On my heart…

Hey, everyone! It’s been a while, and it is said that confession is good for the soul. I have been sliding lately. I’ve let this, that, and something else come in between me and the Lord and have neglected to read/study my Bible. There. That’s done. Time for a 180 and run the other direction.

I was scrolling through Instagram this morning and came across a woman lamenting over feeling overwhelmed and under accomplished and under appreciated. She’s a mom trying to do it all and feeling like she is failing miserably.

Well, I put that away because I was so frustrated and upset at not only her laments, but also her language – that’s a blog for another day.

Then I got out my Bible study for today. Here is the bit of a verse that I am focusing on today –

Romans 12:12 – “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

I’m focusing on “patient in affliction”. Now, other versions transcribe it as “in the tribulation, abiding/remaining/enduring”.

Patience/endurance is something that I rarely pray for, if I’m honest. I know that if I choose to ask for this virtue, I’m going to have to go through some tough times to even come close to getting it semi-correct. And, if you are like me, going through tough times is not your cup of tea. But, I have found, they come anyway. Especially in today’s world. It’s hard. It’s hard if you’re working. It’s hard if you’re retired. It’s hard if you are a parent. It’s hard if you are a student. It’s hard if you’re married. It’s hard if you’re single.

That being said – Life is hard.

In John 15:1-8, Jesus isn’t speaking to unbelievers. He is speaking to His followers. He is speaking to people that have made the choice to accept the Truth and have chosen Him as their Savior – their Provider of salvation and freedom from sin and the Law. He is wanting them to stay close to Him. He wants them to allow Him to make them more than they are at that time. He wants them to stay (abide/remain/endure) with Him no matter what. No matter if He changes/alters/fixes the circumstances or situations or not. He wants them to be next to Him. Remain in Him.

Remaining/enduring/abiding is hard. It’s easy to slide away. It’s easy to sit down and just slowly creep away than to stand firm.

The reason for this is tribulation. Tribulation, or affliction in the quoted verse, isn’t necessarily what is talked about in prophecy – The Great Tribulation. No, this is something more like what we see every day. It’s what I saw on Instagram this morning. It’s feeling pressure from every direction. It’s society telling you that you aren’t good enough or smart enough or accomplished enough or pretty enough because you aren’t doing this, this and this. It’s the generally accepted idea that if you don’t have your calendar packed full and you aren’t 100% successful in each and every situation, then you aren’t enough. And if you can’t do these things quickly enough, then you are a failure – you’re weak – you’re not worthy. For me, that is the tribulation mentioned here.

But God….

When you look at the original word for “patient” in this verse, it has a prefix. This prefix means “under, beneath, below, underneath”. In essence, the word used in Romans 12:12 for “patient” means – “to stay under, or behind, to remain, to persevere, endure, to abide, to undergo or bear, regardless of the situation and the corresponding decisions and actions of others”.

To put that into my own words, “in the tribulation, abiding/remaining/enduring” means no matter what the world (Satan) throws at you, no matter how under accomplished/overwhelmed/under appreciated you feel, stay under the wing of your Savior – stay close to Him and don’t sit down and start to slide – stay where it is warm and cozy and safe – you are enough – He has loved you so much that so many years ago He died for you – stay with Him.

Our world needs to hear this. Our world is suffering from all the yuck the devil puts out there. Too many people are feeling they are not enough. They don’t know or understand how to abide because it has never been an option. We have this freedom. We have this choice. Jesus gave it to us and the world needs it now more than ever.

PS – Thanks to Bro. Tom for reminding me of these truths.

Excuses

“If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

– 1 John 1:6-10

These last few months have found me in the midst of change. I finally moved into my new house. I moved my children into a little cottage together at college. I have been on a weight loss/health improvement journey.

I think that the weight loss/health journey is proving to be the most challenging thing. My house is great. I love it. My kids are happy and safe – I love it. My scale – not so much.

It seems that every step I take forward pushes me back two steps. I get frustrated. I feel defeated.

Yet, these are all just excuses. Every morning that I get up and see the scale move in the wrong direction, I sit down, beat myself up, and ponder what in the world did I eat yesterday that caused it.

As I was pondering these things this morning, God revealed something to my heart. I don’t need to try and figure out what went wrong yesterday. I need to determine why I keep finding myself here in the first place. What is the root of the problem?

You want to know what mine is – excuses. I can find every excuse in the book to justify why I’m doing what I’m doing. “Oh, it’s the weekend. Sugar doesn’t effect me on the weekend.” “Oh, Momma is visiting. I’ll worry about that next week.” “I’m having that sugar in my coffee in the morning because I like it. I’m good the rest of the day (knowing that I’m not).” If you haven’t figured it out, sugar is the bane to my existence.

But my excuses go way beyond sugar. Take this blog for instance. I have neglected it for way too long. Take my Bible study as another example. I haven’t been in the Word like I know I should be. And the list could go on and on.

Why do we make excuses for our behaviors? Why do I spend my precious time trying to determine a reason for me to indulge myself in something that I know is not good for me?

I tell you what, if I could answer and solve that one….well, I wouldn’t need this blog.

The simple answer is sin.

I’m sure that if we are all honest with ourself, we would all be in the same boat – sailing under the flag of hypocrisy.

But that is the reason, the Holy Spirit inspired John to pen 1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I have heard one of my brothers in Christ say this so many times that I don’t even have to look it up. He drilled it into my head. And rightfully so. How would I make it through the day without it? How would I know that God is ready to forgive me if I turn and walk away from the “sins that so easily beset me”? “So easily”. A tiny little group of letters that describe my heart so very often.

As I was walking this morning listening to my Christian running list, I heard Jamie Grace sing “Good morning”. It reminded me that I have awakened to a brand new day that has a clean slate that is ready for God to write on. My sins of yesterday haunt me, but the hope of today brings me joy.

So, good bye yesterday. Good bye sugar. Good bye excuses. Today is new day and, by golly, I’m gonna claim it!

Building a house

“Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” Proverbs 24:3,4

My husband and I are building a house right now. It seems like we have been building it for years and years. I don’t know if you have ever been through this situation, but it can be very stressful and aggravating. Last February or March (it has been so long that I can’t remember), we bought a piece of property with a builder in mind to build the home. Then all things went crazy and prices went through the roof, so to speak. We decided to hold off for a bit and see if prices came down. Then in October, we picked out everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, for our home in 3 days. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was a whirlwind of time. My husband and I had done research, prepared pictures and made endless lists on the things that we wanted to make this house uniquely ours. Skip ahead a few heartaches and we have today, April 21, and we still aren’t there yet. We have an end date in sight – the end of June. Y’all, when I say this has been the most challenging thing I have faced in a while, I am not lying.

But you know what, God has brought us through. He has heard many, many prayers and petitions for resolution. He has heard many, many prayers for safety for the ones working. He has heard many, many prayers to help the ones working to stay on task and get it done efficiently and properly.

Let me take some time to reflect on what He has taught me through this process so far – 1) be patient. Oh. My. Goodness do I detest learning this lesson over and over and over again! I want things to move faster. I want things to be done last week. God says, “Take a chill. All in good time. My ways aren’t your ways. Settle down.” 2) acceptance – Sometimes people are just frustrating and you have to find a way to work in that situation. Oh bless him, the guy that designed our cabinets was tough. He has been doing his job for a really, really long time and it is probably time to enjoy the grandkids, maybe even the great grandkids. 3) forgiveness – People are going to fail you and disappoint you and you just have to forgive them and move on whether they ask for it or not. Lord, give me strength, the number of times I have had to do that in this project. 4) appreciation – I am blessed beyond measure. My cup has been filled up, pressed down and is running over. Sometimes I go over to the site by myself and just walk around and say “Thank you Lord.”

Now, what in the world does this blabbering about have to do with Proverbs 24:3,4. I am filling my rooms with treasures. It’s not treasures from a store or the internet that will grace my house. But rather, lessons of character and virtue that will make my home truly one to be treasured. I have been blessed to walk this crazy path with my husband and my Jesus. Jesus is teaching me patience, acceptance, forgiveness and appreciation that will ooze out into other parts of my life. It won’t just be my physical home that is made better by these lessons, but my spiritual house will benefit as well.

I’m not just building a home on a piece of dirt. No, friend, I am building a home for eternity that will last long after this earthly home is gone. And I want its rooms to be filled with anything and everything that honors and glorifies God.

Work it out

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

I am doing a Bible study of the word renovation or being under construction. I feel like this is the word that God has given me to focus my daily life on this year. You see, I am constantly under construction. There are days in which I feel like there should be a fence around me and/or that yellow tape with orange barrels. You know, the kind of attention that says – BEWARE!! UNDER CONSTRUCTION! DANGEROUS!

Well, I have a mega list of Bible verses that I am going through to help me to better understand what it means to be under construction and what I need to do to improve my daily walk to be closer to Jesus. This was my verse for today. Well, it was supposed to be one of my verses, but I got so deep on studying it that I couldn’t move on until I wrote this blog post.

I love to look at the deeper meaning of words, especially in Bible verses. I believe that KJV is the first place to go. However, I do like to look in other versions and look up the deeper meanings of the Greek and/or Hebrew words that are used. There are tons of resources online for this. If you need some suggestions, let me know. I will be glad to direct you.

Now then, let me write out for you what the literal translation of Romans 8:28 says – “But we know that God works together all things for good to the (ones) loving God, to the (ones) being called according to purpose.” (Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by Jay P. Green, Sr., editor)

Oh, how I love this! The literal version puts the burden of “work together” on God, exactly where it should be! Yes, you can imply this from the KJV, but there is no question in the literal translation. I think this is so very important because too often I try and work it out. I try and find the good in the things that I am doing. I try and direct the flow so that I will end up where I think that God wants me to be. Do you see the problem here? Too many “I”s. It’s gross when I write it out. What am I possibly thinking?! My focus should be on giving it to God to let Him work it out for His good and in His time – not mine.

And I love the action in the literal – “loving God” and “being called”. To me, this shows that in order to have God active in my life, I need to be active with Him. That means getting into His word. That means studying to show myself approved – a workman rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) That means actively communicating all the time.

Prayer time does not have to exclusively be a time when you are alone and in private. Don’t get me wrong, this is an incredibly important time that you need to desperately protect because it is vitally important! But prayer is also communicating always – “Pray without ceasing.” – I Thessalonians 5:17. You can’t always be in your prayer closet all the time. God has work for you to do! Rather, I think, prayer is constantly bringing your petitions and thanks to God. Prayer is an active way of life. Prayer is how I allow God to work all things for His good. Prayer helps me to stay focused on God’s purpose and plans rather than my own.

You see, I want, no, I need God to work all things for His good in my life. I know that there are issues in all of our lives that we need to turn over to God. We don’t need to carry them around and try and unravel that yarn on our own. We need to express our concerns and needs before God in prayer and then trust that in His time, He will work it all out for His good. And when that time comes, friend, you had better be praising God for all His work in your life! There is no shame in admitting that there is no way that you worked this problem out on your own. God deserves all the praise and glory for all He has done!

3 ways to lose

Luke 15:1-32

Buckle up! These blog takes the entire chapter. However, this is something that the Holy Spirit brought across my radar and I feel that it is important.

Today, we are going to look at losing things. Yep. Losing things.

I strongly detest losing things. In fact, at my house, it isn’t really lost until Mom can’t find it. That is true for my husband as well. I like to know where every thing is at any given moment. When we moved, the moving company thought I was weird by wanting to know where my household goods were going to be stored. I’m a bit neurotic in that way.

When I was going through one of my Bible studies, the author looked at this chapter in Luke 15 and discussed the 3 different ways things were lost here and how they were found and what it meant to each person involved.

Losing a sheep (vs. 1-7)

So this shepherd had 100 sheep and lost one. He left the 99 to go and find the one sheep that had munched his way away from the fold. Yep, that poor little sheep got so caught up with the yummy grass that he kept munching and chewing and following that green, green grass until he was all alone. The shepherd left everything and everyone to find this sweet little lamb. And when it was found, party time! Invite everyone you know! Time to celebrate! You see, the loss here was because the sheep turned aside to distractions. It let the yumminess of the tender grass carry him away from what was best for him. How many times are we like that today? We let things in the world carry us away from the One person who truly has our best in mind. But, here is the great part – He (Jesus) comes looking for us. He knows we have a tendency to get lost in our own selfish desires. He knows that all it takes is one tender and green clump of grass to lead us away from the safety of the group. And when we let Him find us, all of Heaven rejoices because we have come back home – home to His loving arms.

Losing a coin (vs. 8-10)

And then there is the lady that loses a coin. Now, how many pennies or coins have you lost or your couch eats? How many of you rejoice when you finish a tube of lip balm just because that means you didn’t lose it? You know who you are! Well, this lady had carelessly lost something important to her. However, she didn’t stop until she found it. Then, she called everyone she knew to let them know that what was lost has been found. Once again, rejoice! Who reading this has not called your closest friend to let them know when you found something that was bugging the snot out of you because you could not find it? Yes, I said snot. You know it happens! We all sometimes get careless. We all can be careless when it comes to our time with the Lord. We keep putting it off and putting it off until it feels like a distant memory that we may sometimes remember. Oh friend, this ought not be. We need to find that closeness that we all know that we need and want deep, deep down inside and rejoice with other believers when we make the choice to find it!

Losing a son (vs. 11-32)

We all know the story of the prodigal son. We know how he wanted something that he thought he deserved and when he got it, he squandered it away. When things got tough, he decided to go home and beg for his father’s forgiveness. He didn’t even make it to the door when his father ran to him and embraced him as his son. The father knew that one day his son would return. He watched for him every day. He anticipated his actions. He wanted to forgive his son. He just needed the opportunity. And then when the day finally arrived, he forgave and through a party. (Are you seeing a theme yet?) However, not everyone was ready and willing to celebrate. The older brother was more than a little upset. My, oh my – there are so many applications here! Let’s look at the younger son, the one who left. He was the one that lost and was lost. He was the one that intentionally walked away. He was the one who let his foolish pride get in the way, and he was the one that made the decision to walk down that road. He was the one that lost every thing he had been given. He was the one that had to end up, literally, in the mud before he realized how deep he really was. Yet, he was also the one that was humbled and recognized HIS mistake. He was the one that had to repent. His father was the gracious and merciful one. Do I need to parallel this to a life you may know or live in? Sometimes, we are the ones that have to wake up in the mud of life and repent and run back to the Savior. Being lost in the world is terrible especially when there is Someone waiting for you to come home.

You know, you can lose your relationship with Jesus in any of these 3 ways. You can turn aside to distractions that lead you away from Him. You can be careless with your relationship and misplace it for a terrible time. Or, you can intentionally walk away from Him. But what I do want you to know and understand, He keeps looking for you no matter what. No matter what caused you to walk away or be lost or distracted, He keeps looking. And when you let Him find you, He rejoices! He is so elated that you are back! You! You, the one that thinks that you mean nothing. You, the one that believes that you are not good enough. You, the one that just can’t do this right now. You are the one that He is looking for.

Go home. Go back to Him. Don’t wait for the mud and muck to get you in up to your nose before you make a change. Even little things can drag you away quicker than you think. Keep it close. Keep it open. Keep it.

Just a peek

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:16

Wowza! I was looking at this verse today and so many things popped out at me.

I know it has been a while since I wrote. I have been getting settled in and adjusting to life with the kids back at college. Believe you me, it is a struggle sometimes not to get lonely or sad. Yet, every time I have the opportunity to go on a walk with Lucy, our dog, it reminds me that life is still moving and things are still happening.

Ok, out of my hole. I’m good.

Back to the verse, let me break it down for you kinda like I did during my Bible study this morning. (All of the definitions that I will mentioned were taken from the Strong’s concordance and 1828 Webster’s dictionary.)

Grace. Grace can be defined as “the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life – free unmerited love and favor of God; favorable influence of God; the application of Christ’s righteousness to the sinner.” I’ve often heard grace described as God giving you what you do not deserve. I think all of these definitions are applicable here. Let’s get on with some other definitions.

Boldly can be defined as “all out spokenness; by implication assurance.”

Mercy can be defined as “compassion; the disposition that tempers justice, and induces an injured person to forgive trespasses and injuries, and to forbear punishment, or inflict less than law or justice will warrant.”

There certainly is a lot wrapped up in this little verse. When I see “boldly”, I think outspoken – uninhibited. Yet, when I read the definition, I also think confidence – knowing that confessing wrong and expressing challenges to God will bring about resolution. It is about not being afraid to be brutally honest with God. He knows your heart and mind already. He is waiting for you to bear it all out. It’s about admitting there is a problem – whether that problem is you or something else. I find that it is about surrendering one’s desire to “fix” thing. Oh my, is that tough or what? I am a problem solver by nature. Modify and adapt is the creed of my profession. It is who I am to want to fix problems that I see in myself or in someone else. Sometimes, that just isn’t the best solution. I have to allow myself to get to the place where I am ready to lay it all down.

And because this happens at “the throne of grace”, I am reminded of my place in things. God is way bigger than me both in ability and character. I oftentimes forget this. Many times I don’t appreciate this as I should. My dad was a character. He had a saying for just about everything. Regarding pride, he would say “He (she) thinks they are hot snot on a golden platter but they are really just a cold booger on a paper plate.” I know, it’s crude, but it fits! The Throne of Grace reminds me that 1) it is a throne – a place of authority and respect and 2) grace is involved – that unmerited favor. I can do nothing to deserve to be there. I can do nothing to be worthy to present my problems before Him. Yet, here I am. I have to be in the mindset of surrender. By surrendering to His greatness, I find mercy. I find that temperance of justice because when God looks at me, He sees Jesus’ blood. And that gives me grace to face whatever is stressing me.

Letting God…

‭‭James‬ ‭1:1-8‬ ‭KJV – “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

I know, I know. So many verses. But as we were reading this the other day in worship service, all I could see were the “let”s. And I have been thinking about what it means to “let” since then.

I looked up the meaning of the word in the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary (gotta love that website!). It said this – “Followed by the third person, it implies permission or a command addressed to an inferior.” It can also mean “to permit or allow”. Either way, each definition points to basically the same thing – permission to do something.

We are in revival this week at my church. We have been encouraged and challenged so much in the last two days, that I have not wanted to stop listening. I wanted to “let” the preacher go on preaching until he ran out of words!

We are being challenged to be salty. (That’s a whole other blog post.) But the question I want to pose today is this – Are we letting God do what He needs to do to make us into the person He wants us to be? Are we letting God challenge us enough to grow His kingdom? Are we letting God show us our sin in our life? Are we letting God lead us away from the things and situations that impair our growth?

You see, here is the deal – we can pray all day long for God to change us and mold us into who He wants us to be, but sometimes, we are the thing standing in the way of that change. We aren’t willing to “let” God do what He wants to do. I know I have this problem in my own life. Right now I have a book on my countertop that I say that I want to read. But if I’m honest, I’m afraid to read it because I’m afraid of the changes God might convict me to make in my life. I’m afraid to “LET” God change me. There, I said it. I have been asking God to show me my sin and my life and right here, right now, He just did. I’m afraid to “LET” God.

I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to tell you. This is a burden and an issue that I have just acknowledged and now is the time to step forward. I don’t know what God is going to do with me now, but I am grateful that God has been on me to write this blog post. I’m glad He never backs down. Happy Wednesday.

The longest night

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:7-8‬ ‭KJV – “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

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My husband and I had a weekend away this last weekend. We had a lovely time away – enjoying the sights, eating the food and just making some great memories together.

He stayed in town because he had meetings this week. I flew home…or at least I tried to fly home.

The day that I flew home, the airport I was planning to fly into had so much rain that the gates were flooded. The airplanes could land but could not get up to the gate.

At my departing city, the plane’s air conditioner was acting up (not in an unsafe way but rather an annoying and slightly unsanitary way – it was dripping on the passengers). The airline had to call in maintenance to repair the problem. Oh, did I mention that my flight was supposed to leave at 9pm and arrive at it’s destination at 1145pm? Yeah, that didn’t happen. We left around 1030pm. We landed in a different city than our original destination at 1am.

God had directed my heart to sit at the front of the plane. So, when we debarked the plane, I was one of the first people off. The airline had police officers at the gate because they knew they would have a lot of very angry people. When I heard from the gate attendant that they MIGHT have some buses to take us to our final destination, I left and headed for the rental car companies. I just heard God whispering to my heart, “Don’t wait around on this. It is not going to turn out good.”

Sure enough, after I had finally found a rental car company with vehicles to rent (this storm had been diverting flights all day) and was on my way to my overpriced rental car, here comes half of my flight running off the transport headed toward the scantly stocked rental car companies. God is good.

Long story short, I had planned to arrive home between 1230am and 1am. I ended up pulling into my driveway at 415am. Long night.

So, I’m sure you are wondering what this has to do with spiritual matters. Well, I had the opportunity to get really upset and angry (like a lot of my fellow passengers did) about this situation. I saw our delay at the departure place as a blessing – storms were still raging in the area of our destination. God was providing time for them to clear out before we even entered the area. Our unplanned destination was relatively close to our original destination – at least we could drive there. God provided. He knew that I was traveling alone and don’t like it when things don’t go as planned. He wouldn’t leave me alone that night. I promise you, I could feel Him next to me the entire time – His whispering and guiding of my thoughts was so tangible that when I did truly realize it, it nearly made me cry. All I could do while I was driving to my original destination was praise His name.

He knows me. He knows what sets me off. He knows what calms me down. He knows when I am about to break down. He holds me together. I know that there is no way that I could have made it through this longest night without Him.

All of me

‭‭Mark‬ ‭12:30‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”
We were challenged this weekend to love God with all that we are. Easy concept, right? Umm, no. Not so much. Not when you really take a good hard look at yourself. And that, my friend, is no fun. 

The challenge began with “Who is #1 in your life?” Well, I’m at church, on a Sunday night. The Sunday school answer is “God”, right? But when the question was asked again at the end of the challenge…the answer wasn’t God, if I was being honest with myself. And that is tough stuff right there. 

Love God with all my heart. What does that mean? As I have thought about it, I see it as loving God with all my emotion. Our heart is the center of our emotional state. When I love God with all my emotion, I make everything about Him. I choose to see His hand at work in my life. I allow Him to change and mold my attitude. Now, does that mean that I go around gushing and acting all cheesy? No. I believe that you can love God with all your heart by acknowledging Him every opportunity you get. You are deferring your emotion to Him. You are choosing to allow Him to guard and guide how you feel and respond. Loving God with all my heart.

Love God with all my soul. I think about this in this way – loving God with my eternity. My soul is something I can’t see; I can’t touch; but it is something I can give. I can give my soul back to it’s Creator by choosing Jesus as my Savior. I can allow God to have control over my eternity. Loving God with all my soul.

Love God with all my mind. Some days, I do okay with this and others days, it’s just plain ugly. In my way of thinking, this is loving God with thoughts. This is allowing God to control my thoughts. This is choosing to see things in the scope of eternity. “What would Jesus do?” It’s not wearing your heart on your shirt sleeve but rather seeing all things in the light of the love of Christ. Letting Jesus control my thoughts. Loving God with all my mind.

Love God with all my strength. To me, this is my actions. These are the things that I do or don’t do on a daily basis. This is reading my Bible. This is going to church when the doors are open. This is preparing for VBS. This is the physical action of the group. This is loving God with all my strength.

There are times when I get parts of this challenge spot on and there are times when I fail miserably. But you know what, God wants me to try my hardest. He wants me to make the choices to do things right and to seek Him daily. He knows when I am doing the best I can and when I am doing just enough to get by. This is where grace and mercy come into play. This is where I really need grace and mercy. And praise God, they never run out.

So this week, ask yourself “Who is #1 in my life?” And don’t just give the Sunday school answer. Really look hard at yourself. Ponder where your priorities really are. Happy Tuesday. 

Chocolate cake

‭‭James‬ ‭4:13-17‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
It is a problem that we all are guilty of participating in at some time or another – choosing not to do what is right when we know better. Yes, I know, it is also known as sin – intentional sin, at that. 

Let me set up the situation.

Let’s say that you know that you have a few pounds you need to lose. It is not drastic, you just know that if you lost them (and never found them again) that you would feel better physically and emotionally. But you are at an event and they are serving chocolate cake – your all time favorite dessert. You know that you should not eat that cake. You know that it will show up on the scale tomorrow morning. You know that it is too late at night and eating that cake will result in a restless night of sleep. You know all these things. You have rationalized it over and over again in your mind. Yet…you still eat it. You really, really, really want that chocolate cake. You know the consequences and yet you do it anyway. Sin has caught you with a fork!

I tell you this to say intentional sin is tough. We can push unintentional sin under the blanket of a forgiveness prayer. But when it comes to the sins we commit knowingly, well, that requires more effort to get rid of. Yes, I know, I’m stepping on your toes, but guess what, mine are paining too!

The problem is that it is these sins that are keeping us from a closer walk with Christ. These sins will build a wall between you and Him that if left unchecked will cause serious problems down the road. That is why it is so incredibly vital that we keep that wall destroyed. It’s like letting weeds grow in a garden. If you don’t stay on top of them and get rid of them when they pop up, before you know it, the garden is overtaken with weeds and you have to spend an enormous amount of time locating what it is that you planted one day, way back when. 

So my challenge to you, and to me, is to keep those intentional sins in check. Or better yet, when you hear that still, small voice saying “don’t do it…don’t do it”, then…don’t do it. God wants you listen to Him. He wants to guide you on the path of righteousness but He won’t make you make the right decision. He wants you to do that on your own. Gotta love free will. 

But it can be done. You can say “no” to that chocolate cake. You can walk away knowing that tonight there will be no consequences because you made the right choice!