It’s writing time! Welcome to this week’s edition of the Five Minute Friday link-up. If you’re new here, we gather every week to freewrite on a single word prompt. Five minutes flat. No editing. Just write.
Click here to learn more about the link-up and how it works.
This week’s FMF writing prompt is: OPINION
Setting my timer for five minutes, and . . . GO.Â
I’ve been convicted lately about the fact that so often, I turn to the opinions of others before I seek the opinion of God. Whether it’s regarding health issues, parenting decisions, relationship dynamics, financial questions . . . more often than not, I ask friends for input before I go to the Lord in prayer.
I’ve been going through the Bible study, God of Covenant, by Jen Wilkin (for a second time, actually), and this past week we read the account of how Abram lied to Pharoah about Sarai and told him she was his sister to protect his own skin. We also read about Sarai giving Hagar to Abram in hopes that they could have an heir through her. In both cases, Abram and Sarai took matters into their own hands. They didn’t seek or submit to God’s will. They lacked trust in the Lord’s promise and depended on their own self-reliance instead. And look how that turned out for them.
But how often do I do the same? How often do I grow impatient, waiting for God to answer my prayers or make His plan known or fix the mess I made, so I try to do it myself? I’m a doer and a fixer, and I want it fixed now. And really, my desire for control and resolve only point to one thing: a lack of trust. A lack of faith. A lack of confidence in the One who sees all, knows all, controls all.
STOP.
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If you’re not on the FMF email list, you may have missed the announcement this week:
After a lot of thought and prayer, I’ve decided to not host the annual 31-Day Writing Challenge this October.
My sincere apologies to those of you who have been looking forward to it.
HOWEVER . . . I do have three resources linked below if you’d like to take the challenge yourself!
Maybe you could find an accountability partner and do the challenge on your own?
Even if you don’t decide to commit to writing for 31 days in a row, I hope these resources will be helpful for you:
The 31-Day Writing Prompt Journal
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Join the link-up with your own five-minute freewrite below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment:Â
If you take three Irishmen
(this joke is not so very new),
and throw out a topic, then
you’ll get four points of view,
and this jibe really works quite well
because it’s so true at the core;
from Dublin out to Donegal,
no chat ever becomes a bore,
for opinions shift and swerve
(for MaryJesusJoseph’s sake!)
and if you can develop nerve,
conversing is a piece of cake,
and herewith my quite last suggestion:
answer each question with a question.
Four minutes fifteen. Now isn’t that grand?
I think we all do this. I’m reading through Kings right now. How often do the leaders ask others? Or go to other gods?
Remembering to ask God first needs to be at the top of our list.
Hi Kayte! Thank you bunches for hosting this amazing group and making a great space for us to gather.