Last week I said I was taking time from Facebook, and I really meant it. I intended to be gone until some time in 2018, and frankly, I was hoping not to come back then, but that is not what happened. After someone felt the need to enforce that statement through comments and then a private message, I decided to address the issue. Below is my post to Facebook this morning.
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Two people have commented, so I am going to answer the question publicly:
Thought you were taking time off FB. What's the story?
*I* planned to take time off FB. I mean, I shared part of my list with you. Really, FB is not a priority to me, so I was off. In fact, I was off FB for over a year and actually loved it! So, woohoo! No FB for me!
Except....
I don't actually own my time anymore. I gave that up. I don't actually have personal priorities anymore. I gave that up.
When I said, "Jesus, I want everything you have, everything you are. I want all the promises you've made to come to pass. I want to be the place where you and your power invades the earth," I gave up--no, I intentionally handed over--all "personal" opinion and decisions, all small-minded, short-sighted ideas of what is important, and I chose to own, live in, and act in reality of what the Lord says is important and priority to Him.
The fact is all those things I listed do need to be addressed, but they are not eternal priority for Him. The Word says, "Seek first--find and live in--the kingdom of God--what is priority to Him--and all these things shall be added unto you--He will make sure the necessary earth stuff happens as well."
Now, we like to take that verse and make it all about blessings and gifts and getting what we want, but the kingdom of God has never been about things. It is about how we live. It is about WHO we live.
And WHO I live is this: I am a writer and encourager above everything else. I am the voice God uses to speak certain things to certain people at certain times because they need to hear them. I am the one He allows to see people when they are hurting or weary or just flat done. I am the one He allows to stand or fight for those who are too tired to stand for themselves or too tired to fight for themselves. I am the one He uses when He wants to invade a moment in time, a place on the earth, or a person's life.
This does not make me better than anyone else. It does not make me holier than anyone else or more anything. It simply makes me created for this purpose.
Sometimes the whole of life with all the roles I have gets really heavy, and I get incredibly tired, and since God really is the only one I have to walk through this with, I take a break. I step out of everything to breathe, to refocus, to just rest in Him. And frankly, FB with the people who need to fix or criticize or be my self-imposed parent or let me know how they think I need to be living or how I need to be coping is one of the things I really would rather live without. In fact, I pretty much hate that crap, so when I am feeling over-stretched, it is the first thing I am ready to walk away from.
But here is the reality. Those people are the weapons God has said will not prosper against me. Those voices are the tongues God promised I will refute because that is my inheritance as His child and His servant. You know, the person who has handed over my rights and the world's opinions of me so I can live in Him and bring to pass His opinions of me and what is important in His eternal mindset.
Yesterday I spent a lot of time listening to Him talk about how Jesus simply did not give His time to people who didn't get Him, and there were a lot of those people. He said I give too much time to people who don't it because I'm still caught up in the false teaching about "living at peace with everyone". Sometimes it isn't an issue of living at peace or war. Sometimes it is realizing they are not part of my personal eternal plan unless they choose to be. It is called intentionality and focus. Jesus' life is marked with it. It is a defining quality of His. That is what God and I are intensely discussing right now--intentionality and focus. And, yep, there will be people who don't get that or who try to impose their ideas of priority or intentional livnig, but those are not tongues I need to value or honor. Those are the ones my Father says to refute in both Psalm 31 and Isaiah 54, not just in word but also in emotion and response. We are still talking about that because He is unwinding some mixed up theology. He's really amazing patient in His explaining and reordering.
So, that is the Reader's Digtest version of what is going on with me and the FB issue. Not short, but there is so much more in my journal from conversations with the King that I am not adding here but am seeking wisdom in sharing later.
Thanks for taking time to listen, and thank you for your kind prayers.
Love and prayers back,
Jerri
Jerri L. Kelley
www.jerrikelley.com
