He stretches us to grow us. The upgrade is an invitation for increase in your capacity.
Don’t compromise who you are.
Deb Peacock
For some, this season is a time of stretching. Someone recently gave me the word: obedience in the stretch. There is a stretch going on right now. It’s a challenge. There is more to contend with, more responsibility, more pressure, more assignments. You might have heard the word UPGRADE and feel the pull up into bigger spaces.
ACKNOWLEDGE THE STRETCH
What an encouragement it was to hear there really is a stretch going on. I’m not making it up, it is happening! A stretch is just that- it is meant to STRETCH us. Often we feel afraid of the stretch assuming that we are not elastic and we will break. But if the Lord is behind it, it is not meant to break us, it is meant to grow us. The Lord is good and so we can trust a stretch that is from him, that he stretches us to grow us. Even if it is not from the Lord, we know that when we journey through it WITH the Lord, we will not break but we will grow.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:37
AGREE WITH THE STRETCH
Unfortunately while we agree to the new responsibility, the new assignment, we often refuse the stretching part of what is happening. We don’t like feeling stretched and thinner on the ground. We don’t like having less reserves. It’s uncomfortable so we resist. Sometimes we are resisting the very upgrade we have longed for - it seems beautiful from a distance but the reality to get there is hard.
The resistance to stretching part of the upgrade means we try to fit the new load into our current lives as they are. We can’t fit it in so we cut out healthy, important, essential aspects of the day to make it happen.
God was showing me afresh that we are a child of God first which means we need time and space and activity dedicated to being this in our lives. We all have healthy practice that is required for this essential part of us to stay primary. It includes sabbath activity that happens daily and weekly and yearly. It brings freedom, delight, restoration where we are child and God is God. We are carefree under his wing.
When the new assignment comes, the upgrade of responsibility, if we don’t trust that we can grow and stretch or we don’t agree to it, we will have to find the time and space to do it anyway because here it is upon us. So we tend to ditch our “child of God” time, activity and space to fit it in. You might have stopped spending time with him, stopped caring for your health, stopped doing things you love, stopped Sabbath practise.
This leads to tiredness in a weary way, feelings of everything being draining, feelings of feeling deaf or blocked to what God is saying, trouble finding joy and delight again.
To agree with the stretch, agree with the truth: YOU CAN GROW AND YOUR CAPACITY CAN EXPAND.
If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honourable, and if you honour it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 58:13-14
PRAY FOR INCREASE IN CAPACITY
Instead of letting the upgrade squash out who you are, pray for an increase in capacity. The Lord loves to help us with what he has called us to. The Lord also loves to help us to traverse what Satan has thrown our way.
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10
DON’T COMPROMISE
Whatever has come your way, refuse to compromise on your space and identity as a child of God. Leaders have much responsibility to lead but they at the heart are a child, they are a child of God. Every person is made to remain as a child of God throughout their life no matter where they go, and what they are called to. It is within us, this identity as his child, so we will only maintain joy and contentment when we are living as that first in our lives.
If anything, when the increase comes and you feel the pressure or the stretch, increase the time, space and activity as a child of God to help you be able to do the assignment increase.
When the Lord brings the upgrade, resist temptation to compromise on your healthy practise as a child of God and pray for increase, pray for an increase in your capacity.
Lord for those you are calling to increase, to step up into more in their role, their calling and responsibilities I pray you would increase their capacity, increase them, grow them and help them to allow you to stretch them and grow them. I pray they trust you in the stretch and do not compromise on who they are in you - child of God.
Blessings
Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. Do not be afraid; you will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband— the Lord Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.
Isaiah 54:2-5