His procrastination, however, proved to be his doom. When Washington reached Trenton, Rall and many of his soldiers were killed, and the remaining soldiers were captured. The letter was found unopened in Colonel Rall’s pocket after his death. Nolbert Quayle later said, “Only a few minutes’ delay cost him his life, his honor, and the liberty of his soldiers. Earth’s history is strewn with the wrecks of half-finished plans and unexecuted resolutions. ‘Tomorrow’ is the excuse of the lazy and refuge of the incompetent.”

The words may be harsh, but the principle behind them make me shudder. Truth be told, most of us often can be found guilty of waiting for tomorrow to do that which should be done today. And although procrastination on small tasks may not always affect the outcome of history, the effect in an individual’s life can never be fully evaluated. That truth receives an even deeper dimension when we procrastinate taking one small step toward obeying something we know God wants us to do.

I believe one of the reasons we fail to obey God promptly on small things is that we don’t usually realize that he has
to lay small foundations before revealing to us the big picture of what he has in store for us. He gives us a simple direction, and waits for our obedience before revealing the next step. In our pride or honest ignorance, we may think that small steps may not be important enough, and that waiting to take them should not affect the outcome of God’s plan for our lives. However, we must remember that God seeks a relationship of trust from us, and therefore the tiniest step of obedience can be used as a key element to unlock  our future.

I think about my personal experience, and how I procrastinated to obey God on a seemingly small directive for my life. For years, I lived in a spiritual limbo, caught in the busyness of religion instead of in the fullness of a personal relationship with the Father. I tried to fill my spiritual life with religious routines and check boxes, altogether ignoring some quite simple directions I received from him. Incapable of seeing the big picture, I deemed safe to procrastinate in taking small steps, often excusing my disobedience: “I will do this when I understand it better.” Or, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

In the meantime, tomorrow turned into a week, a month, a couple of years. As I look back and realize the wasted time, I can only conceptualize the difference that prompt obedience would have made. I will never know for sure. And although I am grateful for a God of grace and second chances, I really do not wish to gamble with my destiny anymore, as Rall once did. Life and death may not always be at stake, but God’s best usually is.

Today, when he shows me what I need to do, I try my best to take the smallest of steps right away, even though I oftentimes don’t understand it. Because I’ve lived long enough to know that a small step toward God may just be the difference between mediocrity or success, joy or defeat.

 Patricia Holbrook is a Christian author and national conference speaker. Her first book, “Twelve Inches: Bridging the Gap Between What You Know About God and How You Feel,” is now available on Kindle, and paperback at Barnes and Nobles, Amazon and other retailers. Visit her blog to read her devotionals at www.soaringwithhim.com or email her atpholbrook@soaringwithhim.com .

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Have you ever been around someone who just cannot let go of the past?  Has it ever been you?

These types of personalities can be met everywhere and each family has at least one. They drag their shackles around everywhere they go. They are slaves and do not know it. They are unhappy and invariably become bitter, resentful and lonely. So.very.lonely.

They are doctors and housewives, wealthy and poor. Many of them sit on the pew right beside us. They know God and his word. And yet, for different reasons, they choose to remain chained to the misery of their past, even though they know that God longs to set them free.

My heart aches for them.But truthfully, many of us have been there. I know I have.

For years I looked back to find justification for my bad attitude and shallow faith. I would blame my insecurities on my parent’s broken marriage and my poor self-image on things that I heard growing up. I blamed my jealousy on that boyfriend who was unfaithful and my reluctance in giving up bad habits on the fact that I was raised in a more liberal culture.

Blame, blame, blame.

Attached to the chains that keep us bound to our past is the Blame Monster. And we feed it every time we drag the past around, allowing it to rob us of an abundant, successful present and future.

Honestly, it’s not easy to release the past. And I cannot in all fairness compare my own, however painful, experiences with some terrible stories which I’ve heard. But regardless of the measure of our pain, we, people of faith, eventually must be confronted with two simple questions: “Am I willing to let go?” and “Is God able to rewrite my story?”

Sometimes it is easier to bring the past along with us, because in order to confront it, we must realize our share of responsibility over our destiny. Of course, there are things that happen that are absolutely outside of our control: no one does anything to justify abuse, nor the onset of severe illness. Neither is it one’s fault that a parent dies nor leaves home, abandoning his or her family. These are truly traumatic experiences, brought on people by decisions of which they had no control.

However, there are hurts of the past that have a measure of self-infliction which is hard to confront. It’s easier to continue blaming mom and dad, or the ex-husband or ex-wife, than looking within ourselves, asking God to help us forgive and allowing Him to show us how to move forward and take ownership of our destiny.

There is also the fact that we become accustomed to living in bondage. We may have blamed the circumstances in our past for so long, that we do not know how to survive without the dysfunction!

There is no future for those trapped in the shackles of their past. And although many of us have, humanly speaking, perfectly good reasons to hold a grudge against a certain person, we must realize that setting them free is not only God’s will for us, it is ultimately the destination for all of those who have real peace and victory.

Patricia Holbrook is a Christian author and national conference speaker. Her first book, “12 Inches: Bridging the Gap Between What You Know and How You Feel About God,” is now on Kindle, and pre-selling at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other retailers worldwide. Visit her blog to read her devotionals at www.soaringwithhim.com or email her at pholbrook@soaringwithhim.com

The post Letting Go of the Past (Atlanta Journal Column) appeared first on Soaring With Him Ministries.

FREE COPY OF POST: Overcoming Perfectionism 08.19.14

Key Verse:

“So don’t be too good or too wise! Why destroy yourself? On the other hand, don’t be too wicked either. Don’t be a fool! Why die before your time?  Pay attention to these instructions, for anyone who fears God will avoid both extremes. Ecclesiastes 7:16-18

PERFECTIONISM

A monster disguised in pretty clothes. Its victims look put together at all times. Their homes are spotless. Their grades, commendable. Their hair is in place any time they hit the door.

If you are a woman, I guarantee you’ve been jealous of a perfectionist before.

But as it is in many things in life, when it comes to the Joneses, there is so much more than what meets the eye.

I know it well. A recovering perfectionist, for many years I struggled with thoughts of inadequacy and failure. I strived for straight As and dreamed of straight hair. Perfectionists were usually raised by a perfectionist parent and therefore their tendency to strive to be the crème de la crème in everything they do is usually a cry for love and acceptance.  Unfortunately, unless they recognize the issue, they carry on the legacy to the next generation, unintentionally pushing their poor children into the same trap.

We live at the age of airbrushed, anorexic beauty. My anti-age cream is advertised by a gorgeous 20 year-old model, who won’t see a wrinkle on her face for another, well, 20 years.  50 year old millionaire actresses sell us the lie that we can fight the losing battle of sagging, wrinkling and hormonal changes at the blink of an eye.

Without a doubt, physical perfectionism plagues our society, infiltrating our families and distracting even many of our beautiful young girls, who are hiding in the restrooms, drowning in the hopelessness of anorexia and bulimia.

Then there’s performance perfectionism. Many of us believe that we must be perfect in all we do. Our homes must be perfectly clean. Home decor must change with the seasons.

We may find ourselves comparing our marriage to some of our friends’, who may seem to have more “sparks” flying around, or whose husband seems to be more romantic than ours. Before we know it, we are nagging John to death, trying to change the man we fell in love with into someone he’ll never be.

And let’s not forget our children’s school performance and sports galore! The pressure to be on accelerated programs and Honor Rolls steal many children’s hide-and-seek moments today. Our baseball, softball and football fields and filled with young boys and girls who are missing their summers for another championship. Missing church for another trophy. We push them. They push themselves. And we all miss the mark.

We fight to perfect ourselves, our children, our spouses, our homes.

And we all become miserable, tired and broken together.

It’s not an easy trap to escape from. But if we want to have an abundant life, escape we must!

We can start by reminding ourselves of this truth: That God is not impressed by our looks or performance. He wants our hearts (Deut 10:12).

Hearts that understand that our perfection is only found in him (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Hearts that make His priority list ours. (Psalm 18:30)

Hearts set less in seeking perfection and more in perfecting our love and devotion for Him.  (Psalm 51:10)

Indeed, today I realize that perfectionism is the world’s and Satan’s way to make me rely less and less on God.

And more and more on fallible, inadequate me.

Instead of attaining perfection, the result will always fall short of our target: We become stressed out, needy of approval, self-indulgent, impatient.

Simply hard to deal with.

Through the Grid of God’s Grace

Our good works and great performance should be viewed through the grid of God’s grace. By grace we are lavished each day with opportunities, gifts and talents which allow us to do our best and be our best.

As Dallas Willard said “Grace is God acting in our lives to do what we cannot do on our own.”

Indeed, God never designed us to accomplish perfection without him. The point of the gospel is that we are unable to be perfect. We all fall short; we all “miss the mark” (Romans 3:23). Sinners need a Savior, and that’s why Jesus came. When we trust in Him, He forgives our shortcomings, imperfections, and iniquities.

We can then stop striving for unreasonable, unattainable worldly “perfection” and rest in the Perfect One (Matthew 11:28).

Verses to Meditate Upon:

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns” Philippians 1:6.

For without Me you can do nothing” John 15:5.

“As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless. He is a shield for all who take refuge in him” Psalm 18:30.

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