As any parent will tell you, silence is rare and golden. I am not saying that I don’t enjoy my kids because I do, but I also enjoy waking up and having a few quiet minutes before being “mom.” Sometimes though it doesn’t happen and I have had to learn to carve out quiet time elsewhere. Why you may ask, is this such a big deal?
I have been doing a study of 2 Timothy (which I highly recommend) and this is what God has impressed on my heart over the last several weeks: God has called me for a purpose (2 Tim. 2:21). I will lose sight of that purpose or miss when God calls me to do specific things within this calling if I do not guard this calling with the Holy Spirit (2 Tim. 1:14).
He can not correct, guide, and empower me if I am not taking time to listen; stop the inner dialog, and focus on the higher dialogue. Ideally, this happens in those early moments but sometimes it happens after dropping off a kid at their activity, watering my flowers, or cooking dinner.
This is when God confirms my calling to love my students the way He loves them, this is when he shows me how to make decisions like Him. This is when he renews my passion to help others “obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:10.) This is when my heart can cry “Abba, Father,” otherwise translated as the irreverent “Dad” instead of Lord (Romans 8:15).
I encourage you to find silence to listen to Dad. He has a calling on your life too (2 Tim. 2:21). I would love to hear what that calling is and how you guard this calling in your life.
2 Timothy 1:14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
2 Timothy 2:21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
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Thank you, Kristi. God is helping me guard those precious moments with Him. I prayed over my diminishing time spent in His Word. He began waking me early, sometimes very early, every morning for the past 2 1/2 months. I have found a new 2 hours a day to read, pray, write, study, meditate, and intercede. I am publishing my daily devotionals on Facebook, and have asked God to use them to encourage others. From the feedback I receive on fb, but also in messages snd conversations, He is doing just that. I have almost completed the Old Testament, and can’t wait to start the New.
My ministerial calling is definitely recovery ministry. That is still unfolding as circumstances out of my control will alter that calling. I get hints, or I hear whispers of a direction that recovery ministry might go, but then it takes an entirely different direction or seems stalled somewhat. I answer those nudges as best I can in the way that I feel so led, but because I don’t do the recovery, God does, then I have to be cautious and patient, hopefully being led by the Holy Spirit and not my own fleshly spirit that in the past has tended to try to run ahead of God. I have lived long enough to know that if the work is of God, it will bring good fruit and eternal results. I guard this calling by working on my own recovery–a 12-step program, being with recovery people, attending recovery meetings, praying with and helping people on their recovery roads and accountability.
My other calling is a joyous, blessed and tiring one, that of being “Grandma!” I must guard this one by checking myself that my grandchildren do not become idols. I love them so much! I’ve never known a love like this, so when they call, I jump! Sometimes in my urge to help them (and their parents) in some way, I drop all else and run to them or for them. Thus, I want to make sure that I am not enabling or meddling where I shouldn’t. I want them to know that the love I have for them comes from the Lord, and they are just about the best thing that’s ever happened to me, but they cannot be first place in my heart, and sometimes even on my schedule. I must also guard the agenda, but it is God that orders my steps.