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Summer is almost over!
Well the heat won’t be going anywhere soon, but back to school is just around the corner. For teachers and students, summer is quickly, much too quickly, coming to an end.
Of course, this time of year brings mixed feelings for me.
I do love my job! The fact that the Lord placed me in an environment where I get to teach and coach on a daily basis is amazing. Coupled with the fact that I work at an amazing school with an unbelievable community, I am truly blessed.
However, summer does afford freedoms that aren’t there during the school year. Teachers and students alike share those freedoms, and they look at August arriving and can’t believe the summer break is basically over.
Those summer “freedoms” we enjoy can be both healthy and unhealthy!
I know I have spent too much time in front of the television. I love movies and I have watched a ton this summer. My nights become longer as I can sleep in later, and that big screen in my basement sometimes can become my best friend.
That’s probably not the healthiest decision I have ever made.
There is the positive side to the coin as well. I have spent much more time with the Lord praying and digging into His word. The simple reason for this: I had more time. My mornings were often consumed with extended Bible study and prayer. This was certainly healthy.
God used this time I spent with Him to show me three important things in my life.
Ask Him To Use You
Over the past year, I have been asking God to use me more with my writing to impact His kingdom. How that looked I wasn’t sure, but it really didn’t matter to me. At the time, I was using the talent He had given me in a couple different ways for Him (this blog and message notes for church) but if He saw fit, I wanted to do more.
I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart. – Psalm 40:8
If it was God’s will, I really wanted to do more. Well, long story short, as summer opened God had heard my prayer and answered it.
In addition to what I had been doing, I was given the opportunity to create a book study as a resource for my church, write the booklet that would be used by leaders and over 450 youth at summer camp, help form a leadership curriculum for youth at my church, and on top of all of that, was approached by a close friend who wanted to talk with me about expanding my blog.
I couldn’t believe the doors and windows the Lord had opened for me. I stepped through each one knowing God had answered my prayers and that I had to trust Him with the extra responsibilities.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. – 1 John 5:14-15
When we ask Him to do more for His Kingdom, He will give us those opportunities. It is up to us to step through those doors He opens and trust that if He opens the door, He will also make a way.
Crave His Word
As I said, I spent more time in God’s word this summer and what I found happening was truly amazing to me.
The more time I spent in His word, the more I wanted to spend time in His word!
Morning would come and the first thing I would think about was heading downstairs, grabbing a cup of coffee, and digging into my Bible study. One thing I did was read through the Psalms and was blown away by Psalm 119. I found an excellent study of Psalm 119 by Sarah Koontz that challenged me in different ways.
I also spent time sharing verse mapping with my wife, and even spent some time just reading on my own. I can’t explain how rewarding it was.
If you are going to crave something, crave God’s word!
My days were just generally better because I was starting them with the Lord. My thoughts and actions throughout the day were more God-centered than Noah-centered. I’m not saying everything was perfect, but I know those days where something happened and I didn’t start in God’s word and talking with Him, then something was off.
The best thing to be “hooked on” is spending time with the Lord through His word and prayer.
Notice The Little Things
We’ve talked before about noticing God in the little things throughout the day. The funny thing was that the more I was in tune with God, doing His work and spending time with Him, the more those God moments started to hit me in the face.
I not only noticed God in those moments, I wanted scripture to back up what I was feeling.
Things like the dog getting his chain tangled in the bush and looking up at me with big eyes that said “help,” led me to Michah 7:7.
As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me…
There were so many more, like a little sliver of an orange moon with Venus shining ever so brightly next to it catching my eye one evening, leading me to Psalm 136:7.
Give thanks to Him who made the heavenly lights—His faithful love endures forever.
I could go on with these forever because they have been so prevalent this summer. Like just the other night, I couldn’t sleep and was wandering around the house in the dark. As I looked out the window, a steady rain was falling. I hadn’t even known it was raining. This led me to Isaiah 55:10.
The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed…
Things happen every day that we take for granted, but they perfectly fit into God’s plan.
As school draws near and summer begins to wind down, I hope that you can find time to truly spend with the Lord. I also hope He reveals those little God moments and the next steps He has for you, like He has for me these past few months…until next time.
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