Flourish, Where God has planted you!

I am South African, and truly, of late, I have been very negative about being, well... South African!  Everything around us seems to be a struggle.  There is so much ugliness under the surface and so much corruption and there are those few outspoken "trouble-makers" who strive to promote hate instead of peace.

This country, South Africa, has SO MUCH potential.  The people in general want to get on with one another, grow together, find a way forward while embracing all our differences.  But those "trouble-makers" voices drown out all reason and objectivity, and encourage those easily influenced, to focus on the negative and harmful.

These very same "trouble-makers" in my opinion, seek only to make only their lives wealthy and opulent.  Their concern is not for those they influence.  But, I am no politician (thank the Lord).  I however have been questioning my existence here, and that of my family.

Do I really want to be here?
Is there really any hope?
History in those countries around us is not very encouraging...
Why bother?
Shouldn't we just go where there are more like-minded people?
Could we, even if we wanted to?
Will things ever change?

And the questions just go on and on, and buzz around my head, and I have of late spoken very negatively about my country and its people.  I have felt so anxious.

So, in my anxiety, I went to the Word.  I decided to have a quiet time at a time I would ordinarily not, seeking peace and answers to my anxiety.

My next chapter to read was Jeremiah 29.  It is a letter from Jeremiah to the captives in Babylon.

Jer 29 vs 5 - 7: (5) Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. (6) Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. (7) And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace. 

I immediately felt the Lord had answered my anxiety about my country, about my city, about my home, and my part to play in it.

I felt the Lord say the following to me:

• Build your lives, and commit to them
• Plant gardens and establish yourself where you live
• Increase in your lives, family, friends, business
• Seek the peace of your city
• Pray to the Lord for the peace of your city
• For, the peace of your city will be your peace!

Is that not awesome?!  I feel as though God has spoken into all my fears and removed them by saying, "Flourish where I have planted you!"

I have wasted many anxious moments and words on being negative and losing hope.  Feeling at a loss and wanting to abandon ship so to speak.  But I feel God is calling me on this and saying, "No, I've got this, just flourish and trust the rest to Me!"

From now on, I choose to speak positively about South Africa, I choose to have hope in my country and its people, and in the God who placed us all here.  I will pray for Cape Town with fervor and for South Africa and its leaders as well. 

I hope this resonates with someone out there who feels hopeless in their city!  Don't give up hope!  God is aware of everything going on, and He is aware of you and your place in it!

God bless

Tracy

Update on the whole Digital Detox Scenario!

I just cannot wrap my head around why this stuff is working me up so much!  And finally I figured it out!  It does not matter how many times I change the name of my blog/social media around my blog, I cannot refrain from making it about who follows and responds etc.

This morning in my quiet time I read the following from my daily devotional by Paul David Tripp:

Here's how need-driven addiction (spiritual slavery) develops.  It all starts with desire ("I want...").  There is nothing evil about desire.  God created us with the capacity to desire.  Everything we say and do is the product of desire.  Yet it is very hard for sinners to hold desire with an open hand.  It doesn't take long for our desires to morph into demands ("I must...").  The thing that was once a desire is now taking hold of us.  We're less willing to live without it.  We're more and more convinced that we have to have it.  Then demand morphs into need ("I will...").  Now, with great resolve and surety, we are convinced that we cannot live without it.  

and

 This thing that was once an open-handed desire has been christened a need.  We're now fully convinced that it would be impossible to live without it.  It is now in control of our hearts.  We think about it all the time.  We are fearful when we're without it.  We plot how to keep it in our lives.

Now, please understand that social media for others is just fine with me.  If you use it, and not it you, then all is good.  But for me, if I asked myself the question, "can I give it all up?"  The answer was, "well, I need it for my blog, to see whats going on with my family, to see if people like what I have to say....etc!"  Do you hear the resounding NO in there?!

I realized that it had me, and not me it.  All those years ago when I began to blog, I had no social media.  Not personally or for my blog.  And slowly it started.  Just fb, so I can make a fb page for my blog.  Just twitter, so I can retweet my stuff there, just instagram... It certainly (for me) has crept up and bit me in the behind.

The amount of stuff that has come my way of late, to let it go, has been phenomenal.  In church this week they spoke about pleasing the flesh, or pleasing the Holy Spirit.  Now to have social media, especially if driven solely for the promotion and love of the Lord is great.  For me, that's what I said it was, but every time I went there to check, it was about who saw it, how many likes, did anyone share it?  Now, I realize that it may seem to you that I am making a mountain out of a molehill.  But I am just being real and honest with myself.  I never enjoyed blogging more than when it was only my blog and connecting with others who were finding their way forward daily in God's grace.  It did not take long for it to grow from a desire to share God's word, to a need to be out there, in every social media space that is popular.

Thus, I have deleted everything.  The pic above indicates fasting of social media.  I can't even do that without being freaked out and constantly wanting it like a sugar rush 😞.  So deleting is my option and my choice.  Except for my personal instagram and I know God is working on me to let that go too.  This is partly why I changed my blog's name (again - sigh) to Intentional 247.  I want to be intentional in everything I do, so that God gets the glory every day in my life.  Its a goal.  I fail daily and no doubt will continue to fail.  But already I have way more peace about all this than I did before.

Psalm 139 vs 1:  Oh Lord, You have searched me and know me!

Psalm 139 vs 7:  Where shall I go from Your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from Your presence?

Psalm 139 vs 23 - 24:  Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!  (24) And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

God bless
Tracy