About 12 years ago, I began a journey to stop doing more for God. At the time, and even now, it probably sounds like the wrong direction to take.
This had nothing to do with shifting from serving God to serving myself. Rather, it came from a mindset shift that began when I heard a familiar verse taught in a way I hadn’t considered before.
A couple of posts ago, I wrote about how not every good opportunity is necessarily our assignment. You can read more about it here: I Struggled With So Many Good Things. Learning to discern what belongs in our hands is important. But eventually I realized another question needed answering:
Why did I come to interpret faithfulness as doing more?
Somewhere along life’s way, I began interpreting faithfulness as adding more to my plate and, consequently, to my calendar. More commitments. More volunteering. More projects. If there was a blank space on my calendar then it must mean it’s open for a reason. Yes. Yes. Yes. But to what end? Beyond my sense of feeling faithful, that is.
Looking back, I think that’s where it ended. Somewhere, without even realizing it, I started measuring faithfulness by how much I could carry. I wasn’t trying to earn God’s love, but maybe I was trying to somehow prove my devotion—to Him, to others, and maybe even to myself.
It made me wonder: had I been attaching God’s name to expectations He never placed on me?
Then I heard Psalm 90:12 differently:
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” —Psalm 90:12
God certainly gives us things to do. Scripture speaks often about obedience, service, good works, assignments, and stewardship.
The issue isn’t doing. It’s believing that continually adding more somehow proves my faithfulness to God.
I discovered God doesn’t need me to do everything. He doesn’t need me to continually add more to my plate to somehow prove my devotion to Him—or to others. Instead, He invites me to walk with Him and faithfully steward what He already entrusted to me.
In other words, He may ask me to do the thing He’s given me to do, but that’s very different than carrying every opportunity that presents itself to me.
What I learned about Psalm 90:12 is that it wasn’t asking me to do more. It was asking me to gain wisdom about what God was actually asking of me each day. That realization changed how I viewed faithfulness. It also changed the way I approached my days. Instead of trying to squeeze more life into them, I began learning how to receive more life from the days God had already given me. I’ll share more about that soon.