When Jesus came to earth, he experienced both joy and sorrow. He was willing for our sake to endure the horrors of the cross. He has sent ahead of us a “cloud of witnesses” – others who have lived through joys and sorrows of their own.
As we keep our eyes on Jesus, we can enjoy more of the joys and live stronger through the sorrows. Many have done it before, and more will continue. God has made it possible.
I like the theme of this verse – the basics of how we need to live. Is this easy? Not for messy, flawed human beings; we tend to complicate things. However, God is ever faithful – perfectly faithful. As we go to Him, He will make this kind of life possible.
Just.
Keep.
Praying.
Life is full of various challenges. We face the trial of living in a sin cursed earth which includes our own sin nature as well as that of others. I find as I wade through the muck and mire of difficulties that I can feel weighed down with negativity. As God teaches me to pray, He sends many hugs. The hugs don’t get rid of the effects of sin, but they help me through.
One hug God has sent me this summer is through hummingbirds. I have a hummingbird feeder on my deck. I don’t often see them, although the sugar water levels have consistently gone down. A few times in the evenings and on the weekend I have seen a hummingbird come up to the feeder and take a drink. One night the hummingbird even flew towards my back door where I was standing and watching. It was amazing.
God often sends blessings through people. One such blessing came from friends of mine. I was chatting with a couple of friends while one member of the household was working on a car. When he brought in an old license plate from one car, I joked about the Vikings license plate cover on my car. I wanted to remove it, but hadn’t gotten to it. I’m not into football and I didn’t want to look like I was a Vikings fan. About 5 minutes after the conversation, he comes back into the house with the Vikings license plate cover. This is one of those “little things” that may seem silly, but is still fun. I like my car much better without the Viking logo on it.
Friends, I know life can weigh us down and blessings seem few and far between. However, the more I watch for blessings the more I believe God shows me. If I am willing to receive as God chooses to give (knowing what is best for me), I will gain more. I pray you see the many blessings (hugs) that God sends.
Psalm 32:8 was the verse of the day in the You Version Bible App recently. This is an interesting concept with our culture of staring into cell phones, tablets and other electronic devices. At first I thought it was written from God’s perspective (a valid application), but as I read the passage and commentary on it, I found that it was the Psalmist seeking to teach others.
God has sent me many advisers over the years. The eyes in the upper left of this picture belong to one of my first advisers – my dad. God sends each of us men and women who are to teach us how to live. We should be willing to learn from them.
As we look our advisers in the eye we need to discern who they are following. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, the apostle Paul teaches, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” We should only seek advisers who are seeking Christ. Sadly, there are false leaders who seek fame for themselves instead of giving the honor and glory to God. As we seek God by reading His Word and praying, we will know who is following Christ and who is leading for themselves. This is not to say that we will find perfect advisers, only Jesus Christ is perfect. However, we can find advisers who live for Christ.
Who will you allow to look you in the eye? I pray you have advisers to invest in your spiritual walk and lead you to become more like Jesus Christ. His way is best.
Christmas a couple of years ago, my dad built a fire in their fire pit. There wasn’t much snow so it was possible. I thoroughly enjoyed the special memory.
My parents have enjoyed this fire pit for some years. The rocks are a nice border. My parents have watched with interest as the heat of the fire has cracked some of these rocks into separate pieces. When I saw some of the broken rocks, I knew I needed to take a picture to use for a blog post.
I have two thoughts about the broken rocks.
First, when the heat is turned up in our lives we can break. God allows trials to change us (James 1). The pain is excruciating at the time. No one likes the pain of breaking. However, God has a plan for the pain. God changes us into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29).
The other thought is more difficult. Sometimes we allow our hearts to become hardened. God, in His love, brings trials to discipline us (Hebrews 12). Sometimes those trials break us.
Friend, if you are broken, I pray that you have the first kind of brokenness. The second is the result of pushing God aside. That is never a good place to be.
Either way, seek Christ. Allow Him to work and change you. There is no better place to be than broken and in God’s hands.
Just.
Keep.
Praying
Last summer I received day lilies from a friend of mine. I had so much fun planting them and writing about what I learned. I have enjoyed watching these flowers come back this year. They are pretty and cheerful.
Last summer when I planted them, I talked about our idea of perfection. We like to plan and lay things out so they will be “just so”. However, being flawed human beings living in a sin cursed earth, we don’t have perfection in this life. Too often we chase after wrong things – spending our energy on forcing the life we think we need.
This year my flowers came back beautifully and are starting to fill in the space where they are planted. They haven’t completely filled the space beside the garage, but they will. Day lilies are strong flowers that grow and spread. That is how God made them and how He allows them to flourish.
So how about letting go and letting God grow the beauty in your life? I know, it is very hard to do sometimes We want to take control and make things turn out “just right”. I can safely promise you that God’s way and timing are the best. We will have just a mess, but God will grow perfectly spaced flowers.
God has reminded me over the years that He is to be the object of my service. The tagline for my blog is “Make God Your Everything”. Galatians 3:23-24 is the reason. Everything we do should be for God.
I know I can fall into the trap of thinking serving at church is the only way to serve God. Being a part of a local church is important (Hebrews 10:25). However, everything we do is either service for the Lord or ourselves. Yes – everything.
When service gets difficult, I can fall into the pit of serving for the wrong reasons. I believe we should show appreciation to one another, but that cannot be the desired result of service. Honoring God should be the goal in everything we do.
I have fought the battle of the wrong view of service. Have you? We need to seek to stay on the path of serving God in all we do. Will you join me?
I know we all have times that are tough. Sometimes a close friend or loved one is facing the difficulty. Our first desire is to try to fix things. While I believe in seeking solutions to problems, I think we try to take God’s job into our own hands.
So when times get tough, go to God. He is waiting for us to take all our problems to Him. He will do what He does best; provide the best solution at the right time.
Just.
Keep.
Praying.
Have you ever had a bad day? A bad week? Or a time of life when you consistently feel low? We all have. Did someone reach out to you? A friend of mine calls it “being God with skin on”.
Friends, we all have dark times. We all need help sometime. God commands us to reach out (Galatians 6:2). So please be aware – there may be someone near you that needs your help. Ronald Reagan used to say, “We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” Are you ready? God will show you who needs your help and He will show you how to help them.
Friends who are hoping for someone to reach out to you: look to God. He is the first point of contact for help in all situations. Too often we want a person to fix things instead of allowing God to work in our lives. So talk to Him. God will send the person you need.
Who is ready to reach out? It doesn’t necessarily take much. A text message, a hello on Facebook, a smile – simple is often best. You might be the ray of sunshine someone needs.
Most of us have probably heard the Golden Rule. “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” However, a few years ago I read about the Golden Result on Ken Sande’s Relational Wisdom blog. “Other people will usually treat you the way you treat them.” This is similar to Galatians 6:7, which tells us that we will reap what we sow.
If we plant seeds of kindness, respect, humility and love, we reap those same things. The same is true about the negative. If we sow anger, discord, manipulation and hatred, we will often receive the same treatment from those around us.
So the next time you are around negative people, think about the seeds you can plant. Many times people who behave badly need some kindness. They will often respond well to the positive. While this is not a guarantee, I believe we will find this true often. Either way, for those of us that say we love God, we should seek to sow positive seeds and pull the weeds of negativity.
May God be glorified in the “plants” that grow in our lives.
Pleading in Prayer 