living and learning
/Last week I was sitting in a Brian Houston concert and he started singing the song “How He loves us.” I had heard this song many times before, but this one line of the song really punched me in the gut… “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about the way He loves.”
The past few weeks I had been stuck in a cycle of regretting things maybe I should have done, or maybe things I shouldn’t have done. And when we get into that cyclic headspace of should have would have could have, it is quite paralyzing and debilitating. It removes you totally from the active blessing and opportunity of your present and paralyzes you from stepping into the promises in your future. If we want to see God’s amazing promises and plans to unfold in our lives, and be able to identify them right now in the present, we really don’t have TIME to maintain regrets nor does God want us too. So stop it! (In absolute love I say that…)
Leave your past in the past and be in your present.
Okay but then when we manage to leave the past, all of a sudden we want the future. We want to run as fast forward as possible. But then we miss the present… Face palm.
Be in your present instead of wishing for your future. OR else you just miss life entirely because in every stage of life there is a flavor of “waiting” and anticipation for what is to come… Don’t be distracted by the wait.
I once had a friend named Angela Jones… actually she’s still my friend haha—and she once told me this: “You won’t get to your next season until you learn what God is teaching you in this one.”
The day after Brian Houston’s concert, over a delicious lunch in Calgary, Alberta I was ranting to Angela about all of the things that I wanted—right NOW! Haha aggressive, I know. I just wanted so badly to get to what was next… it felt as if I was in a season of transition, in between, a “not-yet” season, a waiting season…
“You won’t get to your next season until you learn what God is teaching you in this one.”
So this challenged me to really take my focus from the past, and from the future and bring it into to the now, more specifically to God, right now, and what he was saying, teaching, guiding, directing for RIGHT NOW. Not even for tomorrow, or a few hours by now, but right in this very moment. And then started carrying that into each moment.
When you intentionally seek God and open yourself up to him, quieting distractions, and disciplining yourself so that all decisions to your best effort are made to be more fully aligned with Him, clarity comes, wisdom comes, knowledge comes.
So the learning continues… this past weekend I found myself in California for some work meetings and events. I walk into the first event and the band is playing, you guessed it, “How he loves” … God is so cool like that. He will continue to remind us of what he is saying and what he is teaching us. And get this, the guy singing stops the song to talk about the line, “I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way He loves.”
All the praise hands emoji’s.
So then Eric Samuel Timm gets up with a pre-word before his actual message haha and talks about the concept of the alter throughout Scripture.
The alter is a place of sacrifice, where something dies. God’s Word tells us that we must die to ourselves, our flesh, our earthly, selfish and momentary desires in order to become a new person fully alive in His image, goodness, Spirit, power and strength.
For me it was a reminder that you can’t live a certain way, and expect your life to be a different way… if that makes any sense. If we want what God has for us, we have to walk his way and not our own. Sometimes it requires us giving up momentary satisfaction for a long-term and lasting life of fullness and purpose.
If we are depending on ourselves for fulfillment, or the world, or even just people around us, we aren’t going to be full. But if we look to God as our source we will overflow with more than enough. Where are we looking?
My adventure continues. I drive 2 hours to San Diego to meet a girl that I have never met before, but she is a well known communicator who speaks to thousands of women about where to find true purpose and love—In God. We had connected over social media just a week prior, and I had mentioned I was coincidently going to be in California that weekend, so she suggested we meet up. I was driving to San Diego in the WORST traffic of all time, passed 3 accidents as I was venturing down the California coast, and I was thinking to myself. Why the HECK am I driving all the way to San Diego in this horrible traffic and blistering heat, I could be laying on the beach getting bronzed and and we could just Skype later… Jus’ being honest lol.
I arrived at their young adults church service and met Brittni right away—you know those people you instantly click with? I knew why I drove two hours in traffic… Brittni was one of those people for me. Just to meet her, connect with her, and now be forever friends and sisters, is worth the world. Connection with God and people is everything.
Then her husband starts speaking a message and it’s entitled, “The power of your BEEN THROUGH.”
I instantly knew, this is also why I have driven two hours.
“Your been through, sets up your breakthrough.”
The fact that you’ve been through something means you are on the other side, or at minimum it has not defeated you. It’s our been through that stretches us, grows us, matures us, and those lessons, that growing time is what brings us to our breakthrough of newness, growth in character, new revelation, strength, wisdom, and discernment to carry into our present and future.
“We overcome by sharing our been through”
The enemy will try and shut you up from talking about anything you’ve been through. Do you know why? Because it points to the fact that he couldn’t defeat you with it. He didn’t win. You’re through it and you’re actually stronger for it.
And talking about it eliminates his power over you and others. Other people realize that their been through can become a breakthrough too.
“There are two options in life: You can be determined that your confession will always be positively impacting your circumstance, or you can allow your circumstance to negatively affect your confession (and then life sucks)”
Which you choose will result in leading two very different lives. One is bringing into reality the promises of God, declaring them consistently and unwaveringly over every circumstance, and the other is choosing to allow our perhaps less than perfect circumstances to confess things not of God, not of his promises, not of faith and hope… in other words, we actually end up declaring lies over our lives. Let’s not do that!
So this may be the longest blog I’ve ever written. But I wanted to share it in it’s entirety to show you as an example of how God is working in our experiences, he is speaking to us, leading us and it’s up to us if we open ourselves up to listen and to follow. And I promise, the choice to always be intentional in listening and following is the most life giving choice you can make.
Love you,
Ash
