Happy New Year Friends!
Last week I shared a new blog post called I Get To Choose and just like Holy Spirit does, He has started to add to the thought. This morning I was reading my devotional from I HEAR HIS WHISPER and this last sentence made me pause and re-read… take it in.. breathe it in. “It is more than a choice; it is courage that must fill your heart as you look upon the horizon with faith. Never fear what is to come, for I am the One who was, who is, and who is to come!”
Isn’t it just like Holy Spirit to work in layers? Precept upon precept… layering on and trimming away at the old me. I think we’ve all experienced the pruning season of fall/winter. I know I have been through a season of letting go and pruning like never before.
While my friend Cheryl was here visiting me just before Christmas, she kept bringing me over to my war torn, gangly plant. She kept pointing out how it needed pruning, where I should ‘make the CUT and let it make a come back’ And each time I shook my head and refused to even hear of it. I was so focused on its former beauty – BTM- (before the move) and what it had just been through. You see, BTM it was full and filled the space and I gladly took little new starts and transplanted them to new pots. I even gifted them as presents. But now it was struggling to make its come-back. This plant had been through a huge move across states; left its big sunny window and got pushed into temporary housing with north facing windows, barely getting enough light and attention to keep it alive. So NO, I didn’t want to traumatize the remaining plant anymore by hacking off the biggest surviving branch. ( If you’re thinking this plant is my symbolic self – you’re absolutely right! ) Honestly, I was pretty offended by the mere suggestion of pruning. (LOL) All I heard was “JUST CUT IT OFF” and I could NOT hear it without wincing inside. So back to the new layers thing…It’s more than a CHOICE… it takes COURAGE! It takes COURAGE to keep trimming away. Trimming away means I am focused on the NEW GROWTH, means I TRUST in the NEW PLAN to be even better than the old one. Courage sometimes (ok, usually) means becoming more vulnerable than we are comfortable with. It also usually has to do with TRUTH. Speaking and Hearing Truth. First and foremost to and from ourselves. Which spiritually means getting into AGREEMENT with God. The root word for Courage is COR. The Latin definition means ‘HEART’. Although it has evolved, it originally was defined as ‘to speak one’s mind by telling and giving all one’s heart’. What a picture of Christ’s love for us.
There is a time for everything and certainly the Lord is preparing our CORE with COURAGE for what He is up to next! He is on the throne and is worthy of our Greatest COURAGE. COURAGE that will take us further than we’ve gone and make us stronger than we could ever imagine.
"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace".Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Happy New Year 2023 !
Lisa Creed- Good News Coach
“Life and Small Business Coaching From A Biblical “Good News” Perspective. “
Good News Coaching 