A Happy Captive

Something that Jimmy brought up in his retreat on the principle of 'work' was how important it is to allow our work to become prayer, to unite all we do with Jesus and allow Him to sanctify our work. 

The next day the First Reading was Acts 20:17-27, and I was particularly struck by verse 22/24:
"And now, as captive to the Spirit, I am on my way...not knowing what will happen to me...But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Good News of God's Grace."
Since then, one of my daily prayers has been:

"Come Holy Spirit, take me captive so I can't help but follow where You lead and do what You ask of me today!"

And the Spirit definitely has! We've been on some great adventures together lately 😊 
The Spirit has led me to be open and vulnerable, and 'weak proudly' as I mentioned in my last post. 
The Spirit has inspired me to lead our St Cath's staff in a childish activity for morning prayer.
Together we've mingled with more students, beat Yr 9's at line tag, taught 15ish giggling girls about how cool the Trinity is, had deep conversations with staff members, and been OK with being alone. We've had morning walks with Jesus, created a whole school Amazing Race and been inspired to share my testimony. 

I know I still have many things I can improve on - but I have been loving my work lately!! 
You'd think being a captive would be frustrating and diminishing, but the Holy Spirit is the gentlest captor! I've felt so joyful and free 😊

Prayer is powerful! I often forget to offer my work to the Lord, but handy tip; that prayer above is now written on a note on my desktop, so whenever I switch on my laptop, that's the first thing I see, and I'm reminded to stop and pray.

By praying that prayer, I am being open, and actively discerning each day what God is asking of me. 

And I had this beautiful revelation today as I drove away from a mentoring session with Lucienne this morning:
There is a difference living actively discerning. Living like I'm loved. Living everyday knowing God has a purpose for me and asking the Spirit to take me captive. 
I am so fulfilled now. God is enough for me. My companion and friend and co-adventurer. 
Yes I'm struggling socially, but He is truly the only one who can satisfy me. He is enough for me. 

For the first time I'm living without fear of the future. Without thinking I need human love to feel loved. Without thinking I'm a failure or not good enough. Without finding my worth in what I achieve.

God is enough for me. 
I am made whole by His love. 
I am enough for Him. And that is enough for me!
I also heard this phrase on radio Rhema as I drove home from work: "engineered with intention." 
I was created a masterpiece, perfectly engineered by my Father in Heaven. Before I was even born He had a perfect purpose in mind for me. I was "engineered with intention." 
And it honestly makes a world of difference when you pause each day to tap into that intention! When you allow the Engineer to give you a check over and some pointers as you go throughout your day, so you 'perform' exactly as He intended you to (with room for mistakes and imperfections of course, because we weren't created to be a rigid robot that can't go against it's programming! We were 'engineered' with free will 😊)

That's living life to the fullest. That's actively discerning each and every day. A captive to the Spirit, free and happy. Engineered with intention, running at your fullest potential.
It honestly does make so much difference!!

One more God-incidence for the day - I'll leave you with this verse which popped up yet again in one of the Psalms we just prayed for night prayer as a flat. 



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