Over the last few days I’ve been having trouble trying to think of what blog I should write before Christmas. This morning while I was in the shower it hit me (like it usually does) that there is something I have grown wise in over the last few months and I’d like to share it!
I just finalized plans to be back in Nashville for Christmas. It’s exciting to come back home and it’s always a good time to step back and celebrate what God is doing in my life and the people around me and what a better time than the new year to do this!
I’ll have to admit though, it does feel a bit strange. I still feel like I have a foot in two different places, the States and Europe. Sometimes I can go back and forth trying to figure out why I feel this way. Why I don’t quite feel fully invested. Or why I don’t feel 100% confident in calling somewhere my home. I can’t help but think these are normal feelings. I could rationalize them by saying it’s just because I don’t have a my visa yet, or haven’t started a family, or don’t have a 40hr work week schedule. I always feel more home in Spain because that’s where I spend most of my time, but sometimes my feelings make me question.
If you’re wondering why I’m continually italicizing the word “feel” or “feelings” it’s because in reality our feelings shouldn’t dictate our purpose or our explanation of why we are where we are in our lives and for that matter neither should our circumstances. It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve realized how much circumstances and emotions actually take over my thought life. But this isn’t God’s will. He doesn’t look at us or treat us based on our emotions or circumstances and if we claim to see what our father sees this should be true of us as well.
Here are some tips that I’ve seen cure my double-mindedness and help me stay invested regardless of feelings or circumstances:
1. Prayer is Not Prophecy…Know the Difference
There are a lot of beliefs about prophecy and sometimes it tends to have a negatives context but in it’s simplest form it means to speak something into existence. For Christians it always mean speaking life and the promises of God. I was teaching the other morning and realized that it’s not easy to prophecy over our own lives, It’s easy to pray and ask God for things or thank him, or even prophecy over other’s lives but just because God wants to do something and you are asking him to do it doesn’t mean it will happen. We have to take initiative and speak things out because God wants to partner with us not just use us.
There will come a time when you are alone no one will be around to remind you of what God has said. This is why learning to prophecy over our own lives is so important. If we don’t we will find ourselves being lead by emotions and circumstances not God’s promises.
2. Make Commitments
Many people are afraid of this and find themselves frozen in fear wondering what the will of God is for their lives. I can’t help but think that there are a lot of choices I’ve made in the past that God cared a lot less about than me…even big ones! Pslam 34 says “commit your way to the Lord and he will act”. If you’re waiting for God to act before you commit remember that it’s not what Abraham did when God told him to “go to a land that I will show you”, it’s not what Paul did when stopped on his way to Macedonia, and it’s not what Christ commissioned to do when he said “go to all the world making…”. We have a good Father that makes straight our paths when we love him first.
When I have doubted my path the most, it’s the commitments I’ve made (apartment rental, english teaching, volunteering at church) to those around me that have held me from entertaining thoughts that life might be different or better somewhere else.
3. Ask Yourself This Question
If you know where you want to be in 1,5,10 years, what are you doing now that will get you there, or that you see your self doing then? If the answer is nothing then you probably won’t see any of your dreams happen. Look at the basics. If you want to pastor a church of 1,000 people who are you discipling now? If you want to do mission work one day, what missionary are you supporting now? If you want to be in a band are you practicing regularly?
Asking myself this question I’ve realized how much double-mindedness causes me to look at the future with comparison and envy trying to make things happen, while Kingdom-mindedness looks at it with preparation and originality knowing that God will give me the desires of my heart.
4. Be Faithful and Delight in the Small Things
If you pray for all the churches to unite in the city and during one prayer meeting it’s just you and a 70 year old woman intercessor for 2 hours, enjoy it and realize that God doesn’t work under a democracy. If you come to a ministry expecting to play with kids and you end up laying bricks for a future orphanage don’t forget that God is the one that gave you the desire in the first place. He wants things more than you and your intimacy with him is his first priority. If we can’t be happy with what we have we won’t be happy when we have what we have because it was never about we have do don’t have.
5. Just Love the People Around You
I have many times found myself in a situation where I was thinking “this isn’t what I came here to do” or “I could have done this if I just stayed at home”. You are never around anyone in life by accident. Even if something doesn’t seem like your ministry or your type of people remember Jesus commanded us to love others based on his love for us not our calling or desires. Recognize that while you might not be doing your dream you are probably helping with someone else’s. Through this I’ve realized how low on my list of priorities ministry falls and how many more ministry opportunities I have toward my dreams when I just love people because they deserve to be loved.
What's God's Point? 
Boom. Mind blown, this is exactly where I have been lately and some of the same things God has been speaking to me.