II Timothy 2:22b

II Timothy 2:22b “Pursue faith and love and peace, and enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.”

Philippians 4: 9 “Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.”

A man I used to work with told the story of his five-year-old son’s experience in a soccer league. When the other boys were running down the field, with the ball going all over the place, the man’s son just stood in the middle of the field, looking around. He waved at his parents and inspected the grass and gazed up at the sky and generally had a good time, but he had no interest in playing the game.

Sometimes it feels as though this is how I approach the Christian life. Life is pretty good. I have friends I love and a church home. At church, I hug the people I know, and I enjoy when we get to sing some of my favorite praise songs, and I speak up in our adult Sunday School class. But I wonder if perhaps I’m missing the point of the “game.”

“Keep putting into practice…” “Pursue…” These are active words, determined, but the way I live my life seems to be passive, being tossed by the waves. They’re good waves, for the most part, but waves nonetheless. I’ve lost some of that determined pursuit of God that I once had, and I need to get it back.

It’s not too late for New Year’s resolutions, or as a Christian friend said, “New Week’s resolutions.” She gives herself one week at a time to work out her faith, and I think I can handle that too. One week to pursue God. And then another…

How is your pursuit coming along? What else do you need to put into practice--or keep putting into practice? Take action this week, and may the God of peace be with you.

Brenda

I John 5:3

I John 5:3 “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.”

This past Sunday, the sermon was on Christian growth, and this verse was included in the sermon notes. Our minister added that the only part of the Bible you truly believe is the part you obey.

A single friend of mine signed up one time for one of those online matching services. She said she is a Christian whose faith is very important to her, and she was looking for a man who is a Christian whose faith is very important to him.

They found several matches for her, and almost all of them had profiles that talked about Jesus and how important he is in the men’s lives. But their profiles ended by saying they’re looking for a woman “for intimacy.”

I suppose that for a lot of people, the Bible’s commands to save physical intimacy for marriage sounds downright burdensome, but the burdens that come from disobeying these commands are even greater: Disease, pregnancy, child support payments, broken hearts, and even the risk of a knock at the door twenty years later by someone who says, “I’m your child.”

We show our love for God when we obey the hard commands, not when we obey the easy ones. For me, the command not to lie is easy--I never lied well as a child, so I’m not even tempted to do it as an adult. The harder ones for me are parting with big chunks of cash (that would be tithing) and carving out time to spend with the Lord, when I don’t even have time to get to the grocery store most days. So these are the areas in my life that I need to examine continually.

What are the commands you struggle to obey? If the blessings of obeying the Lord in these areas aren’t enough to persuade you to obey, try looking at the burdens of disobedience. Better yet, work on cultivating your love relationship with Him so that your love will grow and obedience will follow.

Brenda

Matthew 2:3

Matthew 2:3 “When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.”

I know Christmas is over, but this verse from the Christmas story has stayed with me. It reminds me of that old Down Home saying, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Herod’s troubled nature affected everyone around him.

And I’ve been “troubled” lately too, working long hours at a job I don’t enjoy, and then not having enough time to do all the errands that are part of normal life.

I’m normally a cheerful person, but reading this verse over Christmas has made me wonder how much I’m letting my woes spread to the people around me. Do I complain too much at work? Does the way I talk about my job with co-workers encourage them to develop a bad attitude toward what we do? And at home, do I take enough time to be a blessing to my daughter and her friend who lives with us?

Where is my focus? When Herod heard the news about the newborn King, he let his fears get the better of him, while the Answer to his fears rested in a town not too far away. Am I, like Herod, focusing on my fears and the worries of life, when my Answer is waiting close by for me to come to Him?

How about you? What effect do your words and your troubles have on the people nearest to you? Are you letting you cares cloud your relationships, or are you casting your cares on the One who came to save?

Brenda

Romans 12:12

Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”

Ephesians 1:16 “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.”

I heard a Christian man (I can’t remember who) quote a famous Christian woman (I can’t remember who) about prayer. She had said that, so much of the time, her prayers boiled down to this:

“Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Help! Help! Help!”

It was humorous hearing this story, and yet it’s a good model of prayer, because so many of our prayers--the kind that please God--are like this. Even the Lord’s Prayer can be said in a spirit of thankfulness that our Father is holy and that it’s His will and not ours that’s in charge of how things are done on earth.

Sometimes when I’m tired and I start to pray, I’ll notice that I go straight to the “Help!” part of my prayers. No thanks to God. No adoration of who God is. No recognition of His will over mine. Just, “Help me to be… or to do….” But at those times, I’m missing out on something essential.

It’s during the “Thank You” part of prayer that we’re reminded of how much of what we have and treasure came from God. I have not stopped giving thanks for my children, for the way they’ve grown up, for the fact that they’ve grown up and are still part of my life. All of this is because of the goodness and mercy of a loving God. And so is everything else--the roof over my head and the job I have that keeps it there, a car that runs, my sweet little dog--all of it is from Him.

And when I’ve thanked Him and been reminded of who He is, then the requests for help seem to be less selfish and more in line with what I believe He wants for me and the people I pray for.
How faithful is your prayer life compared to what you’d like it to be? How much do you struggle with praying “the right way”? Maybe it would help just to pray the simple prayer: “Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Help! Help! Help!”

May the Lord fill you with joy, patience, and faithfulness in prayer.

Brenda

Psalm 4:3 - 5

Psalm 4:3 - 5
Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
the LORD will hear when I call to him.
In your anger do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.
Selah
Offer right sacrifices
and trust in the LORD.

People do annoying things in the break room at work. They take the last cup of coffee and don’t make a new pot. They take out a new plastic sleeve of Styrofoam cups, tear a small hole in the top of the plastic, take out a cup, and leave the rest of the cups sitting in the sleeve for the next person to wrestle with. They put things on top of the box of teabags, so the tea drinkers (that would be me) have to move the things to get their teabags. It’s annoying.

But one morning this past week, I felt a flash of genuine anger when I found a pile of blue fake-sugar packets sitting on the teabag box. I scooped up all the packets and was ready to fling them in the trash, just to get them out of my way, when I realized my anger was telling me that something was wrong. I took a breath, then got a cup from the stack of cups (still with the plastic sleeve pushed down around the bottom cups) and tucked the blue packets inside it while I tried to calm down.

I don’t know why I was angry. There was nothing in my life that was suddenly worse than it was the week before, but the anger was here anyway. It may just be that I’ve been tired, but even so, that anger is still about me: Other people put their stuff in my way. And that’s the wrong kind of anger.

God wants my anger to be fueled by righteousness, not by petty selfishness. He wants me to feel passion for the things He is passionate about. He wants my heart to break over things that break His heart. He wants me to be holy and set apart for Him and His use.

And He wants me to trust Him, to live in faith that even when life is challenging or annoying or painful, He has my best interest in mind. But this incident in the break room was a good reminder that my trust and my heart are not where the Lord wants them to be.

Where is your heart? What are the things that stir up your anger? Let us bring our wrong attitudes to the One who is Faithful and True.

Brenda