Give it back

Acts 14:23

Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.  NIV

Paul and Barnabas trusted God.

The Message says, “...they presented these new leaders to the Master to whom they had entrusted their lives.” MSG

The Master to whom they had entrusted their lives …

I look up the words “trust,” and “entrust.”  “Trust” means to have faith or to hope.  “Entrust” is to hand over, commend, delegate or assign.

Paul and Barnabas had great faith in God that prompted them to hand over their lives to Him.

God is trustworthy.  I trust him with my past, my future, and my present.

I trust God to guide the steps of my life to achieve His purposes.

It was He who gave me life … I give it back to Him, trusting that He will be faithful in all things.

That’s what I’ll think about today.

A peace is missing …

John 14:1

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.” NIV

Seems simple, doesn’t it.

Don’t be troubled … you already trust God, trust His Son, too.

Sometime over the last year, I read a beautifully articulated theory of something that I have believed for some time.  The author (and I am racking my brain to remember who it was, because he — or she — expressed it eloquently) spoke of his (or her) belief that God creates us, each of us, with an incompleteness, a yearning for Him.

I have always thought and spoken of it as a “God-sized hole.”  I think everyone has a God-sized hole in the center of their life.  If we recognize the magnitude of it, and seek God to fill it … to take His rightful place in the center of our life … we have some hope of peace here.

God has left clues literally everywhere in our world that point to His majesty and to His dominion.  And, if we aren’t astute enough to pick up on the obvious visuals, He has a backup plan.  He instills each recipient of His Spirit with an insatiable desire to pass on the gift of hope in Him.

Still, there are those who refuse to listen.  They are doomed to a life of attempting to fill the hole with ill-fitting pieces.

When you’re stuffing substitutes for God into the hole, whether it’s money, or food, or cars, or worry, or whatever … your heart is troubled.  These false things can’t bring you peace.  They serve only to whet your appetite for more money, or food, or cars, or worry … or whatever.

Trust in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ is the only remedy.  If you will accept that, believe it, and trust it with your whole heart, you will receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit … the missing puzzle piece that will seamlessly fill the hole and allow you to be complete.

I love that!  Without the missing “piece,” we can have no “peace.”

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.”

That’s what I’ll think about today.

The darkest dark cannot put out the smallest light

John 12: 35-36a

Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer.  Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you.  The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.  Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” NIV

The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.

I am flooded by thoughts about that phrase.

Those who are lost, who believe that this life is all there is, are walking in the dark.  They don’t know where they are going.

Many years ago, a pastor said from the pulpit, “The darkest dark cannot put out the smallest light.”

It was Fall.  My sister and I had carved pumpkins with our parents and we had put candles inside.  Just the night before, as I had watched how the candle in my pumpkin completely lit my bedroom, I had been amazed by the power of such a small thing.

When the pastor said, “The darkest dark cannot put out the smallest light,” I was so struck by the truth of that statement that I wrote it in the front of my Bible.  It was the first time I had ever written anything in or on a Bible.  As the years have gone by, I’ve had a few different Bibles.  Now I write in all of them.  I take notes, I underline verses, I dog-ear the pages.  But, I’ve always copied that phrase from one Bible into the next.

The man who walks in the dark doesn’t know where he is going … The darkest dark cannot put out the smallest light … put your trust in the light … so that you may become sons of light.

Christ calls us to put our trust in Him, so that we may become sons of light.

And, if I am a son of light, can I not light the path for others who are stumbling in the dark?  I can do so by sharing the truth with them, by reflecting God’s love to them in my actions, my words and my ways.

Yesterday, I spent some time with a large family.  As I looked at each of them, three generations, I was struck by their similarities.  Four of them had the same nose, three of them the same eyes, two sounded almost identical.  Their relationship was unmistakeable.

I want that.  I want my relationship to God to be unmistakeable.  I want to reflect His love.  I want to serve as His hands and His feet here.  I want to turn myself and my focus outward, where I can be of good … not inward, where a focus on my own circumstances will cause me to worry.

I put my trust in the light.

That’s what I’ll think about today.

God is trustworthy

Luke 16: 10-12

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.  So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?  And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? NIV

Jesus is speaking here.  My word search on “trust” has finally brought me to the new testament.

Jesus is speaking and the pharisees are listening.  These words come at the end of a parable, “The parable of the shrewd manager.”

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.

These words ring so true to me.  As my faith has grown, so my trust in God has grown.  And, God has been completely faithful … wholly trustworthy.

I trusted Him with merely a little of myself, and, as I’ve given over more and more of me to Him, I’ve learned that He can be trusted.

In fact, He MUST be trusted with all of it — my hopes, my dreams, my fears and my worries.

God is trustworthy.

That’s what I’ll think about today.

 

He’s here!

Luke 2:13-14

Suddenly  great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to me on whom his favor rests.” NIV

Christ was born on Christmas Day to take away our sins and the worries that result from them.

Glory to God this Christmas morning!

Faith is all that is required

Luke 2:46-48a

And Mary said:  “My soul glorifies the LORD and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” NIV

Mary has learned that she will be the mother of the son of God.  She has visited Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist, and the two of them have rejoiced together over the first coming of Christ.

These are the first verses of the song that Mary sings to God.

Mary is facing real uncertainty.  No one has ever done what she has been called to do.  She is engaged, but not married, and her pregnancy would surely put her earthly future in jeopardy … but, Mary isn’t worried about the future.

Instead, she focuses on the miracle of the moment, saying, “My soul glorifies the LORD and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”

Mary has true faith.  God blesses that.  He is mindful of her … he chooses her from all other women to be the mother of His son.

She’s not a rich person … she’s not a successful business woman … she is not moving or shaking anything when God chooses her … she is simply a young woman who believes.

Faith is all that is required to be used by God.

That’s what I’ll think about today.

Don’t quit!

Revelation 2:10

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer.  I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you and you will suffer persecution for ten days.  Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.  NIV

Be faithful.

The Message paraphrases this part of the verse, “Don’t quit, even if it costs you your life.  Stay there believing.” MSG

Whatever comes, whatever trials you must endure, whatever or whomever tries to rob you of your joy … be faithful!

That’s what I’ll think about today.

 

First, Last, Everything!

Revelation 1: 17-18

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.  Then he placed his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the Living One;  I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever!  And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” NIV

John is understandably terrified.  This is the first chapter of Revelation, and he has just come face to face with the presence of God.

The words here were an encouragement to John in the midst of his fear.

But, how much more encouraging they are to us in 2010!

We don’t have to be afraid.  God, our God, is both the first and the last.  He was here before there was anything else, and he will be here long after everything has ceased to be.

Christ came to live among us, he died, was buried and rose again … to live forever and ever.

He has overcome death.

If the Lord is with us, who can be against us?

That’s an awesome reminder not to worry, and that’s what I’ll think about today.

Don’t let “worry” creep onto your to do list

I Peter 3:14

But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.  “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” NIV

Do not fear what they fear.  There’s a footnote in my NIV Bible there that says, “Do not fear their threats.”

This verse echoes Psalm 118:6 – The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid, what can man do to me? NIV

Sometimes, though, these verses are easier contemplated than lived.  Earthly threats can seem quite real when they’re staring you in the eye.  It takes a lot of prayer and preparation to meet them head on with a triumphant spirit.

But, today’s reminder says, “even if you suffer for what is right, you are blessed.”

That’s what I’ll think about today.

Love from the inside out

2 Timothy 1:7

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.  NIV

In the King James translation, this verse reads, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” KJV

The Greek word for “fear” used here means “timidity or fear.”

It is interesting to me that Timothy contrasts “fear” with “love.”

The word for “love” used here is the same as that used throughout 1 Corinthians 13.

When we are in-dwelt with the Holy Spirit, we are given the gift of love from the inside out … not from the outside in as we so often think of it.  As the recipients of divine love, we are uniquely enabled to give love to others here on earth.

When we have this gift of love inside us, we are empowered to be patient and kind.  We are called, in 1 Corinthians 13, to rejoice in the truth and to always trust, always hope, always preserve.

There are also things that these verses tell us love is not.  From that list, I think we can derive other things that we are called to be:

• Love does not envy, does not boast and is not proud.  Therefore, I think we are called to be genuinely glad for others and to rejoice with them in their accomplishments.
• Love does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs.  Therefore, I think we are called to look for the good in others, to encourage their efforts and to acknowledge their progress toward the truth.
• Love does not delight in evil.  Therefore, I think we are called to be a help to others when bad things befall them.

So, if we are busy being patient, kind, rejoicing in the truth, trusting, hoping, preserving, being glad for others and rejoicing in their accomplishments, looking for the good in others, encouraging others’ efforts, acknowledging others’ progress and helping others when bad things befall them, we will never be described as timid or fearful.

And, I submit we won’t feel timid or fearful or worried.

We will be turning ourselves outward … sharing the love that is inside of us with God’s people around us.  We will be doing the work that we are called to do here.

That’s what I’ll think about today.