Category Archives: Five Minute Friday

FMF: Pursue, Journey, Engage and being present, not vacant:

The Spirit of God has dreams for you.  He weaves our tangled threads with purpose, making each of us unique. These threads feel random, but we are designed to fit into a unique space. 
We often forget that we see days, and God sees eras. As we pursue developing God-given talents, we should start by taking care of the things in front of us. 
Remember your heart's motives, not the naysayers and joy-stealers. If your motives are for God, move forward. Don't be hindered by negative comments.  Greatness lies in God alone, not in the size of the task.  

When you can't go and are sitting on the sidelines when it is time, God will send someone to help along the way at the right time.
Let God untangle your gifts, your place, your people, His plan, and your passion, and let Him weave them into purposes you haven't been brave enough to pursue. 

To catch a dream
sail away from safe harbors. 
Dare to explore
possibilities within yourself.

God weaves our random threads together with purpose.
 
True friends ( and family) arouse a sanguine hope within.  The people we encounter and the friends we make are the iridescent threads woven into our lives.  Some friendships are seasonal; we experience them briefly, yet they are viable relationships.  Then there are the sturdy branches, the friends who support us through all seasons, and yes, some branches are lost over time.  Still, there is the core group of friends who keep you grounded with sage advice.  But there is one more type of friend.  This person leaves the rings inside your heart, whether in a colorful season, through dark times, or needing an ear or direction.  These rings grow inside your heart and are what you leave in others; the rings are interconnected.  These are the threads woven in our tapestry that shine God's handiwork.

seasonal leaves
grounding roots, true friends-
the rings inside

A place to our purpose determines the environment that nourishes us, the people we connect with, and to whom we choose to commit.  
I don't want to be responsible for what God can achieve through my surrendered will. You will regret holding back more than not trying. 

One goal for this month (Radical Mentoring Bible Study) was to write a life purpose statement: 
I, (your name), exit to glorify God by loving and serving others and by.....(focus on your unique gift, word). 
I, Rhonda Brown, exist to glorify God by loving and serving others and by pursuing on what God has for me to do today with the resources I have in front of me. Dwelling on the past calcifies my heart and keeps me from moving forward. Looking ahead with disappointment keeps me frozen. So pursue God daily and remember whatever is good, pure, lovely, honest, good report, dwell on these things.

Pursue, Journey, Engage and being present: I copied and pasted each guest post below so I could go back and read them again. Each guest had such a unique perspective and touched on a personal issue close their their heart. Thank you and thank you, Kate for writing each week and keeping me on point. So  here is a summation writing completely independently but I think flows with what has been written. 

PURSUE March 7 
Carole Duff is a veteran teacher, flutist, and writer. She posts weekly to her blog Notes from Vanaprastha. 

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
~ 1 Timothy 6:11 ,NIV

What did I (Carole) pursue as a youth in the springtime of life? Acceptance, achievement, attractiveness, and autonomy. What as a summer-season adult? Affirmation, commitment to family and work, and most of all success. Now in the autumn of my life, I pursue challenges and growth opportunities, health, and humility, my word for 2025. But is humility something we can pursue?

One night at dinner, I asked my husband that question. He said, “I don’t think so. Humility is a mindset, the opposite of pride, something to keep in mind as you pursue virtue. Anytime you suspect pride, congratulating yourself for being a good person, that’s not humility.” He paused. “It’s hard because we want to feel good about doing good.”

I nodded. “From my reading, I know humility requires emptying oneself, as Jesus did, hollowing one’s self, turning from ourselves to God alone. So, maybe we shouldn’t pursue humility in and of itself, because we’re tempted toward looking good.” Pride. Greedy for attention and accolades as I’ve behaved and still do, my humility yet feeble and superficial.

Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance (steadfastness), and gentleness, the fruit of the Spirit that Paul encourages Timothy—and us—to pursue. But first I must flee from pride, learn humility from Jesus, and practice the emptying.
Carole Duff

March 14 Journey
Some journeys are long and arduous, others are short and adventurous. The Israelite’s brief journey to the promised land evolved into a 40-year trek in the wilderness. During that passage, the Lord protected and provided. He remained with them until they finally reached their
destination.

My journey to becoming a writer was lengthy, adventurous, and at times, challenging. 
Numerous writing courses cultivated my skills and boosted my confidence to pen words into sentences,  sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into pages until I gravitated to writing a book. 

Writing a book is hard. Not just composing the words but writing the hard stories. Four years to finish a first draft. After that, I almost gave up, but the Lord nudged me to keep going. He allowed me the time to rest, but after a year he said to me, “It’s time to rise and continue, don’t
worry I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

This year I’ve started a new journey to finish and publish my book. The writing so far has been fun, and I’m enjoying the process. As I make progress and receive positive feedback from fellow
writers, I’m kept motivated. I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Philippians 1:6 says, “… that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to
completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” I’m holding this promise close to my heart.

Lisa Marcelina Granger lives in Trinidad and Tobago with her two adult children, a pet cat, and a dog.

Apart from writing she enjoys gardening, hiking, and reading whodunits.

You can read more on her website: https://lisamarcelina.net/

 

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Join us with your own five-minute free write on the prompt, JOURNEY, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment: 

March 21 
Engage, it’s a funny word right? It can mean so much, and yet, can be meaningless to many. An engagement is often something that is going to happen. Such as a couple gets engaged to be married, one has an engagement to attend (a dinner, a meeting, an event), or one is engaged in activity (soccer, jogging, knitting). To engage in an activity requires some sort of active participation doesn’t it?  A commitment of some sort right?  So how would you relate engagement to the job you hold? To your faith? That’s the question set out for us today hmm?

So a while back at work
They came up with an idea
All staff should tell us what the
Word engagement meant to them.

Blank stares abounded!
I was astonished.
Surely people would have some
Idea of what engagement meant.

Out of some 20 staff in the store
Four people were able to come
With short one-liners and three of
Them only after getting the word defined.

This was a corporate “team-building”
Activity that did spark conversation, but
Mostly derision and comments of
“THIS IS STUPID!”

Isn’t it interesting how some can
Easily define how engagement in the work
Place can be defined, and by talking about it
You can build community, 

And yet have the idea bomb very badly.
I asked my boss how this idea worked
In other stores and learned that it
Basically bombed in them as well.

So someone in corporate guessed
Badly on how to engage with
A whole whack of minimum wage
People, and instead disharmony reigned.

So similarly, God acts on the behalf of
His people, engaging with them in a variety
Of means, and some hear him clearly, and others,
“Hear” him, yet miss his entire message. 

And in missing the message
Either dismiss him, or find a way
To treat the Creator with derision.
Never understanding. 

So I find myself, at the end of this
Contemplation asking myself, what does
The word engagement mean to me in
My relationship with God?

It means taking the time
Listen to that voice within
Saying come and being willing to
Move forward in obedience

Despite the loneliness and
Desolation that often floods within.
Knowing the listening and following
Is better than any alternative.

Don’t you agree?

 

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engage

Faith-based blogger who loves to review books and write poetry. Rabbits and guinea pigs make me smile as does my hubby and son.  Adding, slowly it seems, a young lady into the mix who thinks my boy is the cat’s meow. 🙂  Life is a season of change, and all we can do is try to keep up. Keeping the Lord involved in it all makes it easier.

Find Annette at https://anetintime.ca.

Vacant- March 28, Dawn Fanshawe is a mother, grandmother, and disciple of Jesus. Dawn is the author of Lost Down Memory Lane, a memoir about caring for dementia.
The word vacant gives me a sense of not just empty, but of unoccupied and awaiting the rightful occupier. It might be a vacant parking space, a vacant room, a space not yet filled with that which belongs in it.

That vacant space might be the un-evangelized parts of my own believing heart!

The parable came to mind, when Jesus tells of the man who has been delivered from a demon, but who leaves that space vacant, only to be filled later by other demons, rather than by Holy Spirit. 

 

Matthew 12:43–45

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Last week I was fortunate to have a retreat in which I was able to receive some heart-healing prayer ministry. 

The Lord dealt with several things in my heart that were occupying a space that they had no right to – they were lies, vows, judgments and bitter expectations. They were never put there by God, but invited there unawares by myself, as in my wounding, I came into agreement with the enemy of my soul. 

God helped me to renounce and destroy these bitter roots in my heart, but they had to be replaced with truth and new Godly structures! This takes time and alertness…

For several days afterwards I felt a little wobbly, a bit out of balance – like I needed to learn how to function after heart surgery, how to live in the renewing of the mind and heart. 

I was so used to the old patterns and space, and the new, though made for me, still felt strange.

After the old, bitter patterns and structures were dismantled and removed, there was the vacant space, ‘unoccupied, swept clean and put in order’, which was crying out to be filled by the rightful occupier, by the Holy Spirit and by the sound mind that He ushers in.

Jesus transforms us by this renewing of the mind, little by little, as it would be too much for us to do it all at once.

And then this morning, I was reading Deuteronomy 7:22, where Moses paints this picture, which helps me to understand why a vacant space can be dangerous for my heart, using a different analogy which also gives me continued hope.  

Deuteronomy 7:22-26

The LORD your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you. But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed. 

dawn fanshawe