Love, just love

“Love must be without hypocrisy. Detest evil; cling to what is good. Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:9-10, HCSB).

What is good? Good things build others up. They show encouragement and love. They don’t belittle or discourage. Instead they only make that person better in the long run. Sometimes it’s hard to find the good. Sometimes there’s a person out there that really gets under your skin. On Sunday, my pastor told us to “love, just love.” Love, the greatest commandment, is the best way to bring someone to a deeper knowledge of Christ. No, you don’t ignore their sins, but you love them and show them a better way of living. You don’t preach at them. You don’t make them feel bad about themselves. Instead, you “cling to what is good.” You show them the love of Christ, and leave the rest up to the Holy Spirit. You, “outdo one another” when it comes to showing respect and honor. You give that person the respect that the rest of the earth says they don’t deserve. You show them how much they matter to their Heavenly Father up above. You love them.

Who can you love today?

God's Calling

“God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable” Romans 11: 29 HCSB

His gifts and calling are final. They can’t be changed. And so it’s up to me. Do I ignore the calling placed upon my heart, or do I embrace it? Do I stay busy and preoccupied, or do I give myself moments of quiet and rest in which to write? This calling, this life God has called me to, is not easy . I feel such a strong calling as a military wife, a mother and a writer. These are all a part of who I am. The first two callings take up a large portion of each day. With a house to clean and a baby getting into everything, I am more than busy. Just the same, my fingers long to write. My soul longs to empty itself on the page. Writing is cathartic for me. It’s one of the ways I talk to God. It’s the way in which I’m the most transparent. I love writing to the point that it scares me. I love writing so much that I’m afraid of criticism. I’m afraid of being turned down. I’m afraid that people won’t like my writing, or will be overly critical of my grammar (my weakest link). Jus the same, it’s my calling. It’s something that can’t be ignored. This gift of writing is such an intricate part of who I am. And so, I find tiny moments out of the day to write. I experiment with styles. I stretch my skills. I search for ways to get published. And most of all, I seek the face of my Father, who gave me this gift for a reason. What that reason is, I may not see until eternity, but it’s a wonderful reason just the same!

What calling has God placed upon your life?

A Message of Faith

“This is the message of faith that we proclaim: if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, resulting in salvation. Now the Scripture says, No one who believes on Him will be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10: 8-13, HCSB).

It’s so simple dear friends, but we often make it so complicated. We try to live this life on our own. We try to handle everything that has been thrown at us. What we end up with is brokenness, despair and defeat. We feel lonely. We feel unloved. When right in front of us is the answer. Right in front of us is One who will carry all of our burdens for us. Growing up in a Christian household I knew all the correct answers, I knew how to sing the songs and act like a good little Christian girl. Although I knew all the answers, a point had to come where I admitted that this world was too hard for me to handle on my own. And believe me, as a perfectionist, I tried to handle it! That point, for me, was a point of extreme loneliness. It was a point of life in which I felt like I didn’t have a friend in the world. It was at that point that I reached out to Jesus and took a deeper step in my relationship with Him. It was at that point that I let Him fully into my life as my truest friend, the number one love of my life, my Savior and my God. All it took was placing all of myself at His feet and letting Him take control of my life.

I’ve never been disappointed.

Sufferings

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:1-5, NIV).

I have long struggled with this idea of rejoicing in my sufferings. How can I find good in such things, I ask? How can I be happy that such things come about? I’m starting to think that it isn’t that we are happy for the struggles that come our way, but instead that we see how God uses those times of struggle. I never wanted to experience my grandparents dying, but I know God used that situation for His glory. He used me to show other’s how different my grieving process was, since I had the assurance that I would see my grandparents in heaven one day. He used a bad time in my life to improve my prayer life and draw me even closer to Him. Through it all He was improving me as a person. He was forming me into the kind of Christian woman He desired me to be. That gives me joy. That gives me hope. That gives me a desire to share my story with the world around me. And that, I believe, is what makes this world, with all of its struggles, worth living in.

Psalms 90; Leviticus 1-2; Mark 5:1-20

In a world where love fades away, it’s hard to understand that there’s a kind of love that doesn’t.
In a world where people have become jaded, it’s hard to understand a love that doesn’t leave them or forsake them.
In a world where love is conditional, it’s hard for people to understand the unfailing love of God.
In a broken word, it’s hard for me to express what this love is like, but it’s real. This kind of love comes from God, who sees the entire picture. This kind of love isn’t conditional on how I act day in and day out. If it was, I would fail miserably. God loves each of us completely, and always will. He loves us so much that he gives us a choice when it comes to accepting this love. He allows us to chose salvation through Jesus Christ, or reject it. If we accept his love, his promise is clear, he will love us continually, forever.
In Romans 8:28-29, the Apostle Paul tells us this: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
As for me, my heart is so glad that I know about such a love. Without it, I don’t know how I could wake up and face each day. Like the Psalmist, I want this to be my prayer: “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”

Day 14: Job 14-16; Matthew 10:1-20

I feel so bad for Job. The chapters we read today further the gap of understanding between him and his friends. His friends still think he’s a fake, but Job knows his own heart. He knows he’s right with God. And so he longs for a mediator: someone who could be in direct contact with God and address his concerns:

“Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there on high. My friends scorn me, but I pour out my tears to God. I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends. For soon I must go down that road from which I will never return” (Job 16:19-22).

In the New Testament the early Christians receive this very mediator, the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:26 says, “The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words”

This was the very place Job was in. He was so confused and in so much pain. He wanted someone who would understand him. He needed to express what he was feeling to God.

I’m so thankful that we, as Christians, have the gift of the Holy Spirit today. For sometimes, when we’re in pain, there really aren’t any words. But we can still feel a special comfort from God, knowing that he hears our cries and will see us through to the other side.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for knowing my every thought. Please be the Protector and Shelter I need so very much today.