Is It Enough?

A minute in God’s Word will change your life. Take a moment to read the text below and then answer the questions at the bottom of the post.

1 One day the widow of a member of the group of prophets came to Elisha and cried out, “My husband who served you is dead, and you know how he feared the Lord. But now a creditor has come, threatening to take my two sons as slaves.”

2 “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

“Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied.

3 And Elisha said, “Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors. 4 Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you. Pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it is filled.”

5 So she did as she was told. Her sons kept bringing jars to her, and she filled one after another. 6 Soon every container was full to the brim!

“Bring me another jar,” she said to one of her sons.

“There aren’t any more!” he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

7 When she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her, “Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.” 2 Kings 4:1-7 (NLT)

What resources did the widow have to help her out of her situation?
What one word would you use to describe how she must have felt?
When she went to Elisha, do you think she imagined that he would answer her as he did?
If you were the widow, what would you have thought about his suggestion?
When God provided for her, did he provide enough?
Does God’s provision ever fall short?

No Excuses

But the man of God said to the king, “Even if you gave me half of everything you own, I would not go with you. I would not eat or drink anything in this place. For the Lord gave me this command: ‘You must not eat or drink anything while you are there, and do not return to Judah by the same way you came.’” So he left Bethel and went home another way. 1 Kings 13:8-10 (NLT)

I have to be honest. I don’t like the story in 1 Kings 13. Here is a summary but you should go read it for yourself. There was a prophet. He was told to go to Jeroboam and denounce his alters to idols. The prophet did as he was told. Jeroboam raised his hand to say “Seize that man!” and his hand froze and was paralyzed in that position. Jeroboam pleaded with the prophet to pray and heal him. The prophet did. (Not sure I would have been so magnanimous.)

After his hand was healed, Jeroboam asked the prophet to share a meal. The prophet declined and said that God told him he could not eat or drink anything while he was on this mission (see today’s text.)

The prophet left and as he was traveling home, another old prophet heard about the story and went to find him. He asked him to come to a meal. The prophet repeated his command from God. Then, the old prophet lied and told him God said it was OK. So the prophet went and ate with him.

Suddenly, the old prophet receives a word from God and pronounces the prophet’s death because he disobeyed God’s command. As the prophet was on the way home, he was killed by a lion.

Do you see why this story bothered me? The prophet was lied to and he was punished. Didn’t seem fair to me. Really. I kept thinking “But it wasn’t his fault.” As I thought through and prayed about this, I realized a few things.

We expect things in this world to be fair. But they aren’t. The world is full of sinful people who may or may not have the same values that we have. Where I may not think of lying and misleading someone, they may think the end justifies the means. Satan will use every means possible to trip us up.

Have you ever been in a position where you know God has told you something but very well meaning, Christian people are telling you something else? What they are saying is true but it doesn’t align with what God told you. Who do you listen to?

While I felt sorry for the prophet who was deceived, he did recite twice in the chapter that God told him not to eat or drink anything while on this mission. He knew his instructions. It should be the same with us. If God tells us something, no matter what, we should not deviate from that path.

He Gave

For this is how God loved the world: He gave…John 3:16 (NLT)

Think about that for a minute. When we recite this verse we breeze through it because we know it so well. I know I get to the part that says for whoever believes in him, noting that everyone gets to come. But what if we stopped here, on the word gave.

How did God love the world? He gave. Apparently, love is given away. We always say that love is a verb. Well, could the verb be ‘to give?’ If we are to love like God loved, should we be giving away ourselves? That after all is what God did. He gave away Himself so we could know love.

We often make love about how we feel. It’s not really about that is it? According to God. It’s about what you give.

How will you/did you give love today?
Did you recognize that you shared love by what you gave or how you felt?
Do we always feel great when we love?
What could you give that would show someone love?
Is giving love about you or someone else? What was God’s example?

Have a very giving day.

Heartwork

This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 1 John 3:11 (NLT)

Many, many years ago there was a woman in my life that drove me crazy. We didn’t get along but we were sharing life together because we were family. It felt like everything I did or wanted to do, she blocked. If she wanted to plan an event and I explained why we couldn’t make it on that certain date, she’d plan it anyway and insist we show up. Super frustrating.

My solution during this time was to distance myself. I wish I could say I did that because I was being thoughtful and kind. Nope. I did it because I was mad and digging in.

A little time went by without much contact and one day, we decided to go visit. It was clear that something was wrong with her health. After some doctor visits, we discovered she was very ill and the prognosis wasn’t good.

During the following months, we planned things to help lift her spirits. We showed up a lot to help her and went places so she could see the people she loved. As her health weakened, she needed more help. She needed help with bathing and doing her hair....things like that. She had only sons and did not want their help for her personal care. I volunteered.

I went over and helped her bathe. I washed and blow-dried her hair (which is pretty funny because I can barely blow dry my own.) During this time, we got to know each other better and all the anger, stubbornness and conflict we had in years past melted away.

She passed away a few months later. Someone told me at her funeral that she said she wish she had gotten to know me better before she got sick.

I remember that thought being so jarring to me when I heard it. And it made me incredibly sad. How much time had we wasted being stubborn and set in our ways? How much love could we have shared if we would just look beyond ourselves?

That thought still makes me cry. It profoundly affected me. To this day, I am so sad for moments lost where we can love each other and we don’t. Do I still get mad at people? Yep. Do I still want to write them off and disappear? Yep.

But I don’t. When I feel the inclination to separate myself and build a wall, I pray. I pray and pray and pray until God breaks down the walls I build and gets through to my reluctant heart with his heart.

You see, I Am not capable of loving selflessly on my own (I’m talking about real love not just faking it.) It takes the power of the Holy Spirit in my life changing me to be more like Jesus.

I can tell you this. Every single time I’ve prayed to love like Jesus, it’s been worth it. I’ve experienced moments of incredible love and joy that I would not have experienced had I stayed within my walled off heart. Let’s love one another. It really is worth it.

A Minute In It - Feeding Your Faith

Ever get to the end of the week and feel spent? Everything is going along just fine when in the span of 24 hours a few balls drop that leave you discouraged and wondering. Wondering things like “Where are you God?” “Why do you not step in and fix this?” “Why can’t we just have some good news for a change?” “Why does this have to be so hard?”

That’s how I felt in the middle of yesterday. So, I prayed. I prayed and asked God all of those very same questions. And I ended with “I need to see you.”

God is so faithful. As I continued to go through my day, he spoke in very clear ways. Overall, the message was “Remember. Dig into my Word. Remember my promises. Feed your faith with Me, not your circumstances.” So today, we are going to do just that.

Here are just a few of the promises I found yesterday. I am sure you have some favorites. When you get discouraged and it doesn’t feel like Jesus is in the middle of it, dig in to his Word. It will help you remember that He is.

But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 (NLT)

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Isaiah 46
3 Listen to me, descendants of Jacob,
all you who remain in Israel.
I have cared for you since you were born.
Yes, I carried you before you were born.
4 I will be your God throughout your lifetime—
until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.
I will carry you along and save you. (v 3-4)
9 Remember the things I have done in the past.
For I alone am God!
I am God, and there is none like me.
10 Only I can tell you the future
before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass,
for I do whatever I wish. (v 9-10)

He made heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them.
He keeps every promise forever. Psalm 146:6

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. Deuteronomy 31:6

Take Notice

By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. Luke 24: 28-29 (NLT)

I do a Bible Study with twenty and thirty somethings. I absolutely love it because when you read through the Bible with them, they always pull something out of it that you didn’t notice and it becomes relevant for today. Recently, we talked about Luke 24 and this verse became the highlight.

The question that was raised was “What was the culture like back in Jesus day so that you meet someone on the street, start a conversation and then invite them back to your house to spend the night?” And then we started talking about our lives and what our culture was with strangers.

That led to the question “How can we as Christians change how we see and interact with strangers so that we are sharing Jesus love with them?”

We came up with a lot of ideas but the one thing that stood out was where we focus our gaze. So often we are looking at our phones or our next task so that we are so distracted we don’t even notice someone. We talked about our world and how there is so much pain and loneliness. We talked about what it would look like if when we walked down the street or walked into a store if we looked a person in the eyes and asked them (truly wanting to know) how they were doing?

What would the impact be if the people you came across each day felt noticed and valued? How would that change our world? How would it change us?

Something to ponder today as we move through another day; a day which is a gift given to us so we can in turn be a gift to others.

True Living

And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in grave clothes, his face wrapped in a head cloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!” John 11:44 (NLT)

Jesus had just called to Lazarus. “Come out!” And the man who had been dead for four days responded to the voice that can penetrate even the darkness of death. Lazarus was awakened from his deep sleep, from his final darkness, to live again.

I wonder what it must have been like to die and to be called back to life. I wonder what Lazarus experienced as his eyes opened and he got up. What he must have thought to see himself wrapped in grave clothes? How do you get your mind around that? How did life change for him after he came back to life?

I can ask us the same question. Each and every one of us was/is dead. Dead to God. Dead in our hearts until Jesus called us. The difference is instead of being physically dead, we were/are spiritually dead and we are content to live like that. Grave clothes made not of material but of our choices. A coldness in our bones not from physical death but from the sins of this world seeping in and slowly eating away at our souls.

And Jesus called us. He said “Come out!” He breathed life back into the hearts that were stone. He touched us and filled us with warmth and love and joy. Jesus is still raising people from death back to life. He is still in the business of restoration. Jesus still, each and every day, is calling your name, my name, and saying “Come out!” Come out of where you are, come away from where you have been and start a new life. Start a new life with me.

He is calling us to experience what it is like to be fully alive. How will your life change after you respond to Jesus call to truly live?

Maintaining a Temple

Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT)

To fully take care of ourselves we need to address the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of who we are. We talk a lot about the spiritual component. Today, I’d like to talk about the physical.

We are told our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us. And we are also told we are to take care of our bodies. I believe the stronger we are physically, the better we can serve God. When he calls us to something, we can do it!

So how do you take care of a temple? Obviously, as with any building, you have to be cognizant of the bones. If a building isn’t structurally sound, it can’t function as intended and eventually becomes a hazard. The materials you put into it are what keeps it functioning well.

The same with your body. How we maintain our bodies determines our overall well-being. And this takes a little discipline.

What do you put into your body as fuel? Is most of what you eat processed food? Is your food full of sugar? What is the nutritional value in what you eat? Is your body getting from your food what it needs to thrive?

What about exercise? Do you spend time each day moving your body so it gets the exercise it needs to be strong? Are your muscles and joints limber so they can function as intended? Do you have enough muscle tone to carry out the day’s activities? Most of these things don’t happen sitting at a desk or on the couch!

How much sleep do you get? When you sleep your body heals. Do you burn the candle at both ends? Do you wake up tired?

I think if we each took a moment and considered how to maintain our temple, if we asked God how we can improve our health habits, we’d be able to identify one thing that we could work on. Once we made that a habit, we could identify another.

Our purpose here on earth is to be God’s hands and feet. In order to do that, we need to be as healthy as we can be. What are you going to start (or stop) doing that will help you be the best you?