8/28/24
Have you ever had a time in your life where things just seemed to stop? Maybe you were serving in your church in a particular area, and they did away with that program. Or maybe it was a situation where the program itself didn’t stop, but God told YOU to stop? I’ve experienced the former many times in my life. And it usually wasn’t just one thing that I was involved in that stopped. It seemed like it was everything; like God had taken my basket of activities and volunteerism and my ministry and dumped it all out. I know He has a very specific purpose for doing this each time, but the first time I experienced it, it was very painful. Mainly because I didn’t know WHY it was happening. I thought I had done something wrong, and He was pulling me out of the game. But what I found was that He wanted to create enough space in my life to take inventory on the things I was doing and see if it aligned with what He wanted me to be doing. And the foremost thing He wanted me to be giving time and attention to was to growing in my relationship with Him. I’ve even heard pastors who were preaching in their respective churches each Sunday say they were dry spiritually and they felt far away from God. We can get so busy doing good things for God that we forget to that to be near God is for our best good. That’s what Psalm 73:28 says. There are good things, and then there are God things.
In regard to the latter – where God told you to stop an activity or activities – this has been my personal experience over the last 12 months. It began when I felt the Lord telling me it was time to step down from the Worship Leader position, I had held for the past 15+ years. What in the world? At this point, being the Worship Leader for Merry Ministries has become part of my identity. That’s how a lot of people know me or identify me when we meet for the first time. But God was telling me it was time to sit down. None of it made sense. Everything was going beautifully…and easy. I was using my giftings for His kingdom purposes. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing? The Bible says that we’re to use our gifts to promote the common good of the body of Christ and to build up the church for faith and knowledge of the Son of God – that’s Ephesians 4:12-13. We are to use our gifts to glorify God and serve others. So…what’s up with that God? That’s what I’ve joyfully been doing for all these years.
In fact, what I kept reminding Him was that since Brian died 7 years ago, I’ve never been more sure about His calling on my life. Knowing that it was a great privilege to lead His beautiful daughters into worship. Such a privilege. And I feel like He taught me how to handle that privilege carefully. So, why tell me to stop? There are other things that shifted as well, not just leading worship. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I know Life Coaching is my sweet spot. It’s exactly what I’ve been designed to do. Everything I’ve experienced in my life leads to Life Coaching. Even my top five strengths corroborate this – Catalyst: Motivating by influencing, Storyteller: Motivating by communication, Believer: Doing with value and integrity, Deliverer: Doing with commitment, and of course Coach. Ever since I found Life Coaching and began to build my business, I’ve been gang busters. Hard work, lots of effort, and lots of serving people just because. I’ve had a full calendar of clients, and I loved every minute of it.
But this year, God has been orchestrating things to make me slow down. I can’t figure this one out either. I’m made for this. I’ve been molded and prepared just for this. What in the world is happening?
You know one thing I love about God is that He doesn’t mind all the questions. You can ask Him anything and He doesn’t get upset or frustrated or fed up. In fact, James 1, verse 5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.” So, just as promised, my asking brought wisdom.
Because that’s when some dots began to get connected. In Bible study at my church, we were studying Exodus, and we had come to Chapter 31 that spells out the Sabbath Law given to Moses for the people. As a covenant sign between God and the people of Israel so that they would know that God would sanctify them. Verse 15 say, “Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord.” They were to rest on the seventh day of each week. God began to speak to me about Sabbath rest, and I was reminded that God also called His people to observe the Sabbatical YEAR.
Are you familiar with the Sabbatical Year? First, I find it interesting that these instructions to follow the Sabbatical year in Leviticus 25 was to be observed after the Israelites moved into the Promised Land. Okay, so let’s remember that they are now living in a beautiful, spacious, safe place flowing with milk and honey, as God told them in Leviticus 20:24. It was the place God has set aside for them to inhabit after being forced from their homes in Israel to be slaves to Pharoah, and then finally to be rescued from exile in Egypt. It was the place they got to start afresh with a promise of God by their side. The place they were in was new and good. It was another beautiful life.
The Sabbatical year included a command by God that the Israelites observe a rest for the land with no sowing seeds in the field or pruning the vineyard. Leviticus 25:1-7 says, “Speak to the people of Israel, and say to them, “When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits. But in the 7th year, there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyards.””
The seventh year. My jaw dropped a little here. It has been seven years this month, August 5th to be exact, when I had to learn to live another beautiful life. Seven years. I see now that these past 12 months have been my Sabbatical Year. Again, a year where sowing seeds halts and gathering from the vineyard ceases. My “Land” – and I’m doing air quotes with my hands (I wish you could see me) – Is my full life. It’s my work, my ministry, my relationship, my time, and effort, and activity. And God is telling me to halt, to stop. “Do not sow seeds. Get quiet. Rest. Withdraw a bit. Remove yourself from center stage. And if you’re not going to do it willingly, then I’ll sit you down Myself.”
The sad thing is, even as God is telling me to rest, I’ve been trying all this time to figure things out. Like, I’ve been all stirred up trying to understand things. I mentioned this to my daughter, and she said, “Mom, it would be a shame to be called to a season of rest just to find out you never rested because you were so worried about resting.” True. Too true. And such wisdom in that young lady.
Anyway, I think I finally am surrendering to God’s rest for my “land” – again, air quotes. But listen, it’s a battle of the mind, for sure. I’m battling my old performance-based value wounds, needing to be doing something, labeled as something, so that I have worth. The desire to be loved and accepted by the world is strong in the human soul. But fighting with the truth is worth it to live in the freedom of God’s opinion of me and not what I do or don’t do.
Now, here’s the next step that He invited me to take. There were more instructions added to the Sabbatical Year that we find in Deuteronomy 15. God said that at the end of every seven years they were to grant a release, to forgive all debts and release all servants and slaves. This is when my jaw dropped. This is when I knew God was undoubtedly speaking to me through His words in the Bible, teaching me about my life.
Because, over the summer, I joined a book study with some ladies from my church and we were meeting in different homes. We were given the opportunity to choose from several books to study, but I wanted to choose based on location of the home we’d be gathering in. So, the closest one to my house was studying a book on forgiveness. Total Forgiveness by R.T. Kendall. I thought, I don’t have any issues with unforgiveness, but it’ll be good to just be with the other ladies. So, I went. And listen, God knew exactly what He was doing directing me to that book.
As it was coinciding with learning more about the Sabbatical Year, it hit me that at the end of every seven years they were to grant a release, to forgive all debts and release all servants and slaves. Right? At the end of the seventh year. I was at the end of my seventh year, exactly. So it was a time of release – to forgive all debts. First, there really is only one person who actually owes me money that he borrowed from my husband before he died. Why he refuses to repay that debt is beyond my understanding. They were close friends. I don’t understand. I just can’t. But this man didn’t even come to mind when I first thought about forgiving all debts. So, if it’s not money owed to me, what would be owed to me? Ah, there it was. When someone hurts you, it’s easy to think, “They owe me.” So they become indebted to us, even if they don’t know it. But we can carry that around. “They owe me.”
So, I began to make a list of all the people who had hurt me, whether that be big or small. I literally started with my childhood – listing something my grandfather said that was hurtful, or my sibling, or even my parents – even if they didn’t mean to. I thought about a kid in elementary school that made fun of me, some girls in 8thgrade that bullied me, High School – ugh – the mean girl in church that likes to hurt people for fun – wait let me clarify, the mean adult woman in church that likes to hurt people for fun, and on and on that list went. What I realized was that all these little hurts add up. And if there’s not intentional forgiveness, we carry them around with us unaware. Now, my grandfather is long passed away, but I can still forgive him. The 8th grade girls, who even knows where they are today. But I can forgive them. And then the Lord revealed one biggie that I wasn’t letting go. Oh, I thought I had taken care of it and put it behind me. But apparently, no, because I thought this person still owed me…something. “Tricia, I’m so sorry I treated you that way. It was careless and irresponsible of me. I was very wrong. I should walk in shame for the rest of my life.” That’s how I knew I hadn’t really forgiven. This person owed me. But God is saying that we must release our debts, and this was a debt that needed to go. So I went down that list, one by one, and forgave them and released them from anything I thought they still owed me based on past hurt. I had done it. At the end of the seventh year, no debts were owed me. Not even the literal monetary debt that I was now remembering. I let him go free, too.
But notice that the command was to also release any slaves at that time. Ironically, I was the “slave” that was released.
So, friend, if you find yourself in this space, it’s not necessarily because you’ve done something wrong. It’s for your freedom and continued healing and spiritual growth! So be sure to rest, and quiet yourself enough to hear what God is trying to tell you. He’s only got your good in mind, and again, He knows what the most important thing is. So anytime God sits you down, know that it’s for your own stinkin’ good and for His glory.
Hey, if this is you, too, and you feel like God has sat you down, it can be confusing. And you may just need a little help working through it all. Well, I’d love to be your life coach and give you the tools to experience this season with calmed assurance that you’re in the right place. I have a few openings for life coaching coming up this fall – and we can see if we’re a good fit with a quick 30-minute chat. The link for the free consult is in the show notes.
Also, don’t forget to get the free, downloadable guide that will help you work through this topic on your own. That link is in the show notes also.
Have a wonderful week, friends. See you next Wednesday for the next episode of Another Beautiful Life.
SHOW NOTES:
Have you ever experienced a time in your life when your activities, or ministry opportunities, or even your work just stopped? Or maybe you’ve experienced a time when God asked YOU to stop. Sometimes it feels like God is sitting us down. It can be confusing, but God always has a good reason.
This past 12 months has been like that for me, and I invite you to hear the story of this time of rest.
Are you wondering how Life Coaching works? Would you like a free, 30-minute session? Click this link to set up a Consult Call: https://calendly.com/triciazodylifecoach/30min
Get the free, printable guide here: www.triciazody.com/guide
Comentários