A Morning Stroll

Shake things up. Do the same thing differently. This is important. I definitely have a set routine to my early mornings. If you have read my book, “The Word As A Vehicle,” you know what it is. This routine revolves around spending time with Daddy God, the Father of Jesus Christ. However, being a creature of habit, sometimes I feel the need to connect with God in a different way. To get out in nature. Not have my head in a book. Yes, that includes the Bible.

This morning I made my coffee and took off walking in my neighborhood. I always know when I am too much in my head. I will be walking and somewhere along the way, I realize I am hearing the birds sing for the first time. I was careful not to do that this morning. If you are not hearing birds, you are thinking to much.

Toward the end of my walk, a passage came to mind. At this point in my walk with the Lord, I am convinced that He speaks often and simply. A thought that seems to drop out of space? God. Yep. His Spirit whispering to me. If you have a problem with this you are probably among those who possess an ugly, uptight, stingy, poisonous theology. Your God is not generous with His heart and word. Why would you even waste time loving a God like that. Good luck.

Not me. He speaks. He loves to speak. Are there times when He is silent? Ugh, yes. But today was not one of those days.

Toward the end of my walk, the phrase that popped in my mind this morning was, “Is anything to hard for the Lord?” Because I have spent years and years reading the Word, I knew the general address of this phrase (the more of the written Word you have put in your heart, the more you will hear His fresh word). This was something the Lord told Sarah, Abraham’s wife. I went into my room, raised the blinds, sat in my chair, and began thumbing through a few pages in the earlier parts of Genesis in order to locate the story. Here is the dialogue in Genesis 18:

Three men/strangers: “Where is your wife Sarah?”

Abraham: “There, in the tent.”

One of the three men: “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Sarah (in the tent): She laughed.

The Lord said to Abraham: “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old.’ Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

This question was rhetorical due to its obvious nature.

Regarding some different things on my wife and I’s heart lately, I sensed that the Lord was wanting me to do a couple of things with this question. First, He wanted me to minister it back to Him as worship. Second, He wanted me to strengthen myself with it. This is what it looked like. I put my Bible down, looked out my window, and for about 10-20 minutes, began to ask and answer this question as I sat in the Presence of the Lord. I would, out loud, ask “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Then, I with my Bible sitting open in my lap, I put my hands in the air and declared personally, from my heart, “Nothing is too hard for you, Lord.” I owned it. I wanted Him to hear it. I wanted to minister this to His beautiful heart. This was my worship this morning, to repeat to Him over and over a declarative answer to the question He whispered to me. I wanted Him, in response to what He had initiated in my spirit, to have someone on the earth today confessing to Him, “Nothing is too hard for you, Lord. Nothing. I believe that. I believe in You. Is anything too hard for you? No! No Lord! Nothing is too hard for you!” As I ministered to Him, strength and peace and courage and faith grew in my heart. Remember, ministering to the Lord is intrinsically tied to the level of strength you walk in as a Christ follower. Make no mistake, if you are not ministering to the Lord, you are probably the one sitting on the throne of your nice little Christian life.

So arise. Dance in the secret place. Let God whisper to you what He wants to hear from you, and then make sure He hears it from you. Be a poet. Be a singer. Be a artist. Be a writer. Be undignified. Paint a canvas for the Lord and watch your heart become strong.

Nothing is too hard for the Lord. I have a feeling that each of us need to be reminded of this today in one way or another.

“Who is like the Lord our God, who dwells on high,who humbles Himself

to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth.”

Psalms 113:5-6 NKJV