I love words… always have. Words motivate me, stimulate me, keep me going, keep me focused.
I’ve always been a word person. I have collections of words that speak to me, encourage me, warn me, instruct me and guide me. Mostly they are words of Scripture along with quotes from people whom I admire.
I have groups of words which I pray over for myself:
Power, Purpose, Passion, Pacing, Priorities
Listening, Loving, Learning, Laughing
Transparency, Integrity and Dependency
Purity, Humility, Contentment, Patience
Each word has special meaning and keeps me focused on values and mind-sets which are important to me.
Recently three other words have been paramount in my thinking and today I want to share them with you:
1. Satisfaction
Recently I came across Psalm 90:14, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” (ESV).
Based on this, I began to think about where my true satisfaction is. Is it in the Lord or in what I’m doing, what I’m producing, how I’m perceived? John Piper said, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Psalm 90:14 is a verse I frequently focus on as I seek to be most satisfied in Him and not anyone or anything else.
It’s too tempting and too easy to look elsewhere for satisfaction…deep, lasting, genuine satisfaction. I want to experience the truth of Psalm 63:1, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (ESV)
2. Simplicity
I want to keep my life de-cluttered. Keep it simple. It’s easy to take on too much and travel too fast to get it all done. I want to be more careful and prudent in my schedule, with people I invest in, with finances. I want to have, and live with, sufficient margin so I can be present, rested and energized in carrying out what I believe He has for me.
I love I Corinthians 7:29-35 in The Message:
“There is no time to waste, so don’t complicate your lives unnecessarily. Keep it simple—in marriage, grief, joy, whatever. Even in ordinary things—your daily routines of shopping, and so on. Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you…All I want is for you to be able to develop a way of life in which you can spend plenty of time together with the Master without a lot of distractions.”
3. Sincerity
Through study I discovered that our English word for sincere comes from the Latin sin cera, which literally means without wax; nothing covered up or hidden but honest and open. When a piece of pottery was sold they would say it is sin cera (without wax) not covering up or hiding anything. What you see is what it genuinely is.
I think of 2 Corinthians 4:2 (The Message) in this regard:
“We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don’t twist God’s word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.”
I want to, with His grace, say what I mean and mean what I say; to be sincere in my speech, my behavior, and my attitudes.
“For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.” 2 Corinthians 1:12 (ESV)
I’d love to hear back from you on these three words. Could one of them be a focus for you as you enter 2020 in a few days?
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