How to get back in the game when you’ve given up {Day 34}
If you are following along with the 31+ days of Trust, we need to recalibrate.
I got messed up on Day 33 and I’m SO sorry if I messed you up too! If you are confused, the best thing to do is go to the main Trust page and use that as your guide. Just click through to each day.
It actually worked out that I messed up because we are going to spend 2 days on Day 34’s concept. So Day 33 is actually part one of Day 34, and Day 34 is part two. Make sense? (Again, if you are royally confused, refer to The Trust Experience main page. So sorry!)
Okay, here goes!
Day 34
1. The Bread: Read John 19:1-16
2. The Devo: Read Day 34 in Trust Without Borders
3. The Plunge: Today I’d like to continue where we left off yesterday. Did you identify areas in your life where you’ve quit because things got too hard?
You can get back in the game, you know. We can quit quitting.
So let’s look at how we do this. How do we stop taking the easy road and go down into the hard plains where the enemy lives and fight for our possession?
Turn in your Bible to I Chronicles 28. Scripture describes Solomon as being young, inexperienced, and not capable of building a structure magnificent enough for God’s dwelling place. (I Chronicles 22:5)
So how did he pull it off? Read I Chronicles 28:10:
“Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work.”
I Chronicles 28:10
Yes, that’s it. Young and inexperienced Solomon was charged with…chosen for... an epic task: build an amazing, Â glorious sanctuary worthy of the One True God.
David counseled his son by reminding him he was chosen by God for the task. We begin our own glorious work, our own hard wins, our own messy days by always remembering we have been chosen for the task.
Sure, the task is epic. It is hard. We are insufficient. But we have been chosen for this.
God rejected David for the job of building the temple. David, a man after God’s own heart was not chosen to build the magnificent dwelling place for God.
Young and inexperienced Solomon was.
Right now, jot down those things you know God has chosen you for. Â What tasks has He given you? Put all excuses and reasons and obstacles aside and just list the tasks God has chosen you for.
“Be strong and do the work.”
After reminding Solomon of his call, seasoned David– who’d once been a boy who took up sling and stone, who was courageous enough to face his giant–Â told his son Solomon, “Be strong and do the work. You are chosen for this job. The Lord will never leave you. Now do it.”
We can’t be afraid of hard work. Possessing the land God has for us is going to take mental strength and hard work.
Oh yes, there’s this too: The plan. “Then David gave to his son Solomon the plan of the porch of the temple, its buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms and the room for the mercy seat.”
Solomon completed the task by following the plan. Most things we don’t stumble into. We need a plan to get there.
So it’s time for us to develop our plan. Maybe it is to print off a weekly menu sheet and fill it out. Or start an exercise program. Or write 30 minutes of language study into the schedule.
Solomon built that temple brick by brick. Tedious, insignificant, small work. Nothing noble here.
But over time, it’s the seed that brings the harvest.
It’s the small and insignificant that hold untold potential.
When staring at the big, the downright overwhelming, and you don’t know where to start, just take the next step. Plant a seed. Brush the next stroke. Write the next sentence. Forgive the last wrongdoing. Cook the next meal. Offer the next prayer.
Do the next thing.
And when you aren’t sure what the next thing is, sit down and get God’s blueprint.
Plan your work and work your plan.Â
It’s the way of Kings.
“Then David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and courageous, and act; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.”
Let’s take our land, friends. Let’s build our temple.
What an excellent post to read Monday morning. I needed to hear this today. My paper copy of the book came in the mail, so I will be doing some catch up with the online.
I needed this! I hate making plans. My husband is the planner and he has always tried to get me to plan with him, or even just plan out my day for myself. But maybe, just maybe, you have convinced me with these Scriptures and your encouraging words that plans are necessary for the work God has planned for me–mostly being a daughter of the King, a wife, a mother. I have a question though– above in this day 34 there is a link with the sentence “most things we don’t stumble into, we need a plan to get there” but the link no longer works. Do you know/ remember what that was for? I am very curious, perhaps this was a book or resource I so need to learn how to plan?? Thank you, my dear fellow sister in Christ.