Settling

I realized something

this morning

I realized that I

have been settling

No, it’s not what you think

God has given me

health and strength

to be fit

and I settled for little exercise

God has given me good food

to eat

and I settled for boxed crackers

and unearthly-orange cheese dip

God gave me an endless variety

of things to explore

and I settled for the couch

and Facebook

God gave me abundance wide open!

and I settled for mediocrity …

And it’s a slow, deceiving slope we go down

Sinking deeper and deeper

until we are comfortably settled

and the ground is swallowing us up

And we wonder how we got here…

We realize it was choice

after little choice

A settling for lukewarm

and blah

and less than

Which is NOT

what vibrant God

has called us to

But…

As His mercies are new every morning,

so are my chances

And today I choose

to take care of my body

and take care of my mind

and most importantly,

take care of my spiritual life

which encompasses everything

No more settling

On PURPOSE today

for His glory

– Susie Stewart

* This was tough for me to write, but I want you to know you’re not alone if you are in this place too. God has called me to expose things to the light of Him and then do something about it.

Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves. You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body.

– 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 (GW)

Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and prosper and be in good health [physically], just as [I know] your soul prospers [spiritually].

– 3 John 2 (AMP)

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

– Romans 12:1,2 (MSG)

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

– 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NLT)

Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received! We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on to you—your tickets to participation in the life of God after you turned your back on a world corrupted by lust.

– 2 Peter 2:3,4 (MSG)

Photo by Arik Stewart