“Reset! It is time to recognize the need to start over. Wipe the slate clean and begin again by getting your priorities in order and doing what is important for this season.”
Small Straws in a Soft Wind by Marsha Burns
Growing up one of the rules in our family was that I had to eat all the food on my plate. I had to clean the plate!
When I got older, we went out to restaurants quite a bit and I was too old for the kids menu. Adult plates cost a lot more than the kid’s menu and I had to finish everything on my plate. Unfortunately in a restaurant there was no dog that I could sneak the food under the table.
Sometimes clearing my plate was of my own doing. One time we went to an all-you-can eat buffet and they had shrimp.
Yum!
My plate was filled with shrimp so high you could not see my face as I walked back to my table. I loved shrimp. Except this time when I ate everything on my plate, I ended up in the bathroom sick from the sheer amount of food I ingested.
Clearing my plate was not always a good trait the older I got as I was trying to keep my weight down. I’ve learned that doggie bags, or “a box”, as they are now called is a great alternative to digesting large quantities of food. The bonus is that I don’t feel guilty wasting the food, yet I can keep healthy portions.
God clears our plates too!
You may be in a season where it seems like everything is dropping off of you. (and I don’t mean weight!) Some call this pruning, but honestly that word is way overused in the Christian community. This season is different than pruning. It is a season for positioning you for the next thing that God is about to bring to you.
Cleaning your plate might look like the loss of some friends, business deals that were a “sure thing” that was given to other companies, or jobs that were lost. It could also be loss of clients or a change of churches.
One reaction is to freak out over the losses that are occurring and get really introspective – thinking it was something that you did. Sometimes it is, but in this particular season it is God. The only way to tell the difference is to ask God in prayer if this is something He is doing, or something that he wants you to change.
At one time in my business it seemed like all my clients were leaving all of a sudden. They were leaving on good terms, but it was still disturbing. My mentor told me to take this situation to God in prayer and ask Him if there was anything that needed to change in me or if this was His plan right now.
As I took it to God I was sensing that He was positioning me for this new season.
God was clearing my plate!
When God has gifted us with many skills, talents, and abilities the tendency for a lot of people is to do the next thing that comes along. We CAN so therefore it MUST be what we are supposed to do.
Just because we CAN do something, doesn’t mean that we are MEANT to do it. We need to be strategic in what we allow on our plate.
Clearing our plate is a positioning move by God to allow the space to then bring the next thing that He has in our lives.
Just like the restaurant your plate can be full simply because other people are putting things on your plate, or it could be because you’re piling your own plate super high.
The end result is that you can overwork, burn out, or get sick in the process.
Today consider what is on your plate.
Is there something that YOU need to take off your plate?
Do it!
Are there things that God is removing off your plate?
Let Him!
God is positioning you for the breakthrough and you are entering a new season!
“One thing only is essential, and Mary has chose it – it’s the main course,
and won’t be taken from her.”
Luke 10:42 (NIV)
One fateful decision landed me smack in the middle of my own Wilderness…
Though I was obeying God’s voice, I spent the next several years “walking on water,” even though it felt more like I was treading water. A Journey Out of the Wilderness is for people going through a rough time—a Wilderness experience—where you feel as though you are “down for the count” and ready to give up. Wilderness Wanderers feel as though they are doing laps around the mountain, passing the same tree over and over again wondering, “Will this never end?” However, being in the Wilderness will be one of the most transformational times of your life.