Please, Take Me Away from My Ordinary Day

By Connie Gilbride

Are you frazzled, frustrated and in need of break? Grab something cool to drink and find a comfy spot to relax. These short devotionals provide just enough inspiration and humor...you might just find yourself smiling!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781312102132

Book preview

Please, Take Me Away from My Ordinary Day

Please Take Me Away from My Ordinary Day

Copyright © 2013 by Connie Gilbride.  

All rights reserved worldwide.   Part of this publication may not be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form without the prior written consent of the author/publisher or the terms relayed to you herein.

Connie Gilbride, Great Plains Ministry, 5907 W Wren Place, Sioux Falls, SD 57107, USA

[#Great Plains Ministry~http://greatplainsministry.org#]

ISBN: 978-1-304-12743-3

Scripture quotations are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.  Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.  All rights reserved.

Verses marked (TLB) taken from The Living Bible © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL. 60189. All rights reserved.

START HERE

Don’t you just want to scream it some days? — TAKE ME AWAY !  TAKE ME AWAY FROM  THIS  RAT RACE!

Every day seems busier than the one before.  An empty calendar isn’t even a possibility.  From day to day, we grit our teeth and hang on for dear life — hoping we won’t fall off the edge as minutes spin past.

We run our times of rest and relaxation on the ‘If  I can just get through this week….’ principle.  You know how it works.  There is so much to do and the schedule is packed.  The way we see light at the end of the tunnel is to tell ourselves, ‘If I can just get through this week’... it will be better.  ‘If I can just get through this week...then I’ll have time to take a deep breath.’  What normally happens?  I find that when one ‘If I can just get through this week’ ends; there is another  week just like the last one waiting right behind it.  The time for getting away and resting never seems to happen. 

It is my prayer for you and for me, that we start now to take a few minutes each day to stop and rest in God’s Word.  OK—here’s one of my great pieces of wisdom:  try putting this book in the bathroom.  It is often a place of quiet (at least the 10 minutes until someone finds out where you’re hiding!)  If the bathroom has already been discovered as your hideaway—take it to work and use it for a break instead of one of your regular coffee breaks.   Get creative! 

When we stop long enough to step away from the busyness of life, we will see that no day is ordinary.  Each day is a gift from the Hand of God. 

Mark 6:30-32—The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 

What do you find Jesus calling his disciples to do in the midst of a very busy time—so busy, they didn’t have time to eat.  (Does that sound familiar?)

What do you think this Scripture is saying to you?

Matt 11:28—Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 

These words were spoken to the people who were trying to live by the letter of the law.  Jesus was reminding them that living a life filled with ‘I have to’ or ‘I must’ in order to fulfill the law was a burden too heavy for man.  He was trying to help them see that all the striving to check every box and fill every square of the law was never enough.  Due to man’s sinful nature, it only served to burden them with a task they couldn’t fulfill perfectly. 

Do you ever find yourself trying to fill every square perfectly?  With what things are you being burdened?  What things in your life have become ‘I have to’ or ‘I must’?

Read Rom 5:5—And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

What does Jesus ask me to do FIRST before He can love me? 

If you answered ‘nothing’ - you are right!  Nothing!  He loved us while we were still sinners…before we ever did any thing to prove we were good enough for His love.

Thank you, Jesus for loving me just the way I am.