DAILY THOUGHTS
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)
The fruit that the Holy Spirit grows in our lives is:
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness and
self-control
Which three of these would you like to see more of in your life?
Why?
How do these become more evident in your life?
Hint: Relationship
A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the texts below and then ponder the questions at the bottom of the post.
11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!”
13 “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.”
14 Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”
15 “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!”
16 The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” Judges 6:11-16 (NLT)
Where was Gideon when the angel found him?
What was he doing?
What was he hiding from?
What did the angel call Gideon?
What did the Lord tell Gideon to do? What was he supposed to go with?
What was Gideon’s response?
What was God’s reply?
What in your life are you not doing that you are supposed to be doing?
What would be God’s reply to you?
Two shepherds were getting ready to bed down for the night. As per their usual routine, they started counting the sheep.
Shepherd 1 (S1): 97, 98, 99….uh oh
Shepherd 2 (S2): What?
S1: One’s missing
S2: Are you kidding? I bet it’s that same sheep that is always exploring new fields. I’ll go look for it.
S1: Why?:That sheep causes trouble. Just let it go.
S2: No. I bet it wandered off not realizing it was getting too far from me. It is somewhere out there alone in the darkness. I am sure it is not even aware of the dangers all around. And besides, I love the little fella!
S1: How are you going to find it?
S2: I’m going to go out to the last place I saw it and call it. Maybe, when it hears my voice it will move closer to me so I can save it. And when I find it, I’m going to hug it and kiss it and carry it home.
Extrapolation from Luke 15:3-7
You know, Jesus did this. He didn’t hang on the cross for the masses. He hung on the cross for just one. That one was you. That one is me. He hung there in hopes that when we wandered off to the dark places and we are lost, we will remember. We will remember his voice, we will remember how much we are loved and we will move closer to him. To Jesus, each one is important. Each one is dearly loved.
28 “The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, 29 but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. 30 Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” Luke 15:28-32 (NLT)
In the story of the prodigal son, the son goes off on an adventure to basically please himself. He does whatever he wants, even things he knows are not in his best interest, until one day he wakes up and realizes he has nothing. He reaches rock bottom. At that point, he decides he needs to go home.
When he arrives, his father runs to him and embraces him and welcomes him home. He is restored as a son and the celebrations begins.
His older brother however, is not happy. He stays away from the celebration not willing to go in and embrace his returned brother. Why? He feels that all his years of service should have amounted to some sort of reward. He complained because he didn’t feel his commitment was recognized. And why in the world would the father welcome in the person who did all of those wrong things?
The sad thing is we often behave in this same way. We see ourselves as good Christians and we judge whoever wants to come in. Do they measure up? Have they behaved in a way that fits our standard? What about me? These are the questions we ask (even if we wouldn’t admit it.)
As Christ-followers, these are never question we should ask. Right? Shouldn’t we be standing out front of the celebration yelling “Come on in! You are welcome and loved! We want to get to know you!”
The really neat thing about this story is that the father says “All that I have is yours.” Jesus is saying that to us too. But unlike the limited inheritance of the father in the story, there is no limit to what Jesus has to share. There is plenty to go around. We can welcome in every single person that ever lived and our inheritance as children of God will never run out.
So get out there. Invite people in. Love on them like there is no limit. Because there isn’t.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
When someone says to you “Is that normal?” my response is almost always “Whatever that is!” Each of us has our own normal. My normal may look super chaotic to some and their normal may not be something I would embrace.
What does that mean? Normal. The definition is “conforming to a standard, usual, typical or expected.” And that is where God is not normal. He never conforms and he never does anything in a typical or expected way.
Recently, I’d been praying for something. I wasn’t sure what it would look like when God answered and honestly, I had no pre-conceived notion of how God would answer. And then he did. A week or two passed and I got a call. Someone was asking to meet. I said yes because when you get a random call out of the blue, you have to go see if it’s God calling.
I attended the meeting and sure enough, it was God calling!
The next day I was talking to God about it and it was then I realized he’d answered my prayer. Want to hear something funny? He answered it totally outside of anything I would have thought. He showed up as only he could. The way all the pieces fit together, the story that went along with the meeting and the prayer I had been praying, only God could orchestrate that.
When God shows up in my life I have two reactions. I want to dance around the room in celebration and then I want to drop to my knees and worship (all at the same time.) You see, there is no normal for God. He doesn’t do anything the way we expect and even if we don’t have any expectations, what he does is so outside the realm of what we’d ever imagine! And in my experience, he doesn’t do the same thing twice. Wrap your mind around that!
I don’t know about you but I’ll take God’s “normal” any day of the week. It’s so much more fun to follow a God that isn’t standard, usual or typical. Don’t you think?
I have a T-shirt that I love. It’s old and not so great looking but it’s still my favorite. On the back it says “Created to Worship.” I love it because at my core I believe this. We are created to worship. We are created to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And it is only through pursuing this that we find happiness.
But man, do we pursue other things! We pursue our careers, the perfect house, the spotless image, lots and lots of material things or the perfect entertainment. We pursue control, security and immediate gratification. Will these things make you happy? Not really at your core. You will, for a moment, feel satisfied but there will not be a peaceful happiness for long.
The Bible tells us how to find lasting happiness.
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Psalm 37:4
So rejoice in the Lord and be glad. Psalm 32:11
Yes, joyful are those who live like this! Joyful indeed are those whose God is the Lord. Psalm 144:15
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Philippians 4:4
When we are in pursuit of Jesus, that’s when we find true, deep-down happiness. No matter what’s happening around us, to us and in us, we are at peace.
You were created with a God-sized hole in your heart. Only he can fill it. How are you searching for happiness today? What are you pursuing? Is it working?
If God remains silent, who is fit to raise his voice against Him? Job 34:29 (VOICE)
Some days when I pray and sit down to write these posts, I get nothing. God doesn’t say anything about what he wants to say. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t give me a clue.
That happens when I pray too. I don’t hear an answer. I can’t figure out what He wants.
There are so many articles out there about what we can do when God isn’t speaking. And sure, the self-reflection is a good thing to practice but maybe, just maybe, we are supposed to relax in the silence.
If we know that God is there; if we believe that he loves us and has not abandoned us, shouldn’t we be OK with silence sometimes? When I sit with my husband, family member or close friend and there is no need for words, I find it comforting. Sometimes, the relationship transcends words. In the silence there is beauty.
Maybe we should stop worrying about always doing something or striving for some activity. Maybe we should relax in the love that we know is there and bask in the silence of a Creator who is always present even if he is not always vocal.
And know that the peace of God (a peace that is beyond any and all of our human understanding) will stand watch over your hearts and minds in Jesus, the Anointed One. Philippians 4:7 (VOICE)
Have you ever felt this nagging that you were supposed to do something but for whatever reason didn’t do it? I have. You know, you hear something in your head. It can be exact instructions like “Call so and so” or a reminder to do something you forgot. It can also be the impression that you are supposed to take up a task or not take up a task.
I believe a lot of the time that is God prompting me. I wish I could say I always listened and acted on what I hear. Sometimes, I don’t.
There are two instances that stand out in my mind today. One was when we were going through a rough patch financially and I was thinking of getting a new job. God had been telling me to wait. Wait as in “Don’t do anything just wait.” I’m not good at waiting. That’s actually an understatement. I’m terrible at waiting. I had been waiting as instructed for what seemed like way too long. So, when a friend called and said I know of someone looking to hire, do you want me to connect you? I said, “No, I’m waiting like God said.” I wish. I said, “Sure!” After we met the man told me I had the job if I wanted it. And as I was agreeing to come in and meet the person I would be reporting to I got this huge knot in my stomach. A knot that was unmistakable. As I was shaking his hand I knew in my gut that I was not going to be able to take the job.
Would it have solved oh so many problems? Yes. Would I have been in God’s will? No. I reached out to the man, thanked him for his time but told him I wouldn’t be able to come on board. I had peace.
Another time, God was prompting me to do something and I was putting it off. It’s not that I don’t want to listen to God. I do! But what he was asking seemed so huge. I couldn’t get my mind around it and if truth be told, I didn’t want to do it. But the prompting continued and I had no peace. I knew I was not doing what I was supposed to be doing.
I began, one step at a time, to be obedient to the prompting. And guess what? The nagging feeling that something was not right was gone.
I realize that every nagging feeling or knot in your stomach may not be a God conversation. I believe that a lot of the time we know what we are doing or not doing is going against what we are being told. We rationalize it away. We are so good at that.
What if we responded to those nudgings when we felt them? What if we followed those promptings or listened to that voice just in case? Isn’t it sad that we miss out on peace because we charge forward with a quick and easy solution instead of trying to center into God’s will?
After following and not following for a while, I’ve learned to recognize whose voice is talking to me. I also know that the sooner I obey, the more peace I have. And it is truly beyond human understanding. My advice on this? Pray it through. Keep asking questions and follow those promptings. You will be forever grateful you did.
““God can’t give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.”
― C.S. Lewis”
