On Saturdays I take only 5 minutes to write. Trying to free myself from editing and preplanning. Just writing what the Spirit leads me to write. Try it.
Prayer:
Lord help me to convey what You want to be heard. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.
Itchy Ears
We were blessed to travel to Arizona for the winter months. Clear sunny days, great friends, time to relax, write, read and paint. In the spring, however, my allergies started. Itchy eyes and sneezing – even breathing problems.
This got me thinking about itchiness. Sometimes I get a notion about something and plunge right in. I scratch it right away. And this can lead to pain. Even in my writing I get edgy and worried about what I am going to write.
Instead I need to take time, pray and listen to what God wants me to write – not what my readers want to read but what He wants me to say.
I remember the Scripture about itchy ears. (I did take time to look this up.)
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3).
Sometimes it is not always the best time to do something; we need to be prepared and our hearts need to be ready as well.
Many thoughts roll through my head. But my time is up. That’s it for my rambling this Saturday.
What do you think about scratching before thinking what that might do? Or jumping in before you have thought something through or prayed for wisdom. Please comment and feel free to add your blog link if you have written about plunging in… before prayer.
And by the way – I did pray – before plunging into this Simply Saturday.
I’m thinking there are so many ways to look at this one. As one who sometimes is too cautious, I find it comforting knowing God is able to handle wrong turns. But I’m also painfully aware of the times I’ve charged right in to something and then had to suffer the consequences. All part of the learning curve, I guess.
And as for itching ears–I hear ya. Never before has it been easier to plug into your own little self-centred broadcast and tune everything else out, including the voice of God. But we do that to our own peril. May God raise up courageous individuals who are not afraid to speak the truth in love, and cause them to rise, like cream, to the top. May people just get weary of being lied to and desire to hear God’s Word, whatever the cost.
Plunging in without thinking has led to many a mistake in my life. Reaching out to God before acting is what is so hard for me to do now. But I keep trying.. Maybe I’ll break through.