Motivation Monday - Why You Need to Stop Preparing for the Wrong Things and Start Preparing Your Voice
“What Jesus has prepared is the place where your purpose and His pleasure collide: to experience and enjoy God’s presence forever. Welcoming YOU is the focus of His preparation. He is preparing a place for YOU. ”
We are all wondering what going forward will look like. Will it be more of what we knew before a pandemic changed our world? Will it be more of what we know now? Or will new ways of living with hope and following Christ be revealed that will cause us to change yet again the ways we have gotten used to?
To be honest, I had a bit of fear about things opening up and going back to ‘normal’. I realized how much time I spent before the stay at home season, preparing things.
Preparing my home for guests.
Preparing lists of things I needed to buy.
Preparing my calendar to capture social, ministry and church engagements.
Preparing myself to look presentable when leaving the house.
Preparing the schedule to allow for driving, errands, grocery shopping and coffee runs.
Preparing for less sleep than I need in order to fit everything in on any given day.
Preparing first thing in the morning for the day ahead.
Preparing last thing at night for the next morning.
And in every act of preparation comes the knowledge that it will never all be done. I am always preparing for something. That something comes, goes and then I am on to the next preparation.
I am wondering if I have enough faith to leave the preparations to Jesus when He says:
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” John 14:3
I wonder if all of my preparations, past, present and future have had such a short term focus that I’ve missed the long term purpose.
What Jesus has prepared is the place where your purpose and His pleasure collide: to experience and enjoy God’s presence forever. Welcoming YOU is the focus of His preparation. He is preparing a place for YOU.
What would change if you lived your life and developed your voice in preparation to inhabit that stunning unimaginable glorious destination?
What things would you willingly forfeit that were keeping you busy but didn’t have the long game in view?
Last night we launched our 2022 Cohort of Gather Voices and made space for stunning girls from across our nation to dive into their souls and examine their vocation, values and vision that will be expressed through their genuine voice. They are preparing for their futures and the messages they will bring to the world, from a place of authenticity and calling. It is a sacrifice and a commitment for each one of them. One of the participants is up at 2 am to join us from the United Emirates – because she is committed to doing the work of preparing the source of her voice, her heart, in order to declare the message of her God-revelation to the platforms God is preparing her for.
Perhaps instead of so many preparations focused on just getting through another day, you might consider, as these Gather Voices girls, spending more time preparing your heart to make more room for the Jesus-revelation in you.
Dallas Willard calls this the renovation of the heart. While I am busy list-making and putting duct tape in all the places that need to be held together as a temporary measure, Jesus is wanting to knock down walls and blow the wind of the Spirit through my human frame.
Let’s make our lives rather than making our lists.
Let’s find our voice and develop it in the secret place.
This will not feel natural. But moving from a list-making to life-making is what you were created for.
We have 3 spaces still open in our 2022 Gather Voices Cohort. https://www.gatherwomen.com/about-voices Perhaps one of those spaces is for you. Perhaps you want to make the voice you carry resonate with revelation while you do the work of discovering, developing and declaring your God-given message to the world.
There is room for you to say yes to the life-making vs list-making life. It’s time to leave behind preparing for the wrong things and begin the work of preparing your voice in service to the kingdom. We invite you to join the girls already on mission to find their voice, speak truth and change the world.
I believe in you!
Cathie