I blog .... for Wednesday's with Beth

Someone has asked the question, where do you find enough to blog about? (Must not be a blogger who asked THAT question!)

Have you run into the group of women who blogged "Living Beyond Yourself." What a blessed group of 30 or so bloggers who have journeyed together through this Beth Moore Study! I was in the middle of a time management slump and was unable to participate with them this study, and was feeling a little left out of the blessing--until, one day as I was making my bed and flipping TV channels multitasking, I discovered that James Robison's from Life Today was hosting Wednesday's with Beth every Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. CST! What luck! What joy! Now, I can blog on Works-for-me-Wednesday, what always works for me: a healthy dose of Beth Moore!

She challenges, she incites!

Today's insightful question was this: Do you sow the Word or do you simply eat the Word? Beth and her husband, Keith, have just returned from a relief missions trip to Angola. One of the relief workers explained to them the dilemma these starving people face. When they receive seeds to plant for future harvests--they are so hungry, the immediacy of their need causes them to eat the seed rather than plant it and wait for the harvest.

As a Christian, do I do the same thing? Desperate for an answer from God, do I go to His Word (the seed according to Luke 8:11) and just taste His seed, does it fill my stomach, giving me immediate relief but preventing the Harvest of Joy (Psalm 126: 5-6)? How is my life changed by the seed--where is the harvest?

At Partners in Prayer for Our Prodigals, one of the goals of the mission statement is to pray regularly for our prodigals. I have a file folder filled with Scripture verses representing God's promises, His assurances, and His faithfulness. I pray over them, I cry over them, I count on them. But does my life reflect the change of them? How wide is the gap between my theology and my reality?

Beth gave some examples to further "bring this home." She asked, "How many sermons have you heard about the forgiveness found in Jesus?...Yet, how many of us still live under the condemnation of these sins?......How many sermons have you heard about the freedom found in Christ? Still, how many of us remain in bondage to our compulsions or our addictions? How many sermons have you heard about forgiving others?......" Do I need to go on?

Kristen at mamma's So Called Life has a post that illustrates "humbly hearing God's word, not merely listening to the word or deceiving yourself, but doing what it says!" Don't miss this post, it is a very real example of "doing what God's word says." And may I add to my paraphrase of James 1: 19-25, not only does this doing "bless what [Kristen] does...." it blesses others!

I believe that part of the sowing can be found in our blogging. On Day Four of the She Lives challenge, I have discovered that while we all started blogging for different reasons, there is a theme in the continuation of our blogging that just can't be missed. We gather 'round this cyber-space gallery of blogs because we are drawn to the Harvest of Joy that has been planted. As we all share our journeys--bumps and all--we are daily implementing what Psalm 126: 5-6 guarantees, "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him."

This means specifically for me, that while I continue to stand in the gap for my son (and all our prodigals) my wait will reflect the upcoming Harvest of Joy. I will not just taste His promises, be filled with a selfish need to have my fears squelched and my hope restored--I will make daily changes that exemplify the coming Harvest. This fills me with such joy--what a surprise, maybe the Harvest has already begun!

What does this mean to you?

Thanks for joining me in the sowing....and the reaping!

Oh--and thanks to Deilia for passing along the strike-out information from Tess at Tess Talks. I will try my best, I just love it so promise not to use it too often!