Talking Isn't Working.

I posted earlier this week that I had it figured out. Well, I thought I did, but I think I’ve figured it out for me; however, I think it will work for anybody. 
This week has been a fairly good week.  There’s been no big issue at work, no big issues at home, just a quiet week with no major hic-ups.  But something happened Wednesday that opened my eyes and allowed me to see that I've got to shut my mouth and get to work.

Re-reading an email I received earlier in the week, I discovered that I’m not using what I’m supposed to be using.  I’m not using the tool that God wants me to use.  I’m leaning on something I’m not supposed to be leaning on…my own understanding.  Proverbs 3: 5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not unto thine own understanding".  The tool that I’m not using is my faith…I just need to use my faith.  We all know what faith is; the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We all have a measure of it to use, we just choose not to use it.

One question I keep asking myself is have I been walking down a road that I’m not supposed to be walking?  Could be!  Is it leading me in a direction that I’m not supposed to be going?  Possibly, but it’s what’s familiar to me.  God has given me a direction, but because of fear, lack of confidence, lack of support, and just plain ole slackness on my part I haven’t enjoyed what I could be enjoying.  I chose not to go down that road; but isn’t that what we do when we don’t use our faith?  We choose not to go in a direction because we think we lack the skills it would take to walk it.  We have the faith, we just don’t use it.

The last few days I’ve seen blogs and FB posts concerning dreams and goals and the things we should do to achieve them.  James chapter two goes into some detail about how we should use faith…its called actions.  We can talk about our dreams and goals all day long, but until we start putting into action the steps that it would take to achieve those goals, we’ll never see them accomplished.  They’ll always be thoughts or ideas in the back of our head or written on a pad somewhere.

Recently, my Pastor taught a lesson on the 23rd Psalms.  During his lesson I saw something in the scriptures I’ve never seen before.  In verse four David says, “…he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake”.  Then in verse four he says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…”  David understood that the paths of righteousness would go through some pretty dark valleys and that it wouldn’t be for David’s sake…it would be for His.  Those paths usually take us by people we’re supposed to encounter and encourage. Sometimes those paths take us to places God wants us to be an example or provide direction to someone else or take on some responsibility that someone, who was unwilling to walk that path, didn’t want to take.  But it starts by having FAITH and taking a step in the direction God is leading.

Faith without works is dead…Dreams and goals are dead without taking the steps toward achieving them.  Business ideas, ministries you want to start, ideas that are in your head are all dead unless you start putting some work into them.  Stop speaking it and start doing it.

So, what was it I figured out?  Stop talking and start working.  You'll be seeing a lot more work out of me than you've seen in the past.  I'm going to stop letting my words show my faith and start letting my actions prove it.  I'm taking that first step towards success...and it's going to be a great walk because I know who's with me.  What about you?  What is it that you've been wanting to accomplish, but haven't started yet?  Are you ready to stop talking about what you want to see done and start working towards it?  If so....let's go!

Just my thoughts on a page.