With Reckless Abandon... a Five Minute Friday post.

What is it about Thursday nights that makes my Honey think we are open for meetings? I can't know... but it keeps happening! I hope to be with y'all next week! But until then, here's this:

This is Five Minute Friday (- a five minute timed free write) and our One Word Prompt for the day is: ABANDON

{GO}

The first thought that runs across my mind when I see the One Word Prompt is a phrase that we often throw around in this house and in this heart... 

Worship in Reckless Abandon...

That is our hearts desire...
           it's just that sometimes we forget!

Reckless means without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action and Abandon means to give (oneself) over unrestrainedly... To give up control or to cease intending or attempting to perform.

Um... yes, please!  
What do we need more than to worship like that, right?

Oftentimes we think of Abandon and we think abandonment and it shifts to a negative trigger of emotions, but what if we decided to redeem Abandon and we just give it all over to God?

I know, for me, it's the times when I feel abandoned the most that I need to give myself over to a bit of worshiping with reckless abandon.

I need to get my eyes off of my circumstances and place them back on the hills where my help comes from.  I need to look up and look right into the face of Love and let His nail-scarred Hands pull me close!  

I read the other day in Game Changers by Graham Cooke that:

 "Your circumstances are never the problem. Your perception of the circumstances is the problem. If you really want to get victory in your circumstances you have to see them the way God sees them."

And then this morning, while reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, he said:

 "...most of us give up. We stop praying because we can't see any tangible difference with our natural eyes. We allow our circumstances to get between God and us instead of putting God between us and our circumstances."

I don't know what your circumstances may be today... I'm not sure what kind of wonderful or terrible season you may be in.  Like many of us, it may be a combination of both... but this, I know:

When we invite God to stand in between us and whatever is coming at us... coming for us... He acts as our shield and defense and He covers us with His wings.  He lifts us up and every once in awhile we get a glimpse of things from His perspective.

What a gift.

His perspective is pretty amazing. Partly because He sees all, and partly because from His view of things, fear cannot be filtered in.  There is no worry, doubt, or anxiety from His perspective.

So how do we get even a glimpse of things the way He sees them? 
How do we get a glimpse of US, the way He sees US?

We spend time with Him... we talk with Him and listen for His response.  We read The Word, both written in the Bible and the whispers the Word hides in our hearts.  We cling to His promises... and we turn up the music, y'all!

How do I war when my thoughts don't line up and my circumstances scream that I am abandoned?  I turn up the worship and I give myself over to it, wholly and completely, singing and spinning and loving and praising in reckless abandon!

And oh my... 
  How He loves the dance!

{STOP} 

Sometimes we must choose to worship anyway, right? 

We pray and we seek Him and we offer up a sacrifice of praise and we get our eyes so fixed on Him that we begin to not see everything else. 

We pray a circle around the need or the dream and we thank Him in advance and we lift up our worship with a song of thanksgiving!

*If you are not sure what Worship in Reckless Abandon looks like, well... here ya go:

"There's a line and we've crossed it..."

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the #fmfparty Community today.  Five Minute Fridays gives us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click HERE to read what others have to say about: "ABANDON"

The FMF lowdown: The gathering happens on Twitter on Thursday nights & then we write our hearts out & hit publish all over the interwebs on Thursday & Friday (& sometimes on Tuesdays!) It's where we encourage & uplift... where we share prayer requests & praise reports... where we talk food & friends & we find support & kindred hearts. It's where we are reminded that life is good & God is good & we're not alone... & then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts & our fingers do the talking tapping & we hit publish before we can second guess it all away. We'd love to have you join us!

I'm also linking up with the lovely writer community linked below:

#FreshMarketFriday...

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

LORI SCHUMAKER FOR #MOMENTSOFHOPE

Barbie Swihart for #Glimpsesofhisbeauty

Jennifer Dukes Lee for #TellHisStory

Holly Barrett for #TestimonyTuesday