The Walk

 

Make me know Your ways, O LORD ; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; For You I wait all the day.  Psalm 25: 4-5

Waiting on God’s perfect timing is difficult for any believer.  I have certainly had my share of experience in waiting on God and looking back, those times helped me to grow in my faith and dependence on Him.  

I have been blessed with some lifelong friendships and one friend in particular recently confided in me about being patient with a difficult situation at work.  You see, my friend has worked tirelessly for the same company for several years now and has never been given a raise.  With our nation’s economy on the verge of a recession and with an increased workload year in and year out, my friend finally worked up the courage to sit down with his boss and make a case for an increased salary.

The meeting seemed to go well and I was impressed with my friend’s courage to be bold and ask for a raise in the first place.  Courage is often times associated with bravery, but I am referring to my friend’s ability to patiently wait for God’s voice instead of only following the advice of their family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.  Doing this requires great faith, humility, and patience, all of which are the other characteristics needed for successful waiting.

I am pleased to write that the conversation took place and things are looking promising for a pay increase.   My friend just needs to continue to patiently surrender to God’s plan for his life…

Thanks be to God for blessing us with such amazing friends!!

Trouble Me

 

And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose… Romans 8:28

I read something that struck a chord with me just the other day in the excellent book, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.  Friday’s devotional was about being thankful and praising God even we are facing difficulties.

When we face turmoil, we begin to realize just how much we need God in our lives.  I firmly believe that God allows difficult circumstances to make us realize our dependence on Him.  You see, when things are going  well, we grow idle in our faith and falsely begin to believe that we are self-sufficient in our own minds. Our Father allows these times to shake our foundations so that we are humbled and reach out to Him in need and in love.

We must turn every aspect of our lives over to God-our children, our relationships, our jobs, finances, health; anything that we try to manage without dependence on Him is prideful and will surely not stand the test of time.

Even if it feels strange and foreign to you, praise God even when you are experiencing trouble…it just may all be part of His perfect plan to bring you into a closer relationship with Him!

Lengthwise

 

Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother’s womb.  I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing.  You knew me thoroughly… Psalms 139:13

Ah, the summertime.  It’s great to enjoy the long days and what a better time to work on projects around the home… 

Many years ago, we had a screened in porch built at our old home and then two summers later, we laid the concrete for a patio that has provided us a place for our grill and some lawn chairs.   We had a trampoline in the back yard which is the 'hang out' for many of our neighbor's kids.  Until we had a concrete pad, our grill was stored inside our screened in porch and it drove Alicia crazy. (Not to mention, I burned some of the vinyl siding off of the side of old house, but that’s a story for another day and time.)  The contractor that worked on both of our home improvement projects amazed me.  He knew exactly what materials and tools he needed to complete each project and worked efficiently on both until completion.  I know a lot of folks who are handy, but I am certainly not one of them.  (I cannot build a Lego set correctly without the instruction manual….oh well)!

God is like the ‘master builder’ when it comes to each of our lives.  He knows what work needs to be done and just how He will use His beloved children to finish the job.   You see, each of us are wonderfully and fearfully made to serve as His vessels while we are on this earth.   From before we were born, He has known us and the plans He has in store for us.

Praise His holy name!!!

Walk With Me

 

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.  Hebrews 10:23

In my walk of faith, there are occasions that if left to my own devices, I begin to become selfish in pursuing what makes me feel happy, and I only hear what I want to hear.  I can always tell when I am beginning to veer “off path,” because I tend to be short-tempered, impatient and combative with my family and friends.  I can typically pinpoint the “off path” beginnings by my shortened and unfocused prayers, lack of reading God’s Word, and going through the motions of worship at church.

It’s when we live according to God’s divine wisdom that we walk by faith and not by our own sight.  We begin to make decisions as God would have us make them instead of based upon how we feel, and what makes us feel “good.”

We must let the Holy Spirit guide us, not our impulses and emotions.  We must walk with God daily and allow His divine wisdom to reign supreme in our lives.

Just The Two of Us

 

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.  All the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives.  Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.  Proverbs 16: 1-3

As summer has kicked into high gear, it has become clear to me that I desperately need to spend more time in prayer, connecting with our Lord and Savior.  I have also been travelling the past two weekends and unable to attend worship, so I really do feel out of touch.

Finding the right balance in life always proves to be more difficult than it sounds.  For us to live up to our true potential and follow the plans God has made for us, we must seek to achieve balance in our lives.

Our first priority should always be to seek the Lord each and every day, though prayer, reading of the Word and worshiping on a regular basis. Working a full-time career and adding young children to the mix can certainly take away from any quiet time to pray or read the Bible, so I do at least try to save a few minutes each morning to start my day on the good foot.  

I know too many people that consider Sunday their day of rest and will make up any excuse to not go to church.  I honestly look forward to going to church each week and feel like something is off if I am out of town or miss a service.

Despite our busy schedules, we must make the time each and every day to devote to our Loving Father!!

Velvet Sea

 

Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side.  Matthew 14:22

In the gospel of Matthew, Chapter 14, Jesus asked the disciples to board the boat before Him and He promised that He would meet them on the other side.  He never gave any specific details nor did He bother to tell them just how He was going to cross the Sea of Galilee.

Sometimes we just have to trust God without knowing any of the specific details.  If you are like me, this is proves to be very difficult as I like to know "who", "what", "where", "when", and "why."

The Lord may not give us every detail of His plan so we should not require to know every detail or know all things either.  We just need to obey Him and trust that His timing is perfect and good, as it always is.

Amazing Grace

 

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Romans 10:13

We celebrated our oldest son, Elliott's 16th trip around the sun this week. Another item that blows my mind is that he is now driving and a rising 10th grader...man, time continues to fly by at light speed, because we can't have a kid in high school, can we??!! I have noticed that the older he becomes, the more expensive the gifts are, right?  Elijah will turn 13 later this summer but I can sense he was a little jelly of Elliott's car that we gave him for his milestone birthday. 

I can still recall when my little sister got what seemed to be 'cool' gifts that I was always a bit jealous of when we were growing up.  My parents surprised her with a sweet Ford Mustang GT Convertible when she turned sixteen. One year, she was given a ATV/4 wheeler for Christmas from Santa Claus, and if I am being honest, I expected something similar or equally as 'cool' from my parents/Santa. 

To some extent, we are all childish with the gifts we expect to receive, but there is one gift that is given freely to each one of us-the perfect gift-the gift of God's grace. 

There is nothing you need to do to receive this gift other than calling the name of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and accepting that His death on the cross is that which saves you from sin.

If you haven't accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, what are you waiting for?