Got a long list and a short amount of minutes to accomplish the task?
That is my life today!!!
But it isn’t too busy a day to praise God for the sunshine, His love, His grace, His mercy, And His forgiveness! Even on one of those crazy days there is time for praise!!!
Quick–what are 5 things you are thankful for today? It is important that we notice and give thanks, even on a busy day!
The very young, the elderly, and the infirm are the ones I think of first when I think of vulnerability. They each are dependent for someone else looking out for their needs and protecting them from dangerous situations. Or when people are battling illness–they are susceptible to other infections and their resistance is down. For some, it is the difference between life and death if they are exposed to the wrong germ.
But there are many other ways to be vulnerable and it seems for every vulnerability there is a predator looking for someone in a tender spot, accessible and with lowered defenses:
a lonely child
those struggling with depression
a widow or widower making sense of their new life
parents who have a child with a disability
anyone walking through a season of grieving
a motherless or fatherless child seeing a role model
anyone walking through a season of extended illness
a recent immigrant with limited language skills
those recently released from prison
a single parent looking for parenting help
those recently returning from active duty in our military
Looking back on your life you may be able to clearly see your moments (years?) of vulnerability. Maybe you were vulnerable due to life situations that were out of your control. Maybe you made some choices that left you open to some ugly stuff. Do you see any vulnerable people around you that could use your prayers for protection? An offer of friendship? A cup of coffee and a brainstorming session? Sometimes the vulnerable just need help knowing where to go for resources and sometimes they need a discerning ear to help them navigate through a difficult season. Surely there is someone you know who is struggling and vulnerable who at least needs your prayers!
The devil is a schemer. And we are often too arrogant to think we can fall prey to his antics. Oh, he is clever — using us against ourselves. How can we resist him? By being on our knees and with our nose in The Book. If we are standing on His solid ground then we are in a good position to help someone else get connected with what they need to navigate through this difficult life.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. [Ephesians 6:10-18]
We often think that because we can’t do anything about a situation that we are powerless. It is true, there are some things we cannot fix, predict, or control. And so we are powerless in a sense. We can’t change others. We can’t bring the dead back to life. We can’t heal illness by the power of our minds. We can’t take back our angry words. There is so much we can’t do when it comes to the troubles of this life.
And yet, by surrendering all of these things to God, we acknowledge where the power truly lies. Praying for and with someone or some situation or circumstance is often only what we can do. And yet there is great power in that process of praying.
Recognize Who is in control
Surrender your preconceived notions for the best course of action
Depend on God’s promises
Allow God to change YOU – the only thing that you can truly change
Show mercy and grace
Offer forgiveness
Listen to the needs of others
Dig deep into God’s Word
Renew your mind with His Word
Don’t let your circumstances psych you out! You aren’t ever truly powerless with God. There are things you can do. Depend on God and not on your own understanding
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. [Romans 12:1-3]
Have you ever had a season of disobedience? Sometimes those “seasons” go on for years! Pure selfishness typically characterizes the attitudes and actions during this time. Oh, and the sowing of seeds of future challenges! It’s like you are taking musk thistle seeds and burying them all around you to ensure you have some life long challenges with deep and difficult roots. Oh the crazy things we do!
I am in the middle of Beth Moore’s Bible Study on David. Her studies are very in-depth and thought provoking and I encourage you to explore one if you ever get the chance.
Remember David from Scripture? The shepherd boy, king, adulterer, and author of many Psalms? If you get a chance to survey his life in a study, you should definitely do it. He had an incredibly close relationship with God and then wandered far away. And then he recognized his sin. Fascinating and familiar, all at the same time! Here are a few powerful quotes from the Beth Moore study David: Seeking A Heart Like His (workbook pages 150-159) I have been pondering:
* Most of us have had seasons of unrepentance when we outwardly attempted to go on with life as if we had not sinned against God.
* In the gap between wanting and getting we must flex the muscle of self control to protect ourselves.
* A heart out of God’s hands never fails to fall into danger.
* “All rebellion begins in isolation.”
* Little should frighten us more than realizing the Holy Spirit’s conviction has grown so faint we hardly sense it.
* Intense selfishness accompanies a faraway heart.
* Sometimes the further we wander outside God’s will, the more we judge others and the less we show mercy.
If you sense you are in a season of disobedience, repent and talk to God. If you remember a season of disobedience in your own life, consider what you learned immediately following that time. What steps have you taken to insure that season doesn’t darken your doorstep again?
I have been blessed to spend most of my life in areas where there are four distinct seasons. Categorizing life into seasons is a helpful way for me to ponder them. There are seasons in marriage and parenting. There are seasons of spiritual growth and health. There are seasons of work, employment, education, and finances. I am sure there are more!
Have you ever dreaded a season only to find you experienced areas of amazing growth as a result of it? Since I am not a big fan of winter, I would characterize a difficult season as a winter season. Winter has less sunshine, it’s cold, it’s messy with snow and ice, and it can be dangerous. There is definitely beauty in winter though, and I think that is an important point: Each season has its own beauty!
What is your favorite season? Do you look forward to the change in seasons?
I am thankful for the seasons in my life and the variety each season provides. I am not typically excited when I sense I am headed into a difficult season but as God works in and through my challenges He can transform a tough season into one of growth, if I allow it!
I am so ready…are you?
The time change helps my attitude. The sun and warmer temperatures help my attitude too. I love it when the flowers start to bloom and the trees start budding. The birds sing their sweet songs! It’s such a beautiful time of year! And I seem to be motivated more in Spring than any other time of year.
Spring is the most appreciated after a cold and messy winter.
When life is going along swimmingly, I tend to take a few things for granted. But after I make it through a challenging season, I am ready for respite and refreshment and reconnecting and renewal.
My walk with God has gone through many seasons. Has yours?
In the coming days I will share some thoughts on seasons and life-cycles. In the meantime, look for signs of Spring outside and look forward to the beauty that fresh growth brings!
If I ever see this street sign when I am driving my vehicle, I do not intentionally drive down the road that way. But I confess that during my life I have been stubborn, determined, and foolish enough to make choices that took me down a path that was clearly marked Do Not Enter!
I suspect you remember doing something like that too. I hope you can remember both the times when you clearly chose the better path and the times when you blew it because both are important to keep in mind. When I see someone heading down a path that isn’t good, I definitely pray for them. If I am in a position to chat with them, I consider doing that too. But what I really want to do is jump up and down and say “Don’t do it!” Sometimes my concern comes from personal experience — I traveled down a similar path and endured some difficult consequences. Other times my age and life experience can help me see when something might not turn out well.
Where did I get that experience? From making poor decisions and learning where those decisions can lead. There are times lessons can be learned vicariously but there is a certain segment of the population that feels the need to throw caution to the wind and forge their own difficult path. Pray for them as you see them traveling. God can redeem difficult situations and circumstances. He has done it for me and He can do it for you.
Why is it I distract myself with the all of the potential upcoming trouble when each day has enough trouble of its own?
Each day has enough trouble of its own. [Matthew 6:34]
No kidding! Nothing like stating the obvious. This verse always makes me laugh because it is so true.
Maybe I do it because I feel like I am at least doing something instead of just waiting for the next disaster to visit my doorstep. But being fearful about what is coming up next in my life is not a great habit. If I am distracted from today, experiencing sleepless nights, and have a pit of dread in my belly I might, just might, be flirting with fear. And here is what God reminds me:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. [Matthew 6:25-34 NIV]
If I want to be doing something, God has clued me in on what He recommends as the first course of action. It’s a recommendation from the One who created me and knows my past and my future. I know He has my best interest in mind and will work out the details. I just need to trust Him.
Lord, as I seek Your kingdom and righteousness, calm my heart. Grant me Your peace that passes all human understanding. Remind me of Your promises and provision and protection. We have a lot of history together and I know you are with me today and I trust You will be with me tomorrow! In Jesus’ Name!
Are you living with dread for the coming days?
The next doctor’s appointment. The next review from your boss. The next episode in your family. The next rejection from a job. The next piece of disappointing news. The next roadblock.
Or are you living with anticipation for what God is doing?
God’s next provision, transformation, redemption. God’s perfect timing. God’s healing. God’s promise to work all things for the good of those who love him.
If we knew everything that was awaiting us, I don’t think it would be good. We think we want to know but I don’t know that we would be all that happy about knowing the future. Sometimes knowing something is going to happen is mesmerizing, debilitating, and paralyzing even if it is a good thing. While impending doom motivates some people to prepare it grips others with such fear they cannot think through to plod ahead and do the next thing. God knows having too much information too early on most items is distracting to the present.
Be careful that you are not so focused on what you are waiting for that you don’t breathe in and celebrate your today. The provision, the gifts, the beauty, and the aromas are sometimes here for just a moment.
Who holds your year in His hands? Who has the ability to work all things out for good? Who has led you where you are today?
Today. It is what we know and what we have. Don’t spend all your days wrapped up in tomorrows that may never be.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. [Romans 8:28 NIV]
Sometimes I walk around the kitchen wondering what sounds good to eat and while there are multiple options at home, I am not “in the mood” for any of them and I think about where I can go buy what sounds good.
Really now? There are people starving and I am considering what I am in the mood to eat?
Sometimes I have so many things I need to do but I am not “in the mood” to do any of them. Should I really let whether I am “in the mood” to do something or not have an impact on what I choose to do? Chances are high that if I am not “in the mood” for something it might be exactly what I am supposed to be doing but I am just announcing (in an acceptable way) how I really feel about it. Most people I know aren’t ever in the mood for taxes, a huge pile of dishes or laundry, dealing with debt or _______________ (you fill in the blank) but they are all things in need of attention and focus.
Our attitude towards a task or requirement is important. I have been trying to watch how often I claim to be in the mood or not in the mood for something. I’ll admit, it seems whether I am “in the mood” for something or not likely means that I am being selfish but how often do I say that out-loud? Selfishness or looking-out-for-number-one is very acceptable and sometimes we hide behind the phrase in the mood because it is readily understood and socially acceptable and it has plagued us for thousands of years.
Here is what Paul writes in Romans 7:
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. [Romans 7:14-25 NIV]
Lord, transform my thinking and my doing. Help me to not pause and consider whether I am in the mood or not when something needs to be done. Help me to have the desire to get it done and with a pleasant attitude. Thank You for Your transforming work in my life. Help me to have Your attitude! Amen!
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