"...whatever the commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." Rom 13:9-10
These are very interesting times. Everything seems to be coming at us faster and it seems bad news awaits us every time we read the paper or watch television. Gas prices are up and home sales are down. Mortgages are being foreclosed and thousands lose their jobs every month. What used to represent stability in our lives no longer can be trusted. How can things get any worse?
Its hard to love your neighbor when times are difficult. I can't help them financially when I don't know how I am going to pay the light bill. I know Bill and Jenny are having marriage problems but I don't have very much time to see how they are doing, since I started working this second job.
The Enemy works in so many ways to keep us from doing what God wants us to do. He works through others to create the perfect storms in our lives keeping the focus on ourselves and not on fulfilling what God wants us to do. Its not easy to love our neighbors when we have to make the car payment.
Paul writes "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Rom 13:21 We can certainly be "overcome" by our situation. We can let it consume us until we are paralyzed and unable to do what God would have us do. We must be aware of this trap and take the time to love both God and our neighbors and therefore drive out the evil of busyness and worry.
God knew exactly what was coming in this season and he gave us many verses of scripture to help us endure. We must therefore be obedient to his word and continue to put our situations aside and serve the Lord and our fellow man even when it is difficult. Stop and say hello to a friend you haven't seen in awhile. Volunteer to visit folks in the hospital. Ask a co-worker to come to church with you next Sunday. It doesn't take much time to show love to someone.
My prayer: Father in these difficult and uncertain times help us to focus on our neighbor and not ourselves. Give us direction and make a way for us to see beyond our own situation and prepare a path in order to serve others. Forgive us Lord when we stumble and help us never to be lacking in zeal but to be overflowing with spiritual fervor. I ask these things so that your truth may be spread to a confused and scared world. I pray in joyful hope of the return of our Savior, and in His mighty Name. Amen!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Love One Another Sincerely
"Let love be sincere.....Be affectionate to one another, with brotherly love...." Rom 12:9-10
Life seems to consume us with it's busyness. I just moved into a new house and have not been faithful to my devotional writing of late. I wanted to write everyday this year but like most things we promise ourselves and often God, they seem to get pushed aside in our hectic lives.
Love is like that too. We are just too busy for one another. A text message on my son's birthday, it slipped my mind this year; a missed dance recital, another late night at the office. We all have excuses.
The problem is we are not aligned with what God wants us to do. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul," says the Lord "and your neighbor as yourself." Well, if I have the time.
God gave us just two things to do. Sincerely love him and love our fellow man with the same zeal as we love ourselves. We don't. We try but like my promise to the devotional we start off well but we don't finish. Something always gets in the way. Some people after all just aren't that loveable....
What's your excuse? Did your boss really make you angry today? Was it your husband who never takes the time to say that you look pretty any more? Maybe its your children who seem to have more time for their friends than to go to the movies as a family.
Paul reiterates what Jesus said, "Love one another," with brotherly affection. But when you do it make your love sincere. Love each other like you would want to be loved and love God that way too. Its all in the heart and we must take the time to do it. Its what God asks of us as adopted members of his family, his children.
My prayer: Father, in the name of Jesus your Son, I ask for your forgiveness once again for falling short of my obligation to love sincerely. I have not taken the time because I am selfish and too absorbed with my own life to consider loving my neighbor. I have been too busy to stop and talk with you Daddy and I know how that disappoints you. Grant me a new sense of connection to you and to those around me. Help me to love them when they are not lovable and make me more easy to love. Thank you for your mercy and constant patience. I do love you Father and I am learning more how to love everyone around me consistently. Thank you for your grace. I pray in earnest for all to come to know you and to begin to love one another with sincerity and zeal. In Jesus name, Amen!
Life seems to consume us with it's busyness. I just moved into a new house and have not been faithful to my devotional writing of late. I wanted to write everyday this year but like most things we promise ourselves and often God, they seem to get pushed aside in our hectic lives.
Love is like that too. We are just too busy for one another. A text message on my son's birthday, it slipped my mind this year; a missed dance recital, another late night at the office. We all have excuses.
The problem is we are not aligned with what God wants us to do. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul," says the Lord "and your neighbor as yourself." Well, if I have the time.
God gave us just two things to do. Sincerely love him and love our fellow man with the same zeal as we love ourselves. We don't. We try but like my promise to the devotional we start off well but we don't finish. Something always gets in the way. Some people after all just aren't that loveable....
What's your excuse? Did your boss really make you angry today? Was it your husband who never takes the time to say that you look pretty any more? Maybe its your children who seem to have more time for their friends than to go to the movies as a family.
Paul reiterates what Jesus said, "Love one another," with brotherly affection. But when you do it make your love sincere. Love each other like you would want to be loved and love God that way too. Its all in the heart and we must take the time to do it. Its what God asks of us as adopted members of his family, his children.
My prayer: Father, in the name of Jesus your Son, I ask for your forgiveness once again for falling short of my obligation to love sincerely. I have not taken the time because I am selfish and too absorbed with my own life to consider loving my neighbor. I have been too busy to stop and talk with you Daddy and I know how that disappoints you. Grant me a new sense of connection to you and to those around me. Help me to love them when they are not lovable and make me more easy to love. Thank you for your mercy and constant patience. I do love you Father and I am learning more how to love everyone around me consistently. Thank you for your grace. I pray in earnest for all to come to know you and to begin to love one another with sincerity and zeal. In Jesus name, Amen!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Waiting on God
"(Abraham), who against all hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken..." Rom 4:18
"Are we there yet?" How often we parents here that on a long car trip. I wonder how often God hears it from us in our prayers!
"When will he ask me to marry him, Father?" "How long are you going to make me wait for this promotion God?" "Lord, when will you bring my husband back to me?" I'm sure God hears our requests and millions of others, all day every day!
So why does God make us wait? Doesn't he want his children to have good gifts?
Of course he wants the best for us. That is why he has us wait. Most often, I have found in my relationship with the Father that he has me wait because either I am not prepared for the blessing he is about to send me or what I think I want is not the best thing for me.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, " said the Lord in Revelation 22:13. He was the first to exist and he will be the last. God knows the lives of every human being who was ever born or will be born and he knows how their lives (believers and non-believers) fit together. Our Father orchestrates everything that happens through the circumstances of our daily lives. He opens and closes doors to the obedient and the disobedient. He gives us free will to follow his will and to go our own way.
It has been said often, "God's timing is not our timing." I believe that. If we are to be faithful believers walking in friendship and fellowship with our Father, we must learn to ask God and then trust that he hears us and will give us the proper answer (not necessarily yes) at the proper time (not necessarily now). Jesus taught us that our Father only wants to give his children "good gifts." He wants us to have bread not "a stone," fish not "a snake." But, we must learn to be patient and wait on God.
My prayer: Father, we are impatient children. We live in a "right now" world. We crave constant stimulation and immediate satisfaction. Teach us Daddy to wait for you. Teach us to trust you and that you only want the best for us and your Kingdom. Lord, I am sorry that I have not trusted that you provide the goodness in my life. Open doors that I should walk through and close those which would be harmful. Give me the wisdom to recognize the difference between them and choose wisely. Use me for your purpose Father. I want to serve you and not myself because I love you. In Jesus mighty name I pray, Amen!
"Are we there yet?" How often we parents here that on a long car trip. I wonder how often God hears it from us in our prayers!
"When will he ask me to marry him, Father?" "How long are you going to make me wait for this promotion God?" "Lord, when will you bring my husband back to me?" I'm sure God hears our requests and millions of others, all day every day!
So why does God make us wait? Doesn't he want his children to have good gifts?
Of course he wants the best for us. That is why he has us wait. Most often, I have found in my relationship with the Father that he has me wait because either I am not prepared for the blessing he is about to send me or what I think I want is not the best thing for me.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, " said the Lord in Revelation 22:13. He was the first to exist and he will be the last. God knows the lives of every human being who was ever born or will be born and he knows how their lives (believers and non-believers) fit together. Our Father orchestrates everything that happens through the circumstances of our daily lives. He opens and closes doors to the obedient and the disobedient. He gives us free will to follow his will and to go our own way.
It has been said often, "God's timing is not our timing." I believe that. If we are to be faithful believers walking in friendship and fellowship with our Father, we must learn to ask God and then trust that he hears us and will give us the proper answer (not necessarily yes) at the proper time (not necessarily now). Jesus taught us that our Father only wants to give his children "good gifts." He wants us to have bread not "a stone," fish not "a snake." But, we must learn to be patient and wait on God.
My prayer: Father, we are impatient children. We live in a "right now" world. We crave constant stimulation and immediate satisfaction. Teach us Daddy to wait for you. Teach us to trust you and that you only want the best for us and your Kingdom. Lord, I am sorry that I have not trusted that you provide the goodness in my life. Open doors that I should walk through and close those which would be harmful. Give me the wisdom to recognize the difference between them and choose wisely. Use me for your purpose Father. I want to serve you and not myself because I love you. In Jesus mighty name I pray, Amen!
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