I want to break free

After listening to Bryan (https://www.convoynwa.org/audio/2018/1/6/learning-margin), I've been thinking a lot about margin the last couple of weeks and trying to decide how I might begin to reclaim some in my life. One thing I have done is take a page out of Bryan's book and start reading/praying through the Psalms, looking for promises. This week I came across these verses in Psalm 18.

"He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
    he drew me out of deep waters....
He brought me out into a spacious place;
    he rescued me because he delighted in me."

I'm liking the idea of "spacious places" the Lord brings me to because He delights in me... 


One takeaway I got from Bryan's story that I want to implement is giving myself permission to say "No" to some demands on my time. It's not that the cause isn't worthy. It's not that my time or talent would be wasted in the pursuit. It might even be something I could say "Yes" to at some future date. It's just that I am looking to trade up from "good" to "God's best" and I may need a "spacious place" to figure out what that looks like.

This I know: I cannot make a day last longer than 24 hours; I cannot be two places at the same time; all I can do is all I can do; when my time is up, I'm going home. The question/concern has been raised in my foxhole on what to do with my time if I should somehow manage to find some margin. We'll look at that further in the weeks ahead, I am sure. In the meantime re-read that Matthew 11:28-30 verse from the Message. What was the non-negotiable for Jesus - the thing He stubbornly and consistently carved out time for? I will close with this scene from Luke 10:

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'

'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'”