Inspiring thoughts and hope

newvickie

From the Ron Hutchcraft Ministries... "The Antidote for the Overwhelming" When my ministry teammate, Donna, showed me how it started, I wasn't very impressed. It began with a Mason jar lid and a little cloth circle she made with it. Great. A little cloth circle. Okay. Donna then sort of gathered that round piece of cloth into a puckered little circle she called a "quilted yo-yo." Finally, she had that piece finished and looking like what she wanted. Great. A little piece of cloth that's now a little quilted yo-yo. But she kept making those pieces, and then she began putting them together in a pattern I didn't see. When she was finished, she had this large American flag creation, made from all those little pieces into something really impressive.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "The Antidote for the Overwhelming."

My friend showed me a quilt she made the same way - one little piece at a time. No single piece of her creations is all that impressive, frankly. But when you see the whole tapestry, it's beautiful. And assembled, not all at once, but one little piece at a time. She didn't work on a flag or a quilt. She worked on one piece at a time.

Which is exactly how God weaves the amazing tapestry of your life and mine. He sees the whole thing, the finished product. We see the piece in front of us. It's this little 24-hour thing we call a day. God's modus operandi should be clear to us from the very day the world began, as recorded in our word for today from the Word of God. Genesis 1:3-5 tells us, for example, "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light ... God called the light 'day,' and the darkness He called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day." From the very genesis of our world, God sets things up to be done as "days" - one small piece of the big tapestry at a time.

That way of doing life is reinforced over and over again in the Scriptures. Lamentations 3:23 tells us to experience God by discovering that "His mercies are new every morning." The psalmist said that He "daily carries our burdens." (Psalm 68:19) Jesus told us His provision would come to us as "daily bread," (Matthew 6:11) His renewing of our soul would come "day by day," 2 Corinthians says (2 Corinthians 4:16), and that the way we should follow Him our whole life is to "take up your cross daily." (Luke 9:23) He does the big tapestry. Our job is to do this little piece called today.

Maybe you're overwhelmed right now by the size of what's in front of you. You're overwhelmed by the undone, by your responsibilities, by the expectations, by that massive challenge, that unsolvable problem, or that unfixable situation. It's time you bowed before the Lord Jesus each new day and crown Him Lord of your undone, your undoable, or your unbearable. You've been trying to figure it out, to worry about the whole huge tapestry. That is His problem. He will put together the big thing through you doing each day faithfully. He does the tapestry. You do today.

When folks casually tell you to "have a nice day," they probably have no idea they're reinforcing God's instructions for a life that doesn't overwhelm you. Your job is to do one day prayerfully, obediently, wholeheartedly, lovingly, joyfully. When you let the "mights" and the "coulds" and the "what ifs" of your tomorrow leak into your todays, you start to sink, because you're trying to do God's job instead of your job. The big future is up to God. You just do the day. And when you reach the end of your day, you leave in His hands all you didn't get done, all you need to do, and all you can't possibly do.

It's a liberating way to live - you doing today's piece, God doing the big tapestry. Then, on that day when you see Jesus, you can lay at His feet a whole life you lived for Him one faithful day at a time.Love and blessingsVickie