A Little Food for Thought

Our nation needs our prayers. As we become aware of unhealthy trends and decisions, we need to start with a personal heart cleansing and confession of any known sin. We need to confess and repent (1Jn 1:9) then cry out to our heavenly Father for the return of a vibrant, God-fearing culture to live in.

We often reach our lowest points because we stop trusting in the Lord, At such times, it's easy to give in to the temptation of taking matters into our own hands. When we do, it's easy to wind up in a mess. But if we look to the Lord again, we will see the way out of our pit and back into His loving will.

If we surrender to God in moments of despair, He will provide us with what we need, just as He did for David, Abraham, Joseph and so many other. He wants to strengthen His children so we can bear up under the weight of tough circumstances. So yield to Hm ~ at some point, we'll probably look back and mark the day as the beginning of new growth in our faith.

The Christian life is not about feeling good and deriving the greatest personal benefit from out connection to God. Rather, the Lord builds an intimate relationship with each of us. In that way, He can reveal more about Himself ~ truth by truth ~ as we believers need that knowledge. What a privilege!!!

Human strength is insufficient to rid ourselves of sin. The truth is that we are all in need of a Savior. Jesus Christ humbled Himself to die in our place, which was not a show of weakness. On the contrary, He made the most powerful sacrifice He could ~ and He did it for you and me (Jn 15:13).

What are we I doing with the amazing message of God's love? The commission to "go and make disciples" is meant to be an integral part of every believer's life. We need to share with others the truths about God as He reveals it to us. We all need to share about Jesus and what He has done for the human race and this very earth (remember the earth itself is groaning too!) while at home, at work, at school, among friends, or while pursuing hobbies. In other words, we are to celebrate the message of Easter every day of our lives. With anyone available.

Think about both your public life and your private life. Are both glorifying to the Lord? Allow God's light to penetrate any "darkness" in your thoughts, words, or deeds. Then others may be drawn to the Father by what they see in you (Mt 15:16).

Consider your blessings. How do you utilize all that the heavenly Father has bestowed upon you ~ namely, time, abilities, and finances? Each one of us must choose how we are going to live. It is our responsibility to be faithful servants of the living God, doing whatever He calls us to do.

My Bible study in Proverbs has shown me that it's impossible to extract the gems of knowledge out of the book without pencil and paper. Make columns with headings like: "How to Fear the Lord" and "Foolish Living (ungodly);" "The Righteous" and the "Foolish;" and "Wise" and "Foolish" or headings like these and just jot down what the Bible says about these subjects as you read through the different chapters. You will be blessed if you do this as you read the Proverbs. Remember chaps 1-9 are introductory passages so you may need to wait until you get to chap 9 before you're able to make these notations. It is a wealth of information missed if you don't take the time to do this. Proverbs is all about living righteously. Wisely. In the fear of the Lord.

Another thing my study has shown me is that I am a sluggard. That's right. As painful as it is to admit, I must confess that I am a sluggard. Now comes the hard part. Now I must make changes and adjustments. I need to be up doing things rather than sitting on my duff collecting dust. But the purpose of studying the Bible is to bring us into proper alignment with who God wants us to be and how He wants us to live our lives. The purpose is to show us how to live justly before our gracious Creator. It's absolutely amazing to me that He would take the time to give us direction and to leave us an "instruction manual" for doing just that. What an awesome God we have.

Rain is due in tomorrow night and I need to squeeze out of today the time needed to rake the back yard. Hubby weed-whacked it yesterday. Now it's my turn. But I will do it after I come home from quilting which will be about 2:00 or 3:00. It shouldn't take much more than a half an hour to do that. Hopefully. We are supposed to have a wet weekend so it looks like I won't have to wash my car on Saturday. That is always such a chore. A well-worth-my-time chore but a chore nonetheless.

I dug out a prayer shawl that I had half done and then put aside because I couldn't figure out how to do it. I thought I had messed it up and would need help getting it all sorted out. But I ended up with nothing to work on yesterday and remembered that shawl. So I decided to drag it out and see if I could figure out how to solve my problem. And low and behold, there was no problem. (Sometimes when I get tired this will happen.) So anyway I have something to work on while I wait to take my baby afghan over to Kathleen's tomorrow so she can figure out why the pattern isn't working for me. I do a repeat of 8 rows over and over again and for some reason it just will not work out to start another set of 8!! Frustrating to say the least.

Okay, I need to get dressed and go for my haircut and then to church for the quilting.