Monday Morning Memo: Make It Count

In last week’s blog post, I talked about trusting our Jesus, even when life doesn’t make sense.  I wrote:

“So what do we do when life isn’t what we bargained for?  We trust.  Not in ourselves, or our family, or our employer, or our all-important tech giant.  We trust in the One who created us.  The One who knows the number of hairs on our head.  The One who loves us more than we can even imagine.  The One who loves our spouse, our children, our friends…even more than we do.  The One who was nailed to a tree, so that we could spend eternity with Him.  The One whose plan for us is perfect, even if it doesn’t make sense to us.  The One who is our Jesus.”

At the same time that Jesus was laying this on my heart, a friend of mine posted a link to an article written by Bronwyn Lea entitled, One Little Word That Radically Changed My Prayers.  WOW.  This writer’s words really shook me to the core.  If you haven’t read Bronwyn’s thoughts, I highly recommend that you do.  If you have read them, I highly recommend that you read them again!  I have read them over and over in the past week, and I am working really hard at using her idea in my daily life.  You can find it at http://bronlea.com/2013/08/06/one-little-word-that-radically-changed-my-prayers/.    

To give you just a short synopsis, this woman came to the conclusion that when she prayed, instead of praying “God, make it better”, she needed to start praying, “God, make it count”.  I so needed to read her words and they really stopped me in my tracks.  I realized that many of my prayers have been asking my Jesus to just “make it better”…or “make it easier”…or “make it just how I think things should be”.  Instead, I need to be praying that what I am going through, will count for HIS glory.  I should ask for Him to make it count for eternity so that my witness of His faithfulness, day in and day out, will make others want to know my Jesus.

I have really tried this past week to trust my Jesus when things didn’t make sense. Instead of badgering Him to take away my current health condition, I have tried to pray for Him to make it count in light of eternity.  Honestly, I haven’t succeeded every day, but I think I did better and hopefully in this next week, I will trust my Jesus even more and will let Him lead me wherever will bring Him glory.

Some of Bronwyn’s final words were, “God, now that I think about it, please don’t just make it better. Not if it doesn’t count.”  Again…WOW.  I’m not there yet…but I’m sure working on it.

What are you going through today?  Are you also just nagging Jesus over and over again to take away your current health problem…or work situation…or family issue?  Why not try something different this week and ask Him to make your problems count…for eternity…and for HIS glory?  What do you have to lose?

  

 “Act like people with good sense and not like fools.

These are evil times, so make every minute count.

Don’t be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do.”

Ephesians 5:15-17 (Contemporary English Version)