Apparently I forgot to press “publish” on yesterday’s PrayerPoint so today you get two!

Wherever we are is a place where God’s work is happening.

You might dream of big adventures of serving God in foreign countries and those things might happen. But you can also faithfully serve God right in the spot you are in right now.

God’s work is always around us and the opportunity to be a part of it is, too.

Family, friends, neighbors — these are easy places to serve. Maybe not easy in the sense of the task but easy because these are the people right around us. If you keep your ears and eyes open you will certainly hear of or see ways to serve your family, friends, and neighbors.

Church and community — this is another close by and accessible. It’s not exotic, but I will guarantee you there are places to serve within your church and community.

Mission fields are all around us —

whether our bodies and minds are in top shape for physical serving, or
our finances can build in some monetary assistance, or
our hearts are available for listening, or
we have an extra meal we can share, or
we are intentional about encouraging and praying for others….
we are all here to serve one another and bring God’s good news to the people!

Have you recognized your experiences in life might have put you in the middle of a mission field? It may not have been a place you wanted to go or chose to be (death, illness, abuse, etc) but, as you walk through God’s healing process your heart can serve others who find themselves in similar circumstances.

What is your mission field? I would love to hear about it!

Blessings on your day!
Liz

I know that there is a future, I just don’t know what is in it. I have a good imagination, though.

And, sometimes, my imagination can get the better of me.

And so, I pray for what is to come.

There will be good, bad, and ugly. And only God knows what is coming into my life in the next week, next month, next year, and so on. My prayer is that He prepares me for the future by strengthening my connection to Him today. The experiences and insights I have today will be the wisdom gleaned for tomorrow. But, and mostly, it is the leaning on God for His peace, forgiveness, mercy, love, and grace and extending them to those in my circle. As I practice those things — and certainly imperfectly — I am letting God prepare me for my future.

The days to come will not need any less of God’s peace, forgiveness, mercy, love, and grace. It will surely only need more.

I will surely need more.

Sometimes I look at the day and the situation I am in the middle of and I completely forget to pray on it.

I have such short term memory!

Whatever is now I am busy doing — fixing, deliberating, stewing, contemplating, wondering, ______________ (fill in the blank!) But the best ING I can do is PRAY-ING.

Take a moment to pray about your immediate situations. Give them to God. Ask Him to share His perspective with you — and be willing to hear it.

Blessings on your day!
Liz

I have been annoyed, begrudged, angry, and hurt by the negative things that have happened to me (or that I have done) in my past.

For the record, it certainly was not all gloom and doom, but there some unfortunate things that happened to me — and has happened to everyone, so I know I am not alone there.

But, it occurred to me that while I could carry on with all kinds of thoughts and reactions to past experiences, I could also, with an open hand, give them over to God to redeem, renew, restore, and replenish. I can pray for God to show me the good that can come of it, the heart I have for a certain kind of person because of it, the way I can share with others who might also be in a similar situation.

I can decide how I want to go forward as I consider each misstep and mistake that tries to haunt me and for those experiences that were not my doing at all but impacted me negatively. Praying through these situations and giving them over to God to work out is my preferred way to move forward.

There are times I revisit the past in a poor frame of mind and fire up the frustration of the injustice of it all. But, that isn’t something that moves me forward and towards a sense of peace.

God uses the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the bad, the heartwarming and the heart-wrenching and showers me with His grace each and every day.

Blessings on your day!
Liz

I’ve been practicing my casting lately.

There are so many cares that seem to be piling up — within the family, within the family of the people I love, in the neighborhood — and that doesn’t even count the larger scale challenges in our city, state, country, and world.

I’ve been casting them on God but it seems to be all I do.

Maybe I will go to a river bed with smooth stones and skip stones as a visual way of casting my cares on God.

And, picture all of the casting that people are doing around the world. We are casting together with others — and that feels uniting in some sense but also overwhelming to imagine that I have my own cares I am casting but then so many others have so many other cares to be casting.

For me it is a mix of relief and still a bit of a burden at the moment.

But, cast away, I will.

God cares about what is on our hearts and minds.

And we should care what is on His. Not that we can claim to know all the ins and outs about the mind of God, but we can see His heart through Scripture. And we can trust that He is working in ways that we do not know, see or understand. There is plenty of things happening in the world that aren’t so simple. If I can see a simple solution you can bet that I don’t see the big picture.

And so, I cast and cast again. And I need to remember to let those worries be known to God and trust Him as He leads me in the next steps.

Blessings on your day!
Liz

Oh my! I have missed the warmth of the sunshine.

This morning I am setting in some delightful sunshine and I plan to soak up as much as I can because we are entering into a full week of rain. So, I know, I better enjoy it now.

It is so soothing!

I have my coffee and I am sitting on the couch and it feels amazing.

Every sunny day we set up a space in front of our bedroom window for our old cat — she’ll be 19 years old in November. She lazes the day away in a sunbeam.

I was going to say she has earned her rest but I don’t think we have to earn our rest. Rest is important. It is a part of God’s plan and there is no earning it. Running on empty is not the way.

I don’t have to feel guilty for needing rest or wanting it. It is not only a part of the human experience — God Himself rested on the seventh day of Creation.

So, find a window in the sun, take time to rest, recalibrate, and rejuvenate. Pace yourself. Enjoy the present.

Blessings on your day!
Liz

Sometimes we are involved in things for the short term benefit. We’re looking for a quick win, an easy fix, or cheap shot.

Other times, we get involved in things and they turn into a permanent situation. We might dabble with something and find out we are in it for the long term because, all of a sudden, that short term thing becomes a lasting thing.

We might not even think that the situations, relationships, or projects we are getting involved with are going to be long term until they are.

Life is full of these types of situations. But when we are “all in” we commit ourselves over a long period of time. We persevere through struggle, we look past the immediate circumstance to see what can be, and we are committed to the outcome.

I imagine God has shaken His head at me a time or two at my short sighted and immediate gratification goals. But, I know He has grown in me a sense of commitment and endurance. He really models the “long haul” mentality. And the Bible shows us countless examples of generational work. God knows things are rarely resolved overnight. And we can learn a lot from His level of long suffering and patience.

Blessings on your day!
Liz

I am always amazed at connections.

The people I know — and then the ones they, in turn, know. We are really only just a few steps away from one another.

And, yet, the Earth is huge! There are places I will never travel. “Corners” of the world I will never step foot in.

I am a little sad about that. I see so much beauty — and, truly, give me all the beauty.

But there is also a share of heartbreak. That is tougher for me to face. And, sometimes, a place is featured for its beauty but, underneath, it takes heartache to sustain the “beauty”. But this isn’t a post about that.

This is a post about God’s gifts, sprinkled throughout the world. It’s the people and the land and the resources that come from the land.

I am amazed at all the gifts God has tucked into various corners of the world. There are resources everywhere — from ever place — that can be utilized for our faith, encouragement, growth, development, and health. It seems just the right things were placed in just the right places. Almost as if by design.

And, there is also a bit of interdependence — and access — that we can now utilize. Prior to international travel, each corner of the world was it’s own little space and connected its own little group. But as travel possibilities expand, each remote place becomes a little less so. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to that. There is a lot to consider there.

But the variety of birds, plants, insects, animals, underwater creatures, foods, weather, and so much more! This whole planet is loaded with so many different kinds of creations.

And then there is the creativity of the mind — there is no end to it!

So, it is a small world in some ways. But I am so thankful for God’s creation of it and that He created it with the option of continuing creativity and beauty.

Thank you, Lord, for your creation — the people, the places, the animals, the plants, and all that is around me. Help me to notice more of the beauty you have placed in my corner of the world!

Blessings on your day!
Liz

I like being comfortable and I also like trying new things.

When everything is new I can get a little discombobulated because I do like the stability of the familiar. But, give me enough routine and steady flow and I am open to changing things up.

This applies to travel, reading, routines, cooking, dining out, movement…truly any area in my life.

Do you tend to resist new things or embrace them? Or are you a creature of habit and are you drawn to the familiar.

You might like praying a certain way because that’s how you’ve always done it. And there is nothing wrong with that. But, it is also interesting to try something new: praying through Scripture, listening to hymns, listening to other kinds of music — I am a big fan of Integrity Music’s Scripture Memory Songs.

There are so many ways to add more Scripture and prayer to your life!

If your prayer life seems a little stale, change it up with a new devotional book, a new time and place for prayer, a new way of thinking about prayer.

As you refresh your approach, you might actually breathe more life into your regular routine. Or, you might divide things up and change things up quarterly with new resources. However you work it out, know God is there with you, imparting His wisdom through Scripture. He is patiently listening to your pleas. And He is molding and shaping you for what is to come.

Blessings on your day!
Liz

When given the choice to listen to any kind of music with a portion of dissonance, I decline.

No, thank you.

I don’t mind if it is something that is a one note, one beat thing that needs to be resolved. But much more than that and it is not something I will choose. And it is something I will figure out a way to get out of my ear. And fast.

I am not a fan.

Similarly, I am not a fan of verbal sparring. Oh, sure, I have had my days when I was younger and was sure I was right about a lot of things. I have certainly been a pot stirrer in my day. But I have grown to see that I wasn’t always right in the past. So a better bet for me is to figure out where the common ground is.

Apparently, this approach is uncommon, or at least less common, these days.

Let’s say you and I spend an average of 12 hours together in a year. That is one hour a month and there are 8760 hours in a year.

Do I want to talk about hot button topics?

No, I want to talk about your family or how things are going after your knee surgery or your five favorite things to do in your town or your favorite new hobby or your three favorite recipes.

What unites us? What brings us together? What excites and energizes you? What is God doing in your life?

Is that ignoring our different perspectives? I suppose so. Or, at least it is not letting them take center stage.

In my life, I gravitate to those who don’t have the exact same beliefs and opinions as I do but do not have to discuss them with me, either.

This might all be a part of the process of getting older. I don’t need to talk about current news or politics. I pay attention to it from a few different angles and I certainly am praying about the endless issues that divide us. But, I have aged out of the age old debates.

So where does this intersect with PrayerPoints? I am sure you have people you disagree with in your life. We all do. I don’t think the point of life is to only surround yourself with people who think just like you do. Relationships are difficult, it’s true. And there will always be a little dissonance here and there. I am praying for a focus on what unites us rather than what divides us.

We all eat, but we don’t all eat the same things.

We all have free time, but we don’t all do the same things with it.

We probably are all passionate about something, we just aren’t all passionate about the same things.

I encourage you to make the effort to find the common ground with the people God has put in your life. Find those meaningful things that connect you and celebrate them. And, hopefully, those things where you are not aligned can be set aside for the little time you actually have together in the course of a year.

Blessings on your day!
Liz