Resting

God was really smart when He created the earth. Can you imagine a world where all we ever do is work? What if there was never a time to stop and reflect on who we are, and who God is? In Psalm 43 we see God is the one who is our Deliverer. If we call out to God, and rely on Him, we can be at peace.

Does that mean we will not struggle? No, we may still have struggles. In fact, when we keep the sabbath, we are resting from the struggles as well. It is that time to refresh in the love of God. Part of resting is the focus we place on God. Just thinking about how He cares for us, meditating on His provision, and on His deliverance from evil doers in our life. These things refresh our souls.

Prayer
Father, thank You for the rest You provide for us. It is good to think about You, to meditate on Your works. Praise You for the rest You provide in our life! Thank You for watching over those we love. Thank You for having a whole plan for our lives. In Jesus name. Amen.

Simply Well Said

This morning as the light crept into the woods behind my house I read Psalm 53. It was a short chapter of scripture with only six verses. Yet in those six verses God says He looks down from heaven on those that do not seek Him. It is a fool that says there is no God. These same people oppose those that do seek God. This displeases God, so much that He says He will scatter their bones in front of us. I do not know how that reads to you, but that sounds like a bad day for them to me. Interestingly enough this scripture also says God will draw His people back to Him. He will lift them up and they will rejoice. That’s us! God will defeat our enemies, driving them away, and will raise us up, and we can rejoice in that deliverance! Praise God!

Prayer
Father, I ask today that You would scatter those that oppose us and drive them away. They are foolish to say that You do not exist. Show them just how wrong they are. I praise You and thank You for watching over those that call upon You, that name the name of Jesus, for You alone are God. In Jesus name. Amen.

When “Thank You” Just Isn’t Enough

Thank You Father for being there.
Thank You for my life.
Thank You for my children,
Thank You for watching over my friends and family.
Thank You for looking out for all the little babies born today, whether here or into heaven.
Thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You, thank You.

Prayer
Father, sometimes I just want to fill this screen with thank Yous, and it still is not enough. I love You. Please help me do Your will. In Jesus name. Amen.

Preparing For Battle

In Samuel when David faced Goliath, he said the battle was the Lord’s. It is easy for us to think then that there is nothing that we have to do regarding the fight. If we look closer, however, we can see there is more to it than that. David spoke in this same area of scriptures about how God had been with him in the fields taking care of the sheep. God had helped David to defend the sheep from predators. David understood that life was not just about battles, life was also about preparation for the day of battle.

Every day we have opportunity to spend time with God. that is our choice, and we can choose to do that or not. If we choose not to do that then we move on to not spending time with Him. Suppose David had not been in the fields and experienced previous deliverance from enemies at the hand of God? Would he have been so quick to see that this enemy was just one more that God would help him defeat? It is important, I think, that every day, every chance we get, we interact with God. We need to be building that confidence in the small things He is doing for us every day. These will build into bigger and bigger things as we move with Him. Then when what appears to be a giant to the people that have not prepared themselves for battle by spending time with God (like the army), we will be able to say with David, the battle is the Lord’s.

Prayer
Father, please help us to spend moments with You every day. Please help us to rely on You in small things every day, and praise You in these things. Help us build the courage and faith to trust in You to be with us in the daily battles and the bigger battles. Help us slay our giants. In Jesus name. Amen.

Construction 101

Some things are just very obvious if we just stop to think about them. For example, what is the first thing we need if we are to build a building? I would suggest it is a place to build it. To edify one another, to build each other up, implies that there is a place to build. That place is a person, or we should say, the heart and the mind of that person. To me, this is one of the reasons David was constantly searching his own heart and also talking about drawing near to that which was good and moving away from that which was not good. It was not because he thought himself special. It was because he thought God was special.

In Psalms 101 we see a short but clear picture of this idea. David must have been an interesting king and leader of the people because he is always talking about singing. It seems safe to say that there is more to the idea of singing that meets the eye at first pass. He states that he will sing of mercy and justice, which I find to be an unusual combination. This entire Psalm speaks of standing fast on only what is good, only considering that which is good, only looking at that which is good, only being around people that are trying to do good, and so on. He will put perversity away from him, away from his heart. He will push away the haughty from him. He will separate himself from those that do not seek God.

Just like building a building in life today, start with a good piece of ground, use only good material, and labor only with those committed to building the right way. Sounds like pretty good advice for edifying one another, right?

Prayer
Father, we thank You for Your commitment to helping us build the house we call “us” with only the good stuff. We thank You for Your mercy toward us, that You help and encourage us to do and build the right things. Father, help each one of Your people today, Lord, to have what they need to build themselves up today, and to help those around them build well today, that You may be glorified today. Praise be to the King! In Jesus name. Amen.

We’re With The Big Guy

In high school and college my best friend was the center for our high school basketball team. He was a pretty tall big guy. When we would go places on the college campus, especially if we were out in the evening, it felt good to have him in the crowd with us short guys. Nobody messed with us. We were with the big guy. That was both comforting and encouraging because we felt like we could go anywhere, even way over to the student union and still walk back in the dark, safe. Its like that now, only better.

When I woke up this morning, before i had my coffee, my head began to bring up all of the things I had to do this week, all the things I had to do today, all the things I had to do before noon… You know the drill. Pretty soon the opportunity showed up to think about “what if I can’t…” and then anxiety would show up after that. In that moment, with both feet just touching the floor from the bed, I smiled. I thought of how big that list of things was. But then I thought of how big my God is. In my mind I compared the two. I had a picture of short stack of paper, and then a giant of a person so big that the stack was not as tall as His little toe. Yes sir, I smiled.

I’m with the Big Guy.

Prayer
Father, thank You for always watching our back. You always provide for every need of every kind. You walk with us one step at a time. You keep us in Your way, guiding our steps, helping us to understand Your commandments and Your statutes, and how they are markers, like lighthouses in the fog of life. Thank You for being the Big Guy on our side. We love You. In Jesus name. Amen.

Humble Beginnings Are Humble In The Beginning

Sundays always have this unique feeling for me. It is like a new beginning. It is where God began the first separation of things, He created light, and separated light from darkness. I think that is the feeling I get on Sunday morning – I am stepping into the newness of the light. For me it is a humbling thought to think that God created something so new, from nothingness. I have a hard time creating a cup of coffee some days.

Maybe that is the point. Maybe one of the ways we find our way to God, the the “fear of God” which is really reverence, is to understand that first act. Maybe it is because we cannot fully understand or comprehend it. Wow! Light from nothing but His speaking it! How much more humble a beginning could the earth have had, right? No form and no light – ever! The first thing He makes is not the stuff, it is the energy. He makes light, setting up a forever cycle of day and night.

Then there is us. My walk with God started with nothing. I was someone that did not know Him. But He reached into my darkness, looking only for me to agree. What did I do? Not much. I asked for forgiveness, I asked there He forgive my sins through the shed blood of His Son Jesus, I asked that there be light. He looked into the formless darkness inside of me, and said, “Let there be Light!” And He saw that it was good.

Prayer
Father, thank You for the light of Your Son in our lives. I ask that You look favorably on Your people today. Let us begin anew to revere You and worship You. Please look into the lives of Your people today, God, and once again say, “Let there be Light!” In Jesus name. Amen.

Resting Like God Rests

The sabbath is meant to be a day of rest. In Isaiah 58:13 the sabbath is called God’s holy day. He tells us to call it a delight. How exactly do we do that? Later towards the end of this verse He says if we honor Him by by refraining from saying and doing our our things, then (verse 14) we will be delighting in God, and He will cause us to ride on the high places and give us the heritage of Jacob (which is a good thing). So these are great promises, but I still am trying to really understand the rest part. Maybe it can be found in what God did on the first sabbath.

The words here in Genesis 2:1-3 have interesting shades of meaning. The word for work here implies purpose or mission, as if we were sent or meant to do something. By implication this is our work. The word for rest means to repose or decline. I think of it to be like when I am working on something and finish it, I lean back and look at it. It is interesting that worship is almost an exact opposite to this. Worship means to incline or lean in or toward.

It would seem the sabbath is the day we lean back from our normal routine, work, and things we enjoy. This causes us to delight in the sabbath. We lean in toward God, we worship Him and rejoice, resetting the clock for yet another week. God is so good, is He not?

Prayer
Father, thank You so much for Your constancy toward us. Thank You for keeping us safe. Thank You for thinking of us. Please look favorably upon all Your children today, and give them peace. In Jesus name. Amen.

God’s Words Are Good

There are some days when reading the scriptures that God seems to be giving me a pretty direct message about something in my life. Other days it seems like I spend time grazing through various scriptures to see what is available to me. There are some clear messages I see in both cases, and also some clear results.

God loves us and wants us to have life. Not a life, but life. By that I mean life is meant to be enjoyed, living for God, and with relationships to other believers. We are meant to enjoy the good things that the planet provides us. In the scriptures this is referred to as blessings, delight, daily bread, and so on. All of it in reverence to God who provides it all. We are to delight in the direction He has given us through the words He has recorded in the bible, through the messages spoken by those that bring us teaching from the scriptures, and in the songs we hear and sing. This is our delight. If we truly seek these things, we will be drawing close to Him, and in His presence are all the blessings of protection and deliverance and wholeness and provision we seek.

Prayer
Father, we want to be people who take their delight in You. We want to seek diligently Your truths in Your scriptures. We ask You give us the wisdom to understand, and the courage to take a stand once we do. We thank you for providing us what we need, and I ask Father that You touch the hearts of Your people today, and raise them up. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thankfulness Is…

Some would say thankfulness is an emotion. Some may say it is an idea or perhaps an ideal we ascribe to. It has been called an attitude of the heart. Perhaps it is really all three. There are times when things are going “perfectly” and we may be thankful for the good times. There may be times when things are going badly and our heart cries out to God with thankfulness for the soon to come deliverance. There are times when things are just steady and we just keep moving forward to try to make the best of everything.

It seems to me that God reminds us often through the writings of those that have been through many trials, struggles, good times, and even affluence that thankfulness is a part of who we are. To me, It is that part of us once we become believers that states with Paul in Philippians 4:12-13 that I know how to be abased and how to abound. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. These are my hopes for myself and others, that we can at all times and in all situations give thanks to the God of our salvation.

Prayer
Father, Thank You for being the great King of the universe, and gracious toward us. There truly is none like You. Please send today the things all Your people need. Show up mighty and speedily. In Jesus name. Amen.