For us to Arise & Shine in 2020, we will be examining many inputs to get our desired out put of Arising and Shining! As I mentioned in a previous blog, we Christian women need to pursue order in our lives and not balance! We see plenty of evidence in the bible about order and not balance. One great example for us to emulate is when the Israelites were delivered from Egypt. Before they could enter the Promise Land, God gave them His order for life! As we are endeavouring to go into our ‘promise lands’ we also need to get God’s order in our lives also! Why? God, being our Creator, knows best how his creation should work. The ‘manual’ for how we can have our best life is the bible!
To get our lives in order, I have summarized what I call the 3 S’s to order. Seek. Submit. Soar.
3 S’s to get order = Seek. Submit. Soar.
Seek
We have to seek out what God’s order should be for our life. Thankfully, we don’t have to guess what should be first. Matt 6:33 is clear.
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
So, we must put God first (His kingdom & His righteousness) and then we will be given other things as well. We have to ask ourselves and God if we are truly doing this. Take an inventory of your life and seek God through prayer asking for help to uncover the true order of your life! Some things may be obviously out of order but other things could be hidden. The Holy Spirit will show you what is hidden if you ask Him.
Submit
We need to submit our lives to God’s order so that we can Arise & Shine. We need to make changes to our lifestyle to put God first in our lives. For me, as a busy solo parent, this meant that I needed to change the time of the day when I spent time with God. If I tried to study the Word at night, I would fall asleep! So I had to change the time to early morning ….before my children woke up. 5:00am. This was not an easy change for me, but it has been worth it. It also meant that I had to go to bed much earlier. I used to use some time in the night for relaxing, alone time. I have had to shift this time to the early morning now! I don’t regret the change. My days flow much better now that I practise this. What changes do you need to make in your life to put God first? Begin to make the changes today!
Soar
Lastly, we will soar when we seek God and submit our lives to Him! Aim to seek Him daily so that you will hope in Him and He will renew your strength! Which mother, doesn’t need daily strength!? God goes on to tell us in Isaiah 40:31 that those who hope in Him will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint! This is music to my ears! Did you know that Eagles know how to climb high into the air without working too hard! They can do this without ever flapping their wings. How? They use a technique called thermal soaring. Birds can find hot, rising pockets of air and use the currents to stay aloft, and fly higher! Ladies, we have to stop flapping continuously (we don’t have the energy to do it) and seek out our ‘heat’ source and free, energy saving lift, so that we can rise higher and soar! Once we are soaring, we will then have more time and energy to begin the 3 S’s again and again and again. Blessed soaring!