Love in Unity

 

Let the Love Flow!!  As we begin the month of February, I will be focusing on love verses, and all the examples Jesus helps us to see love throughout the Bible. I have to share; this crossed my mind, especially this past week.  Day after day, I saw situations where love was absent.  There were small places and large places, but around every corner the need to be first, or right, or better, or pride, took over the need to be together.

It started with a snowstorm we had on Monday.  Driving to work that morning, I was amazed at the people who could not wait, who could not let others in on a merge, who needed to blow their horns in anger, versus having compassion for others driving in the snow.  I got to work safely and pondered about the folks who performed those acts.  If they had reacted just a tad differently, they would not have started their day off in a more giving way.

Throughout the balance of the week, I continued to see it again.  People lashing out to others instead of responding with love.  The need to prove “I am right” or “I am better than you” took center stage.  It tore at my heart to see the body language of the folks who were the recipients of this behavior.  The look of rejection or lack of self-worth was all over their faces.  I thought about my actions over the past week, and I am certain that I, as well, did not respond with love in all situations.  There were times when I could have chosen different words or different actions to provide a better outcome.  Reflect with me.  Have there been times when you could have responded with love? I can guarantee that although we may want to respond this way, time or pride can get the better of us. 

Paul reminds us of something important in this particular verse.  Love binds us together in unity.  As I look around my small world and into the larger one, we all could use a bit more love.  Instead of finding ways to bring division, let us find ways to bring unity.  It starts in our own families – opportunities for us to share love versus contentious behaviors.  It starts at work, having patience for the new coworker who is demonstrating difficulty for ‘catching on’ to new processes.  It starts at the grocery store by letting someone who only has one item to your thirty to go in front of you.  And, just maybe, it shows up on the road, by letting the person take that great parking space versus you ‘gunning’ for it.  Building people up.  Binding people together.  This is the love that Jesus wants us to share.  Think about the incredible and unconditional love our Savior shows for us each and every day.  Think about the unity He has brought into your life.

It is time to ‘let the love flow’ and show the love Jesus has for us to others.  It is time for us to build people up and bind people together in the unity of love.  May we all focus on this in the coming week and find a way to share God’s love with those around us.

Dearest Jesus, you so freely share your love with us.  May we learn from the way you love us and love others.  May they know we are Christians by our love!  Help us to identify moments where love needs to be present – and may we be the ones to bring that love.  Amen!

 

Worry

 

It was a week – a week filled with many emotions.  At times, there was celebration and joy.  Other times there was heartache and sadness.  Times of laughter and times of crying.  Our lives bring many ups and downs.  Yet, when they happen within hours of each other, it can take a toll on our emotions.  That was my week.   I woke up Saturday morning exhausted, trying to rationalize the efforts of the week and determining what I could have done differently, what I could have done better.  I reviewed the events many times.  Although I was exhausted, there was a common thread – worry.

Progressing through the week, I realized that upon each event, the happy ones along with the ones filled with sadness, there was worry.  Worrying can be consuming.  Worry can be exhausting.  As I walked into each day, I realized that there was an element of worry for each situation – providing the emotional exhaustion I was feeling.  This worrying feeling is actually something with which I am familiar.  For all of the strides I try to make to live my life as God wants me to, I fail in this area.  I may give my worry to God, only to ‘take it back’ when what I gave to him is not fulfilled the way “I” want it to be fulfilled or in the timeline “I” had.

This week, I tried something different.  I entered each day with specific prayers for the day.  Knowing what the day entailed, I prayed for specifics.  Once I reflected back, I realized that God had actually answered my prayers – each and every day!!  I decided to take a step out of the worry and into God’s grace at the beginning of each day.  He heard my prayers and provided for me.  Yet, I fell back upon the stressors I have always felt – the worry I always had in these situations.  How foolish of me!  God provided for me, just as I asked, and I slipped back into a feeling of worry that there was no need for!

Has this happened to you?  You pray for God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s help, and He delivers!  Yet, you continue to live your life as you did prior to his answered prayers out of habit.  God gives us the strength to live past bad habits.  He delivers us from the “old ways and provides a new beginning” for each of us, free from our hold habits.  It is in our free will that we need to move past those habits, even when it comes to worry.

I learned something this week – that the blessings of answered prayers give us the opportunity to be freed from the chains of old habits and to live in God’s light.  Yes, it was an exhausting week, but God delivered me and others.  I need to spend less time worrying about when and how God will show up and realize He is there for each and every minute.  My trust has to be that His blessings will outshine my worry, for His goodness and His grace.  Let us work on seeing God’s hand in all that encompasses our lives, realizing that the old habits we have can be thrown out and His new mercies will shine!

Heavenly Father, thank you for answering prayers.  Please open my eyes and my heart to see the answers you provide.  Help me to rid the worry of my life and lift the bad habits associated with worry.  Let me see Your light shining through challenging times, and may my voice be raised in praise.

Prepare

 

It is winter in New England.   Snow is coming.  We have not had a true ‘plowable’ snowstorm yet this season.  That is how we define if the snow is going to be ‘worthy’ of our time or not.  If it is plowable, we know that it is something to keep our eye on and start planning.  It does not stop us from moving in these parts!  We just plan for it.  Grocery stores are busier than usual.  People ensure they have enough groceries, more importantly the correct groceries.  I saw a lot of hot chocolate in the carts of families that were shopping! 

Preparing for winter snow takes on many different scenarios.  The plow trucks ensure there is salt and sand to spray on the roads after they plow.  Some roads actually receive pre-treatment, which helps to melt the snow as it arrives.  Folks make sure they have snow scrappers in their cars and in their containers to be utilized for home snow blowers or generators in case power goes out.  Although this is not a huge storm, preparation is the key!  Once all is done, the waiting begins.  When those first flakes fall, it is a beautiful site.

All this preparation made me think about our verse for today.  Prepared!  Are we prepared for our Jesus’ return?  Unlike the weather maps, the news reports and the apps on our phones that let us know when the snow is coming and how much we will get, we do not know when Jesus will be returning.  Our preparation for Jesus’ coming needs to be completely different than the snowstorm preparation.  We are unaware of Jesus’ timing; thus, we need to be ready at a moment’s notice.  The question stands, are we ready to meet Jesus and how can we be prepared?  I thought about this for some time and found the best answer for this in Luke 12: 35-38. Jesus shares this story of preparation, how a servant is always prepared for their owner to return. 

³⁵ “Be ready and dressed. Have your lights burning. ³⁶ Be like men who are waiting for their owner to come home from a wedding supper. When he comes and knocks on the door, they will open it for him at once. ³⁷ Those servants are happy when their owner finds them watching when he comes. For sure, I tell you, he will be dressed and ready to care for them. He will have them seated at the table. ³⁸ The owner might come late at night or early in the morning. Those servants are happy if their owner finds them watching whenever he comes.

This is such a beautiful illustration of how we need to be ready.  Have our lights been burning – are we exuding the love of Jesus to others so “they know we are Christians by our love”?  Are we opening our doors to those who are knocking?  Are we ready to care for others?  Are we HAPPY to do these things?  We prepare for many events in our lives on earth, from daily events like school and work to larger events like vacations and weddings.  Are we prepared for the biggest event of our lives, meeting our Savior?  I am going to do my best to ask this question every morning and try to live my life the day ahead as if He was coming.  What a glorious day that will be! 

Dearest Jesus, help me to be reminded every day to live my life as if you were returning soon.  May my actions, my words and my thoughts align with your expectations.  Help me to be prepared to see Your face!  Amen.

 

Overstepped

 

Anyone who knows me will share with you – I am a planner!  I plan almost everything in my life.  My days are filled with planning what duties, chores, errands and even rest time I will have.  Dinner meals are always planned for the week – or every two weeks.  Vacations, once again, have me planning much the same.  What time will we wake up, when we need to go for breakfast, what attractions we will see, where we will be having dinner, are all decided upon – typically before we even get on a plane or in a car!   To be honest, I truly cannot remember the last time I woke up and did not have anything planned for the day.  I think it would truly “stress me out” more than being ‘enjoyable.’  I have spoken with many of you that do much the same.  Planning is a natural part of your days, ensuring that there is a map for the day and goals to attain.

Living a life like this is extremely efficient.  I get many things done and much is accomplished.  Yet may I share a secret with all of you?  It may be efficient, but it is exhausting.  It is the thing that keeps me up at night (among many other things).   There is always a to-do list that is never finished.  It is what I worry about (what if ____________ does not get done).  It is efficient yet filled with constant pressure.  I establish the plan.  I execute the plan.  I beat myself up if the plan is not executed correctly! My agenda!

This verse has provided the course direction I have needed in the past, and the course direction I need today! God wants us to use our gifts and talents that He provides to us on this earth.  That means planning.  Yet, when the plan we make overtakes the steps He wants us to make to get there, we have overstepped.  When our plan outweighs God’s plan, we have overstepped.   When the plan we set makes us so exhausted we are not operating with God’s will and being the person God wants us to be, we have overstepped.  God’s plan will always be the plan of choice, but when we work towards our plan so strongly, and we are not stopping to see if we are meeting God’s plan, we have overstepped.  Dear friends, God’s plan is perfect – absolutely perfect.  When we reflect on the plan that He has for our lives, we will see that His steps are perfectly drawn to the plan He has created for us.  In striving to ensure we complete everything, let us not let us distract our eyes from the steps He has asked us to take.  May our steps not be diverted by our agenda, but may our steps always follow the ones He has given to us.  How do we do this?  Instead of using time at the end of each day to review my check marks next to my to-do list that day and start planning the next, I will be using this time to see if what I accomplished aligned with God’s plan and am I walking in His steps.  Honestly, this will not be easy.  Yet course direction is necessary for me.  If it is for you, please join me!  Let us ensure we are walking in the steps God has asked us to – ensuring our personal plan is not overstepping God’s plan.

Dearest Lord, help me to not overstep!  May the plans I make for my days align with the goals you have for my life.  Help me to ‘check in’ to ensure my steps align with your steps in every way and that they are pleasing in your sight.  Amen!

People Pleaser?

 

Welcome to 2025!  Often when I enter a new year, I reflect on the past one, look for accomplishments and gaps, and see where I want to strive to close those gaps for the next year.  I used to be a strong New Year’s Resolutions person – only to be disappointed over and over again by my lack of attaining all the resolutions I set out to achieve.  Although many of the resolutions I would set would work on self-identified items, they were typically so I could be better for someone else.  How could I be better at work?  How could I be better as a wife/mother/daughter?  How could I look better?  See the picture?  My goals were an attempt to please someone around me, or even trying to please myself!  I used to set the goal, outline a plan for success, review it weekly, and look for attainment.  Small gains were seen as huge victories, only to be short-lived!  Please tell me you have been here as well!

My view changed a few years ago.  When I began the accomplishment/gap evaluation, I looked at my life here on earth, but I also turned my focus from being a ‘people pleaser’ to being a ‘God pleaser.’  To be honest with you, when I looked at it that way, the gaps became chasms.  Did I live the type of life He wanted for me?  Was I being the person He wanted me to be?  My self-evaluation continued to show me where I fell short on this earth.  I would leave this exercise feeling as if I would never get there.

Friends, my evaluation is correct.  We will never get to be the perfect earthly person.  Only one lived perfectly on earth, our dear Jesus.  No matter how hard we try, no matter how much effort we put against it, we will continue to fall short of the perfect Godly person.  We are a sinful bunch – natural sin takes over the day we are born.  The sinful nature continues each and every day we live here on earth.  There is absolutely nothing we can do to change it.  Yet, that does not give us the right to put our Christian values aside when we are with folks who are gossiping about others.  That does not give us the right to treat people deceitfully because someone asks us to.  That does not give us the right to give up who we are or who we aspire to be in God’s light because we want to please people here on earth.  Setting the goal of being a God pleaser versus a people pleaser will mean never reaching the goal!

Here is the best news of the day – God does not expect us to reach the goal here on earth!  God’s expectations of us is to focus and try.  He expects us to read His word, digest it and live it out in this earthly world.  He expects us to do our absolute best to obey His commandments and share His love with others.  Not achieving the end goal in this case is not a disappointment.  Each step we take in this goal brings us closer to Him!  Moving past being a people pleaser and becoming a God pleaser gets our focus away from ‘me’ and brings us closer to ‘Him.’  How do we know when we have achieved this new goal?  We will see it every day in the path we follow in His name.  We will look at life differently, we will start seeing the world through God’s eyes and appreciate ALL things, the little and large achievements.  We will see that we are wonderfully made by God and that He, even with all of our sin, is proud of us.  Proud enough to be called His children.  Let us work hard on being a God Pleaser this year.  We will stumble, but each step will be bringing us closer to our heavenly Father!

Dearest God, help us to focus our eyes upon You!  May we move away from trying to please people and move closer to trying to please you.  Help lay the path that I can follow and help me to open my eyes to see it.  Amen!

Stone and Flesh

 

Here we are – the end of the year!  The years seem to pass by more quickly the older I get.  When I was a young adult, I remember wishing time would come – I wish for the day I would get married, the day I would have children, the day I would have a career, etc.  Now those days have come and gone.  Many times, I wish for those ‘days’ back again.  As Cher sang in her song, “If I Could Turn Back Time,” how I would savor each of those moments, instead of wishing for the next.

As we say goodbye to 2024 and begin 2025, and complete our final season of faith, the season of winter, we can reflect upon what we would have done differently and what we want to achieve with the start of a new year!  The verse of today guides us through that process.  As the Lord shared in this verse, it is a time to remove from our hearts the stones – the areas that dragged us down during 2024.  In reflection, there were areas that dragged me down:

·         Worry – how many times I worried about areas of my life.  How many sleepless nights did I spend over trivial thoughts such as ‘what am I going to make for dinner when the family comes over’ or ‘what if we don’t’ enjoy this vacation.’  Of course, there were the larger worries such as, “is my mom going to continue to be in good health” or “are my grandchildren going to be okay.”  These worries are consuming, yet when the old worries are given to God, the peace that only God can give is provided to me.

·         Sin – the sins that brought my heart to a dark place.  We carry burdens in this life.  Carrying our sins is certainly one of them.  I can belabor over sins I have committed for days, weeks, months, and years.  The guilt that I feel over disappointing people, and more importantly God, tears at my heart.  Once again, Jesus is there to take all that guilt away.  He replaces my sins with a sign of forgiveness – FOR IT ALL!  No matter how large or small, Jesus takes every sin to the cross with Him.

There are other areas that have dragged my heart into one of stone.  These two took center stage!  Yet, for all that dragged me down, there was much that the Lord replaced in my heart with a new spirit!  There were days when compassion and forgiveness replaced bitterness and resentment.  Days when love and kindness replaced dislike and nastiness.  The Lord was with me, giving me a new heart when I needed it the most.

As we reflect on 2024 and set our sights on 2025, let us do so with a sense of forgiveness, for ourselves.  Jesus forgives us and loves us.  He removes our old hearts of stone and replaces them with hearts of flesh.  May we find a way to do the same for ourselves – and others.  Here is to 2025, filled with love, joy, kindness and faith! 

Before we leave 2024, I would like to thank all of you who read Simple Faith Today!  Your comments make me smile and provide me with the energy to keep on writing!  I pray all of you enter 2025 with hearts filled with goodness and a love for our Jesus.

Heavenly Father, thank you for removing the bad from our hearts and replacing it with good.  May we always remember it is YOU who gives us the joy we revel in.  Amen.

Prince of Peace

 

It is hard to believe that this is the last Sunday of Advent.  Every year, the Advent season seems to pass by so quickly and this year was no exception.  As we walked through the different names of Jesus in Isaiah 9:6, we have come one of the names I need the most – Prince of Peace!  Finding peace seems to be a rarity these days.  No matter the time of year.  No matter how hard I try to set aside time for some peace, it eludes me.

There are so many wonderful verses on peace in the Bible.  It was hard to choose one.  Today, I chose John 14:27. As I reflected upon how much I seek peace, I realized two major influences (among the many) about why I do not always experience the peace I am looking for.  They were summed up in this verse:

·       The “world’s” peace is not the same peace Jesus gives – my ideation of peace comes from a place that cannot give me what Jesus can.

·       My heart is troubled and worried about many things – things that I cannot control (there is that word control again). 

My idea of peace can come from the pictures and scenes I have seen throughout the years.  The mug of coca in front of a fireplace while reading a book and nothing else is on my mind or my heart.  I have no worries, and all is wonderful.  My friends, there will always be something that can get in the way of ‘earthly’ peace.  What we have is so much more than that.  We have the Prince of Peace, the One who provides us with the peace that this earth cannot give us. 

Our hearts and minds do not have to be troubled.  In my case, “I” let that happen!  I choose to have so much going on in my mind that it cannot find peace at night.  I choose to worry.  My Prince of Peace gives peace freely and abundantly.  I need to be the one to receive, like many gifts our Jesus gives us.  When I have reached the end of my rope on situations, and turn to my Jesus in exasperation, He opens His arms and says, “rest here child.”  Peace falls over me – without the fireplace and hot cocoa, just the warmth of my Savior.

As we close out our Advent series, remember that the names of Jesus describe His love for us.  He is our Wonderful Counselor – guiding us through our lives.  He is the Mighty God – all powerful in all situations.  He is the Everlasting Father – never leaving our sides.  He is our Prince of Peace – providing “all is calm, all is bright.”  May Christmas bring you joy and love as we celebrate our Savior’s birth.  Peace . . .

Prince of Peace, may we turn to you always, instead of this earth, and place our worries on your shoulders.  Help us to experience the peace only YOU can bring.  Amen.