, 2010
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