To Do, To Done

The kind of religion that God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, and lifeless “wouldings”—those weak inclinations that lack convictions—that raise us but a little above indifference. God, in his word, greatly insists that we be in good earnest, fervent in spirit, and that our hearts be engaged vigorously in our religion.” By Jonathan Edwards



I was told once from a Native American that her belief in God was not a religion but a relationship with the Creator. Shockingly enough it was the first time I had ever heard it phrased that way and I liked what I heard. According to Webster religion is an organized system of faith, service and worship of God. Hummmmm…..it doesn’t say anything about something we believe in and that’s it. It goes far beyond that but it’s a journey that needs to be taken intentionally.


Indeed it’s not a once a week trip to church consisting of a bunch of weak, dull and lifeless “wouldings.” I would like to do this, I would do that if I could, I would have been but I couldn’t….” and the list goes on. The truth is when the Lord returns He needs to find us in a good earnest, fervent spirit with our hearts engaged so vigorously in our religion that the time flies so quickly towards His return that we hardly even notice.


Our relationship with the Lord needs to be strong and alive, something so full of action we don’t have time to make a “I would” list but a “done list.” At work we have what we call an “Idea board.” There are four sections in it 1) Ideas 2) What needs to be done 3) what we are doing and 4) Done. So far most of the filled out papers are under the “Ideas” section and only one has made it to the “Done” area. The one done task was the fact that the idea board was finally done.


We can’t put up an idea board of good intentions to do for God consisting of categories of 1) could 2) would 3) should of 4) Almost done. We need to intentionally live for the Lord. It really amazes me that the mountains, flowers, birds, and even a pile of rocks can glorify God and all they have to do is stand there. We need to be living in such a way that without saying a word we glorify God in our actions.


It’s our job to take ourselves from the “to do” to “done” list for Jesus Christ. A good place to start is our relationship with Him. We need to develop it as you would any other relationship. Nurture it and treat it like anything that has the ability to grow and it will definitely flourish. We don’t need two green thumbs to do it but a heart that is diligently seeking a system of faith, service and worship of God. When we do this we quickly will find ourselves going from religion to a relationship with our Creator, Lord and Savior, Jesus himself.

This is done down a working path that is blazed by the actions of our hearts, the obedience of our minds, and the willingness of our souls to follow the One who has the ability to lead us into eternity with the Lord. It’s definitely not down a “woulding” path of half baked ideas with no commitment to take it further that merely believing in a superior being.


We really need to think about what we want out of life. Is it going to be a half-baked religion or a fully done relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? The choice is ours. Why else would God have said, “Well DONE, good and faithful servant.” Let the journey begin to the “done” not just the doing. I love you, Jesus!

© 2012 Karen Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes