Welcome to Wilco Wednesday! If you are a new around these parts, “Wilco” is Army-speak for “Will Comply.” Think of it as saying “Roger, God. Got it. Will do.” So that is what Wednesday here at 7 Days Time is all about– exploring his decrees and seeking guidance for what complying with Him looks like in everyday life. The best part? He loves us for who we are, not what we do. Remember: He doesn’t want perfection, just obedience. Joining us today is my dear, wonderful, beautiful and encouraging friend Kristen. Share. Enjoy. Interact. And let’s respond to God’s call with a hearty “Wilco, Lord!”
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I am a detail oriented, perfectionist, worrier, planner, general control freak, and penultimate spaghetti-minded woman. I must know before I act.
So, I make God small. I put Him in human sized boxes defining His capabilities on worldly measures.
When I am not in His word, being reminded of His power and reach and love, I fit Him wholly in my mind and the problems of this world become insurmountable. I hold internal monologues bargaining my secondary obedience in exchange first for His knowledge and understanding. Something like, “Lord, if you’ll just let me know where we’re PCSing, (and by the way it better be where I want to go,) then I’ll prepare my heart for it.” Thankfully, I am a work in progress, allowing God to use military wifehood to train me to be flexible, understanding of uncontrollable change, and to contently leave all things in His hands.
When I finally surrendered my control, giving Him first obedience in exchange for nothing, then He began filling me with the wisdom I’d so desperately wanted. It’s how it’s always works with God, faith first.
Wisdom: He’s already won. I couldn’t see it before, I couldn’t connect the simple idea that is written and proclaimed throughout the Bible, in the end He wins. He lovingly reveals the ending, the ultimate unknown of every story, and not only that, but if I’d been paying attention, He is constantly telling me first what He will do and then fulfills it. Like Hagar’s transformation in Genesis 21, from cast off, wandering the desert and despairingly resigning to die, to Verse 19 saying “Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.” Her circumstances hadn’t changed, her awareness had.
Still… I cripple myself in my spaghetti-brained wanderings. One of my greatest fears is failure – of course the failure or success definition is my own self-imposed, society influenced, unattainable trap. Decisions inevitably spiral through a simple, but destructive question of “what if” heading in either the direction of something terrible might happen in the future because of my decision/action, or worse, second guessing past decisions confident I could have done different, better. It’s a self-critical quagmire of time wasting and mental beat downs.
Instead I should truly search His word, to see statements proclaiming greater is He that is in me than he who is in the world and that the Lord will work all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes, to remember He is faithful. If I believe Him and His word, then what can I possibly do to screw up His plans. He told me the ending. He fills me with great power to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ; to know when I am eternally minded I can work from a place of victory already.
IF
He’s already won…
THEN
What can I do to screw up His plans?
THEREFORE
How can I act like an orphan knowing I’m the daughter of the King?
Because of sin entering the world I, like all others, am orphaned, abandoned, broken, destructive, and disobedient. And just as He promised, the Lord provided a way back to Himself; I need Jesus to ransom me. But once I accept the Lord, I am called to stop defining myself by my brokenness and instead by His perfection. I wouldn’t dare talk to Duchess Catherine how I talk to myself, and I am the daughter of the King of Kings.
For those called to Christ, He has made them perfect and blameless before God. The beauty of the cross is making us all equal in His sight so no one can boast. The cross calls me to embrace those broken, weak parts because how I transform those pieces is where He is made perfectly visible to the world around me. I will still stumble and fall; I am guaranteed trouble in this world especially as I try to live more boldly for the Lord. But what can this world do to me?
“…we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~Romans 8:37b-39
Consider the “If, Then, Therefore” statement… What would yours look like? Join the conversation and leave a comment below.
Kristen Clarke is an army wife, servant-less american cook and baker, avid coffee drinker and dark chocolate consumer, natural born Washingtonian, historical fiction reader, lover of travel, small craft/sewing business owner and homemaker.
Linking up today with my friend Kristin over at Three-word Wednesday and having a little Coffee for your Heart with Holley. Oh! And be sure to join our #EverydayJesus link-up community right here at 7 Days Time every Thursday!
