he who keeps you will not slumber…Psalm 121:3
During an intense basketball competition I must constantly be engaged in the battle, because if I check out for even a moment or dwell on a mistake I made in the game I am not able to stay in the competition. Living in the past, dwelling on the mistakes that we’ve made will keep us ineffective in the battles we face for today. Friend, truly, each day has its own troubles. Why worry about the troubles of yesterday or even moments ago?
Sometimes I have a hard time seeing and understanding what God is doing in my life. My heart loses focuses on the daily bread that He has given me for today because I’m just still so mad about what happened yesterday. I’m not engaged in the battle because I’m dwelling on the past. I’ve lost my focus and I’ve given ground to the enemy to fill my thoughts with deep discouragement and disappointment.
There are nights when I get home from a difficult basketball game when I have a hard time shutting my thoughts off. I keep going over the mistakes I made in the game. Instead of accepting them and living at peace with them, I lack the ability to be at rest because I can’t let go of what I didn’t do perfectly.
Earlier this season, during an extremely intense, high stakes match up I had a thought that ran through my mind, “This is too much pressure.” Friend, life can be like that, cant it? But if we are walking closely with God, in step with His spirit and holding fast to His joy than the pressures of life simply become agents of love to press us into His joy and rest in the Shepherd’s field of His love.
As this thought flashed through my mind I simply told myself, “Heather, stay engaged in the battle and accept your mistakes.”
Friend, that’s all we can do. Accept our mistakes, learn from them and stay engaged in the battle. God is working, so stop trying so hard to accomplish something for Him. Instead, rest in Him. Let Him do the work and take your hand off the wheel.
There are moments, in the game, when I start to officiate for the people around me, but that is absolutely fleeting. Friend, don’t you see, we have an audience of one. Live sacrificially for Him today and realize that your battle is already one, so don’t live so defeated in it.
Lord, you hold all things together and I have the victory through Christ. Be my joy and hiding place today. Be my source of strength, in Jesus name, Amen.
Heather Quiroz 