Daily Bread

Luke 11:3 Give us each day our daily bread.

Boy this is a tough one for me, the planner.  I like to know what's coming.  I like to be ahead of the curve and be prepared.  This section of The Lord's Prayer is always one that gives me pause. Each Sunday when I say this portion, I pray a little extra prayer asking God to help me to be thankful for the fact that I am taken care of today. I pray that God would remind me that He worries about the day for me and He is taking care of me tomorrow because He is who holds it. I'm learning to enjoy the moment, the day, and be grateful for how God's providence has brought me to the moment.  It isn't easy and there are definitely days where I don't do well with this at all.  I have a long way to go in living this verse in my heart and soul.  Thankfully, the Spirit in me is working on it for me.

The Challenge of Prayer

Luke 11:2 He said to them, "When you pray, say; 'Father, hallowed by your name, your kingdom come.'

I realize I have stopped right in the middle of the prayer we all know as The Lord's Prayer, but it is purposeful. I want to focus on this first line. I feel like I don't do a good job of meditating who God is when I say this prayer.  I feel like it has become very rote and rehearsed and that makes me sad. Today I am thinking only of this first line.  The holiness of God is not only in who He is, but it is even in His name. There is power in the name of Jesus, and we don't always recognize it, or at least I don't.  Then we have the line of "your kingdom come", which is really about seeking God's kingdom first and getting a little Heaven while we are here on earth.  I feel like I need to do a better job in my prayer life, because I know I am not always going at my prayers with this in mind, seeking His kingdom and experiencing Heaven here.  I'm usually aiming for some kind of relief from pain, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual or I'm asking for something to make life simpler. How would my prayers change if my focus was on God's perspective of my life instead of my perspective? Hmm...

His Word

Psalm 33:11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

This is a comforting verse to me.  Even though I don't know what tomorrow holds, I know that God absolutely does.  He is preparing a way for me and that way cannot be thwarted. This entire Psalm is lovely to read, praise to God and hope in Him. I find that sometimes all I need to do is sit and read through the Psalms and my spirit is rejuvenated. I am reminded of what I know. Read Psalm 33 today and let God speak life into your soul with His Word.

It's a Heart Thing

1 Corinthians 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

I like this reminder. One of my favorite thoughts about getting to know Jesus is taking the knowledge that we have in our heads and getting it into our hearts. Heart knowledge changes everything. This is one of those topics that can also be hard. We often want to convince people about Jesus by what we know. This rarely works. Sometimes people are interested in the factoids we can pull out, or the historical references beyond the Bible that show Jesus' existence.  These things are just what I called them, factoids. They might help change a mind, but they definitely won't do anything to the heart.  And the same holds true for all of the head knowledge we can use to answer questions about the Bible or God, it won't change a heart. Love is what changes people.  Think about how you feel when you know someone loves you. It makes everything okay. It changes your outlook. The same is true of the love of God, except that it is even more potent.  Love from others makes us happy and gives us something to look forward to. Love from God brings us deep joy and gives us hope in all things. We can know with our heads that we are going to Heaven when we die, but that won't make living easier. However, when we live with Christ in our hearts, "to live is Christ and to die is gain" becomes a reality. Get to know Jesus with your heart and see what happens!

Little Trials of Faith

Lamentations 3:24 I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

Sometimes life takes us to a pit where all we have left is Jesus. We feel a complete loss of control and our effort seems all for naught. We are walking in the valley. How many of us get there and are able to say these words from Lamentations?  I'll admit, they are not the first words to come to my mind.  My first go to is to tell God of my frustration and whine a little. It doesn't matter at that point that my situation isn't nearly that of someone else; I'm still in an 'oh, woe is me' frame of mind.  So what does it take to get to the point where this statement, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.", is our go to phrase? I think there are a couple of things for us to consider. The first one being when we are broken down so far that we really have nothing left to go on. Our self is completely empty and we only have Jesus in us, which is right where we always need to be.  The first time that happens, we experience the deepest peace we can ever reach. Jesus in us knowing what to do and doing it, that provides a peace that passes all understanding.  The second item for consideration is how much time we are spending with Jesus on a daily basis. Is Jesus a portion of our day in any and all circumstances? Do we make time for Him each and every day so that when our circumstances fall apart, we can find peace in Him? This is not easy. The trust needed to wait on the Lord is a journey of little trials of faith throughout our lives.  I thank God I have a lifetime to get there!

Maybe For One

2 Corinthians 1:4 He comforts us every time we have trouble, so when others have trouble, we can comfort them with the same comfort God gives us.

Sometimes our struggle and discomfort is not about us. Yes, we can learn from it and gain a deeper relationship through God and the understanding He gives us in those times. The bigger picture is that some of those things happen to us for other people.  There are multiple ways God can reveal Himself to others when we go through trials.  It may be in the peace we are given. It may be in the hope we talk about. A person might be able to see wisdom through the trial or God's strength on the journey. In the case of the verse above, Paul is talking about how we can extend God's comfort to those who are experiencing something we have gone through.  Our trials make us more empathetic and give our presence and words more spiritual authority. Difficulties are things we get to experience for our own growth, but sometimes they are about bringing one person to Jesus.  That's not always easy to see or understand.  God just loves people that much.

Wherever You Wish

Jeremiah 40:4 But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. If you want to, come with me to Babylon, and I will take good care of you. But if you don't want to come, then don't. Look, the whole country is open to you. Go wherever you wish.

Wow, what a moment for Jeremiah. God has done what He said He would do to the nation and now Jeremiah is able to go home, essentially.  But he is offered whatever he wishes by the commander who found him. I don't even know what it would be like to be offered such an open ended decision.  Go wherever you wish. I always think it's what I want, for God to say, "Do what you want to do." And then when I read this passage, I think, I would probably do what Jeremiah did, go to my family. I would go back to what I know. I don't know that I actually want to be in charge of my life. When I'm just given the thought of complete free reign, I can't handle it.  I want to seek God even more and discern His perfect will and follow it. Something about His control is peaceful and hopeful. I'm in seeking mode right now, so maybe that is why I feel that way.

Surrender

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?

Alas, we try so hard. Why is it that we have such good intentions on the front end of transformation and then find ourselves regripping that which we had let go?  We fall into that trap of attempting to just do one or two things that seem to be a good idea, but ultimately are us trying to control life. There is no magic way to surrender.  It is a daily practice we must do. We must invite Jesus to be a part of our lives and daily surrender our will to Him. There is so much we can do on our own and sometimes it is tempting to just do it.  Other times it is not even a temptation to do it on our own, we will find ourselves doing it without even thinking, a habit almost.  I ask God to show me those things that I tend to keep for myself to work on instead of turning them over to the Spirit.  It is easy to fall into the trap as the Galatians did and lean on the flesh.  Living by the Spirit takes time and practice. It's all a part of the journey. Surrender.

Strengthening Faith

Romans 4:20-21 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

Do you find waiting difficult? Me too. Even in the times when I am completely convinced that God has a plan and I know he has the power to do what he says, I am impatient.  This verse in Romans is a shout out to Abraham.  Abraham was very old and had to wait a very long time for his promised son, Isaac.  Yet, Abraham's waiting strengthened his faith and the timing, Abraham and Sarah being very old, allowed God to receive even more glory for the promise. What can we do while we wait to strengthen our faith? I have found for me it is a revisiting of the promises God has given before and His faithfulness in fulfilling them.  This is not my first experience with faith with God.  I have to revisit all of those things where God has done what He said He would do.  Some of those are from the Bible, like Abraham's story, others are from my parents' stories that they lived out in front of us, and others still are from my own personal experiences with God.  When I start to list all of the ways God has been faithful and fulfilled His promises, my faith is strengthened and I can give God the glory again for those great deeds. Then I am given another portion of patience to wait with great expectancy of what God will do next.  Oh, the joy of living in the power of the resurrection!

Keep it Personal

Mark 8:26 Jesus told him to go home, saying, "Don't go into the town."

I always find it fascinating that when Jesus would do miracles, he sometimes would tell people to keep it to themselves. This is something I need to consider.  In today's world, I feel like with social media and the ease of getting/sharing information, we share everything that is going on in our lives.  However, I know there are times where God is asking me to not share, to keep certain moments for myself.  What is the purpose in that? I believe it has to do with creating moments that are just for God and me.  They are memories and experiences that only are for Him and me to share and grow my personal relationship with Jesus and keep it a personal relationship.  I think of the moments that I have with Dalton that are just between him and me. We share special times that are not posted on Facebook or Instagram and they are relationship strength builders.  I need to be doing the same thing with Jesus.  Not everything needs sharing, and I need to listen to the Spirit when He prompts me to keep it to myself.

Valleys and Mountaintops

James 5:11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

There are so many verses about perseverance and hope in the Bible.  Verses that talk about the suffering and hardship. Right on the heels are the verses about compassion and mercy and grace. I know I have written about it before, but I wonder why we need to have the suffering and hardship in order to fully experience the compassion and mercy of God. What is it in our human nature that makes us so bent on being the one who gets the glory when times are good, but complaining to God when times are hard?  I have gained so much more in those times of difficulty and the Lord's compassion and mercy are more deeply understood. I hope that as times get better and I am back on the mountaintop once again, whenever that comes, that I am able to keep my focus on Jesus and give Him all of the glory there too.  Life is full of valleys and mountaintops simply because we need them.  Our brokenness cries out for both valleys and mountaintops because we need the closeness of Christ in the valleys and the rest in Him on the mountaintops. We were made to live in Jesus, and we can only do that when we suffer with him and rejoice with him, valleys and mountaintops.

Goals and Desires

Ecclesiastes 2:11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

This wisdom is kind of sad to read. It seems very hopeless. And yet, I totally get what Solomon was saying. We put all of our efforts into earthly goals. We aim for success and set our small goals to meet the great goal. As he says here, it is all meaningless.  We all end up in the same spot anyway. We all have the same ending, death on earth. Happy, right? The focus for us has to be Jesus. Our focus in this life must be Jesus in order to have the gain of Heaven after death.  And the more beautiful hope is that if we focus on Jesus while living on earth, we will get glimpses of Heaven as we journey. Life is meaningless when we chase after our own goals and desires.  We become lost in our selfishness and cannot find life. Our hope is in Christ living in Him because He is the life, He even said it, "I am the way, the truth, and the life". Our goals and desires need to be first set on Christ and then all other things will be added, including meaning.

Life Goal

1 Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for what is right,  you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened."

Oh, this is a hard word.  Prior to this, Peter discusses blessing those who insult or wrong you.  Ugh!  Not easy to do!  It is hard for me to let God deal with the justice side of life.  I want everything to be fair and just. I like for people to get what's coming to them. And then I type that last sentence and my brain goes straight to, "But praise be to God that 'in yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.'" Oh, right. Salvation is not earned.  Love from God is not earned.  If I am to live in Christ, I am called to love unconditionally.  The hard part is trusting that God will take care of the justice, that He will do something to those who have wronged us. God has been reminding me for about the last six months that justice is for Him to handle. I still fall into my own plan of justice, but I just do it with the silent treatment instead of outright calling people out.  That's not good either. I'm asking God to soften my heart that the Spirit in me would "bless those who persecute you" and make me the living embodiment of Jesus in, around, and through me.  That's a life goal.

Mind, Body, and Soul

Psalm 48:9 Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.

Meditation is a lost art, in my opinion.  We have become so busy and our minds race with what's next on our priority list. I once heard a speaker by the name of Pete Hall, he's in education, make the statement, "Schedule your priorities, don't prioritize your schedule." In my job, that instigated major change and renewed a passion. I was so worn out and couldn't seem to get caught up on the job tasks, that I had lost my vigor. However, when I started to schedule my priorities, I got back to doing the things I loved about my job and didn't allow the distractions to take over.  I believe this to be true in our walk with Jesus too, and I have applied it in my spiritual life as well. I schedule my time with Jesus because it is important to me, a priority.  When I do that, I can tell that my stress levels are lower and my strength is renewed. At times I have even gone so far as to spend time simply listening to meditation music and focusing solely on Jesus for 10-15 minutes. Those times, that meditation on Jesus, is so life giving. It is hard to describe. It is mind, body, and soul renewal all within a few minutes.  Speaking of this, I am feeling the prompting to begin that practice again. I'm going to add that to my time with Jesus for this season of life. I will meditate on Your unfailing love, Lord.

Press On!

Philippians 4:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

There are days where I am reminded of my old self.  Little things that creep back into my mind that Satan tries to use to distract me from the goal. My forgiveness is taken care of in Christ. God has washed me clean and I am a new creation. Sometimes it's harder for me to forgive myself and move on, than it is to understand that God has forgiven me.  I cling to those things for some strange reason. I don't know if it's a way I keep myself in check, keep my control intact maybe.  I don't know. I need the reminder of the forgiveness of God and then the next step of forgetting what is behind and seeking Him first.  No more remembering the bad things and holding on to them as if they are important.  It's time to reach heavenward and walk in Christ with confidence and assurance.  I am loved. I am worth it. I am God's. I am a new creation. Press on!

Take a Risk

Esther 4:14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

I was sent to this verse today and was surprised by what it was, the "for such a time as this" verse. Esther was prepared her entire life for this moment, to save the nation. Where she was and why she was there had nothing to do with her. It was all about God and His doing. He put her in the palace in such an unlikely way and then she is called to bring deliverance. It was not an easy decision for Esther to speak with the king.  She could have easily been killed for doing so.  Her step of faith in choosing to speak for the nation was very risky.  What is God asking you to do that seems risky?  Is it possible that He has put you in a time and position to do something outrageous? This is particularly exciting for me to ponder.

Moving Forward

Lamentations 3:25-26 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Oh how I enjoy reading Lamentations!  There are so many verses in chapter 3 that I wanted to write about today, but these were my choice. In the midst of a struggle, these are the words I needed today. Seeking God is all I can be about these days.  There is excitement with the possibilities that lie ahead, yet there is major sadness in what I am leaving behind.  What is it about moving forward that is so difficult?  Why do we desire to stay in what we know or go back to what we know?  Why are we so afraid to step out and try something new or different? The faith that moving forward takes is special in its own way.  Faith in moving forward is about expectancy and hope. It requires us to look back, not go back, but look back on God's faithfulness for assurance and seek Him anew as we move forward. It is not about expecting God to do the same things He has done in the past.  It is about seeking what God is doing now. I don't know about you, but I tend to get slightly impatient.  We want answers and understanding. Unfortunately, sometimes when we are seeking God, we are confused and lost due to the fact that we are seeking God anew, not just finding patterns of His works.  If we seek Jesus, answers and understanding won't be necessary and we will wait quietly for the Lord.  Jesus brings great peace and calm in the midst of moving forward, for He is all we need.

Not Easy, But Good

Romans 5:3-5 No only so, be we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

I just love Romans so much!  What a great book Paul wrote, well, letter I guess!  And he says it so well! Honestly, I have no fancy words to add to this or anything to even make it resonate more.  My heart is ringing with these words and I'm soaking in their true meaning. We want to say that suffering is bad and we want to shield our loved ones from it.  But here we have truth. Suffering produces so much in us and we are grown to a depth that produces hope in the midst of all things.  It's good to be in the pit. Oh, if we could only believe this statement and live it out.  I didn't say it was easy to be in the pit, nope, I said it is good. The grace of God is at it's zenith when we are in the lion's den dependent solely on the saving of the Holy Spirit.  When we are at our weakest point, God's power is mighty.  That's the deal. Suffering will refine your soul like nothing else.

Ready For Life... and Death

Proverbs 27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

This verse has been ringing for me for quite some time now.  With a new day, come new mercies from God, of which we are in desperate need.  Most of the time we don't even realize how important God's mercy is or how impacting it can be.  From good things to tragedy we are unsure of what tomorrow holds.  We can make all of our beautiful plans and have each moment ready for living, but the reality is that we are not in control of any of our minutes.  God knows our days and the number of them.  He knows what we will encounter and how we will respond. We are made for redemption through a life in Christ. The only way we get through tomorrow, and don't worry ourselves about what's coming, is to live life in Christ and know that He holds tomorrow in His hands already. My prayer is always that God go before me, wherever He sends me. I walk in that faith each morning with the assurance that I am walking in the footsteps God has prepared, holding the hand of my friend Jesus, and being guided along with way by the Spirit.  He is bigger than any circumstance and that's what makes me ready for life... and death.  It doesn't matter what tomorrow brings, or if it even comes, because I personally know the One who holds tomorrow... and me.  In Paul's words, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." Truth.

Love Builds Up

1 Corinthians 8:1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

As a lifelong learner and someone who thirsts for knowledge, it is important for me to always think with love in mind first before knowledge. I am often frustrated with people who "forget what they know". It kind of drives me bonkers.  And horrible would it be if I responded to them out of my knowledge? I would be so condescending and rude.  My goal is to always start with love. If I start with love, the chances of my knowledge being received with a softer heart are increased tenfold.  And if I respond in love, I will not be a stumbling block to my brothers and sisters because I will learn from them what they really understand before I speak knowledge that is beyond what they know in the first place.  We are called to love one another, to build one another up. Our responses to one another must be in love first, because only then will we be able to teach the heart.  (Please note that I have said "teach" the heart, not "change" it.  Changing hearts is God's job, not ours.)

Constant Reminders

Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The true test of our thankfulness and faithfulness to the Father is in the valley. I don't know about you, but for me it is hardest to get to a thankful heart in the midst of life when its crummy.  When the really horrible circumstances are reality and you are in the pit, where is the thankfulness then? How do I say or do things in the name of the Lord when I am suffering?  Our ability to do this, whether in good times or bad, comes from the Holy Spirit within us.  When we live in the power of the Spirit our hearts are turned toward Jesus and our words and actions become his. It is having Christ in me that makes me thankful and the Spirit's work in me that affects my words and deeds.  Am I perfect? No, I mess up a lot.  Do I always do things in the name of Jesus? No, I don't.  I am a work in progress who constantly needs reminders like this scripture to keep my focus on Jesus.