When I am afraid…

I love that when I hear the start of that I automatically finish it off with “I will trust in You, I will trust in You!” from Psalm 56:3 Thank you Steve Green and Hide ’em in Your Heart music!

Whether there are big looming fears for the world or just small things that I am concerned about I need this easy reminder that God is the one I trust in…

not world leaders…

not bank accounts…

not employers…

not my abilities…

not ________________ [fill in the blank]

I have had to practice reminding myself this. There have been times that I have been fearful, of course. But a short rundown of all the ways God has provided for me usually brings me back to a more even keel.

I am so thankful God has me on His mind. He knows what I come up against and my tendency to fall into that fear trap. When I take my eyes off of Him is surely the times that I stumble.

And I feel badly for those who have no use for God and yet live in fear over so much. I know several people who have no use for God but are in a state of high anxiety. I am going to be bold and ask God to open the door with them for a conversation about Him. I am open to having the discussion but I want it to come from their questions and desire to have more peace in their lives.

Setting the tone

It’s a heavy week in the Christian world. There are so many moments — highs and lows — and I feel them.

From Jesus coming to the people, riding on a donkey…

“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!”

to the dark days of deception and distance and darkness and death…

to the Resurrection!!!

And everything in between! So much is happening.

And while we can read about it sometimes we can even feel it. It may feel more real as we sit in a worship service during this week and hear The Word preached or it may be wrapped up in our confession or creed or a hymn. It can also be felt and, maybe, better conceptualized when we see a re-enactment or watch a film about it —

For me, at least, it is so hard to imagine the triumph of this week in the midst of the deep darkness, but it is worth wrestling with. It helps me understand just a little bit more about the depths of God’s love for me and what He has done for me.

The sacrifice. The death. The resurrection.

God’s provision for us is all encompassing. It is the beginning and the end.

He is the beginning and the end. And everything in between.

May your week be filled with awe and wonder at the heights and depths of God’s love and provision for you!

Consistency

Lately I have been evaluating how I so quickly can fall off “the wagon.” And for the sake of transparency, I mean any wagon that I want to be on whether it be the exercise, daily Bible reading, daily vitamins, cleaner language, or mindful eating wagon.

Mind you, I want to be on each of those wagons.

Finding ways of doing things without thinking — like automatic routines — can help me in most of those cases.

Having a buddy to walk with, read the Bible with, a simple vitamin organizer, more time around grandchildren, or great food choices in the house and paying attention to my hunger and enough cues are all ways I have tried to set myself up for success. I definitely benefit from a bit of accountability and routine or I get pulled by the sway of the day and my emotions at the moment.

I look at these things as guardrails or curbs that benefit me — both in the short term and the long term.

And, if the idea of guardrails or curbs sounds a wee bit familiar, you might be thinking about your small catechism — and some of the purpose of the law.

You can delve into all of it here: https://catechism.cph.org/

I do like to hold books in my hand but since my phone or computer are never too far away from me, it is really nice to have Luther’s Small Catechism handy.

At any rate, God gives us resources to be successful even though He knows we cannot do any of it apart from Him. So, He provides for our successes while acknowledging we will fail. He loves us even so and this week we hear about it in so many different ways.

I pray you will take time to see what ways God provides for you and recognize those good gifts. This is the week we see the depths of His love and let it permeate us in a deeper way. And let us carry forward what we learn and share it far and wide!

Selective obedience

I can be pretty rebellious.

I think it is because of several early run ins with corrupt authority. I will take requests under consideration but I will always question motives. Even though this might be my natural bent, it’s not my fault that it has been so well developed. It is in part my own sinful nature and the sinful nature I bumped up against from 6-16 or so.

I do know and trust God completely, but I still find myself doing the easy obedience things and not the ones that take some effort or denial of self. I can do easy. I can do hard, but that seems to be where I am a bit resistant.

But selective obedience isn’t really obedience, especially when we are talking about the God of the Universe, the God who has blessed me with so much.

Who am I to pick and choose?

I have been granted free will — for good and for bad. It would be much easier if I would just decide once and for all to follow and not

…wander

…get distracted

…stumble

…fall

…question

…hesitate

…protest

…throw a fit

…get lost

…try to negotiate something different

…forget

…________________ [fill in the blank]

And yet He loves me still!

And He loves you, too!

Step by step He will lead me. And I truly do want to follow Him all of my days. I just need to hang on the hem of His garment and stick close!

Rebelling

I don’t mind going against the flow a bit. Sometimes I like to do it for the sake of argument.

But I have to ask myself why I rebel against the very thing I want? It makes no sense.

And then I remember this verse from the Bible:

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Romans 7:18-20 ESV

And the struggle is real. I can hear it in my mind. And, if I close my eyes, I can almost see the battle play out before me.

It is a condition of my human nature. . I know I will not win every battle, in fact, it isn’t even me that can win. I have God on my side if I can follow the Holy Spirit’s guiding. And God, through Jesus, has surely won the war.

What good thing have you been rebelling against?

First things…

I think I have too many first things on my morning list.

My day got rolling yesterday and while I had thought about prayerpoints multiple times, i decided to write it after I did something else and then

**Poof**

It left my mind!

So, I suppose it is a cautionary tale. And I am moving it to the top of my day — but not before coffee.

And it is a great reminder to me how things can get set aside and then not get picked back up for longer than you had hoped. So I can be more understanding when that happens to others.

But also a great reminder to myself to not pack in too much and expect to remember it all.

So, if something important has slipped off of your routine, there is no time like today to get it back in the line up. Let the most important things be the first things! And if you have a number of things, make a list!

Thank you, Lord, for the days full of interesting tasks. Help me to really prioritize so that the most important things come first. Amen.

Consume, consuming, consumed

And, don’t forget, consumer.

While I fall into the category of a consumer, I think there is so much more about me. So it bugs me that this is a title that sticks to all of us. I can’t shake it. And I want to know why it is that it bothers me.

I don’t want to be consumed, unless it is by something of God.

Our economy is based on us consuming all kinds of things. And we seem to be doing a lot of it. My goodness. How did we get to this point?

How did I get to this point?

Dictionary.com defines consume as: to destroy or expend by use; use up. Synonyms: deplete, exhaust. to eat or drink up; devour.

Hmmm…..

I guess that defines me a bit.

It is easy to fall into the trap of “I want this.” or “I deserve this.” Or maybe even, “I earned this.”

Lord, let me consider all the consuming I do. Where would You have me contribute? What would you like me to contemplate? When is enough enough? And, most importantly, what is consuming me to the point that I am unable to seek you? Amen.

Prayers and Petitions

I can easily go down a rabbit hole of the things that can go wrong in nearly every situation. It doesn’t do me any good — and, in fact, it does me harm. So, I have been working on retraining my habitual response.

This has been a work in progress for at least 30 years.

That seems so ridiculous on one hand. Most of the things that I stress about have never come close to happening. It’s such a waste of my energy. But it seems to be a habit. And even if as I retrain my response, this seems to be my default reaction.

And, at this point in my life, I am recognizing that I don’t have as much energy and stamina as I previously had, so I really don’t want to squander it away!

I am thankful that God isn’t annoyed with me. He is patient and knows this is an area He is growing in me. He is in it for the long haul. This verse is such a beautiful invitation:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

In everything….in all circumstances…

Let your requests be made known…talk to God about them…

God’s peace…even though it makes no sense on a human level…

The peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus…He protects you from your own overthinking…

There is so much going on in the world that I have no control over. That is easy to see. There is a lot in my little life circle that I don’t have control over either. My day can be filled with prayers and petitions to my Creator. That seems to be the very best place to start.

And those things I do have control over? I can still pray for wisdom in how to proceed. The answer to my questions is prayer.

That peace of God — that is what I am after.

And that is why this verse keeps coming to mind for me.

Do you have a Bible verse that comes to you regularly? I would love to see it!

Little things add up

Every day I walk in my neighborhood I take my trash grabber with me and a bag for collecting trash while I walk. It is amazing how much trash there is floating around on a daily basis. The worst days are when it is windy on trash pickup day. Things blow all around.

Here and there, it all adds up. These all can be labeled in different ways:
Cigarette butts
Little alcohol bottles
Fast food trash
Yard trash
Tools
Masks
Gloves
Candy wrappers

Every day I walk around the neighborhood I come back with a plastic grocery bag full of trash. And it is a result of a variety of contributions from the neighborhood and as well as the people who drive through it.

And it makes me think about the daily things in my own life. I have my own bad habits, good habits, dangerous habits, healthy habits, careless habits, caring habits, mindful habits, and mindless habits….

As I gather up the collection of things in the neighborhood “on the daily” or “on the weekly” it is a bit of a reflection of what I am doing with my own life. Am I being intentional about cleaning up some of those bad habits? Have I become so accustomed to them that I don’t even see them anymore? I bet the people in my life notice them even if I don’t. And I have some little eyes and ears around every week who see and hear my reaction to things. I don’t want those little ones to catch bad habits from me.

As you think about your daily habits, be encouraged by your healthy ones. And consider working on one of the unhealthy ones. We all have some of both. But, if you find a habit that is blocking your progress in another area of your life, it might be time to make a change.

Establishing a new pattern can help bust an old habit. God knows how we are, but He also desires us to be moving towards healthier choices and better ways of communicating. If you take an honest assessment of how you are doing and offer it to God, He will surely equip you with resources to overcome those areas where you need a little help. He absolutely loves you just as you are. And He wants to be with you as you grow in love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness!

THE Root

I have been interested in genealogy for a while and the language around family trees can be helpful in explaining family dynamics and relationships. The Bible also talks about who Jesus is in terms of ancestry. And this is where that shoot that grows out of THE root is a very good thing for you and me.

“Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.” Isaiah 11:1

This is good news for us! Jesus is here with us and for us.

Let’s let His love for others take root in our lives. Let’s be open to His pruning. Let’s trust Him to provide what we need to grow our faith while also being intentional about learning more about God through His Word. Let’s plants seeds. Let’s water the faith of young or struggling Christians. Let’s think about our faith soil — are we surrounded by life giving nutrients?

Has a lot of manure (difficulty) come your way? As stinky as that can be, it truly can grow you like nothing else can. God can use every last bit of our personal struggles to deepen out faith.

¹⁴For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:14-21 NIV