Invitation To A Spirit-Filled
Summer
By Jack W. Hayford
I want summertime to "work" FOR YOU…not…WORK
YOU!
Summertime is upon us! And I'm sure you need a pace-change as I
do. This marvelous season of growth in the natural realm
can become the same in our personal lives if we know
how to respond
to it.
However, my personal history had too long a trail of "hectic"
summers, before I found some keys to refreshing ones. Maybe a couple
of thoughts might help you make summertime "work" for
you instead of vice-versa.
INVITATION TO A "SPIRIT-FILLED
SUMMER"
Like a shepherd quieting sheep, I point the way to a Holy Spirit-filled
summertime. I noted how our eyes blur in any season if we haven't
set goals—and rest needs to be planned just as surely as work
does. I suggested targeting guidelines to summer restfulness, and
I'd like to share them with you:
1. PLAN to rest.
I believe in the importance of purpose-filled rest. Anna and I have
learned that "breaking away" doesn't just happen. You're
the same as we are, I'm sure. The press of circumstance will block
the path of needed rest if you don't plan NOW. So make wise plans
for "resting."
2. PREPARE for spiritual
refreshing. Surround yourself with sounds of peace and fill your
heart and mind with visions of the same. What you read, what you
listen to, and how you input your own soul's systems will be decisive.
Keep "hectic" out and let some "wholesome holy"
in.
3. PRIORITIZE prayer
and worship. Vacation time or simply the hubbub of the kids-at-home-all-day
can crowd out our primary need. But I find it greatly refreshing
to go to bed earlier and "beat the crowd" in the morning;
rising an hour earlier and simply "sitting with Jesus"
in the quietness of summer's early-lighted dawns.
Of course, summer planning involves more than this soul-side of
your life: But the construction of our being is such that if you
and I take care of this part of us, everything else falls into place
much more readily and with much more peaceful order.
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Jack
Hayford Ministries
14800 Sherman Way, Van Nuys, CA 91405-2233