You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘love’ tag.
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19
I love seeing stories of reconciliation. In particular, children being reconciled with parents who surprise them with a return from deployment. It’s basically the same story over and over, but I never tire of it. The child is busy with friends or class and when dad or mom appear they run into their arms, many times with tears of joy.
One thing I’ve never seen was a child looking at the parent apathetically. I’ve never seen the parent seem aloof. I’ve never seen the child being apprehensive of how peers may react to their tears. The focus of parent and child is on each other. The reaction is one of love, relief, joy, contentment.
Reconciliation is amazing! Sin has separated us from the love God has for us. Like a child without a parent we struggle with feelings of value, identity and security. Then God came to us through Jesus, offering us reconciliation. What joy!
Not only are we blessed with that reconciliation, we have the opportunity to share that joy with others. Reconciliation is an act of love not judgment. Reconciliation focuses on forgiveness and acceptance. If we have truly experienced reconciliation with the Father then we have the opportunity to share that joy with those in need of being reunited with their father…Heavenly Father that is.
Who can you help to be reconciled today. Reconciliation is the result of prayer, relationship and sharing Jesus with others.
The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming. Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one! Song of Songs 2:13
Each spring I notice a rather interesting activity in the north country where I live. People are out walking! Now, you may say, what’s interesting about that? Just this. As spring turns into summer the numbers dwindle, there may be a slight uptick in the fall, but most of the time the number of walkers in spring is more than any other time of year?
Why, you may ask? Because winters are long, cold and dark. But when spring comes we can smell the freshness of new life. The air is full of the aroma of flowers. The birds sing in each morning with gusto. The winter is over. The time of new life and warmth is here!
As the year wears on, the heat increases and schedules get busier, somehow we fail to find time to walk, to enjoy the season we are in, to bask in the warmth of the sun.
Song of Songs is thought to be a love poem written between two lovers, but with pictures of our relationship with Jesus. In Song of Songs 2:13 the writer implores his lover to join him in a walk of sorts. To get up and smell the roses. To enjoy the new season before them.
Each new season is filled with challenges. Each new season is filled with the unknown. But this verse urges us to see the positive in each situation. We don’t know what lies ahead, but we walk with someone who loves us, protects us and longs to see us succeed.
Enjoy the ‘walk’ of this new year. Bask in the warmth of the SON. Enjoy the intimate fellowship of one who loves you more than you can imagine.
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
If you are like me and honest with yourself, there are times you’ve read today’s verse and thought ‘Yeah, right. Easy for you to say.’
It’s easy for someone who has no debt to tell you to get out of debt.
It’s easy for someone who has never been cheated on to tell you to trust.
It’s easy for someone who has dealt with their grief to say, ‘things will get better, keep your chin up.’
Reality is, when things are going well for you it’s easy to be thankful. When your kids are responsible, your marriage is sexually and emotionally fulfilling, your team is winning, thankfulness comes naturally. But when things go south it’s hard, but not impossible to show gratitude.
Here are some ways that may make it easier to show gratitude in difficult times, and especially now as we enter a new year.
- Spend some time in reflection. The fact that you are reading this proves that you’ve made it through the past! It may not have been easy. It may have been painful. There may have been times when you didn’t think you could go on. But you did! What lessons did you learn from your failures? What victories did you celebrate? How did you see God working in your life? Sometimes He shows himself best when we are at our worst.
- Set some realistic goals for spiritual growth. Start small. Perhaps get one or two close friends who can help keep you accountable. Ask God to help you in setting the goal, pursuing the goal and celebrating the victory.
- As you look ahead, see possibilities, not problems. Remember that God wants you to succeed and he has given you his Holy Spirit to help you accomplish it. Roadblocks will stop you, obstacles will strengthen you. Make every roadblock an obstacle by His grace.
- Pursue Praise. I can’t explain it, but in my own life I’ve noticed that the best way to destroy discouragement is to listen to or sing praise music. Why do you think the longest book in the Bible is a book of praise in the midst of adversity? Praise God for who He is, not for what you are going through.
- Stop listening to the voices. If you have accepted Jesus as Savior, Satan knows he’s lost. But he won’t give up easily. If he can’t get you to follow him, he’ll try to tell you lies. Don’t listen to the negative voices of others, social media or the voices in your head. Stop the negative talk, foster a positive mindset.
- Spread the Joy. It sounds ironic but it’s true. The best way to defeat discouragement, fear, worry and a host of other negative emotions is to help others. Paul tells us in Corinthians to comfort others with the comfort we’ve received. Helping others can be a great way to lift others up when they are down and it can give you opportunities to show the grace God has given you.
Make this year the year you focus on being thankful for all God has given you and share the lessons you are learning with those who are on this journey of life with you.
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Philippians 3:13-14
“What was I thinking?”
Has that thought ever gone through your head? Maybe you’ve even said it out loud to yourself or others listening. We all have those days, those times when we look at ourselves from the outside and, frankly, can’t believe the action we’ve taken, the words we’ve spoken or the thought/attitude that has crossed our mind.
Let’s face it. Our humanity fails us. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Romans 7, where Paul expresses his own personal frustration with himself. ‘The things I hate I find myself doing, the things I desperately want to do or be known for I fail to do…daily!” (My paraphrase)
So, how do we move on? What steps can we take to remedy the situation? After all, we know there will be some who will take our failings as an opportunity to judge us and to constantly hold our failure against us.
I love what Paul says in Philippians regarding failure. Basically, (again my paraphrase) he is telling us, ‘Stuff happens, we fail, sometimes miserably. People will judge us, condemn us and criticize us, but move on.’
It amazes me how many Bible people failed. They were dishonest. They lied to cover up their own mistakes. They were cowards. They ignored specific commands of God to try to further their own agenda, oftentimes at the expense of others.
Paul isn’t saying we don’t try to make things right. When we’ve wronged others, we need to try to make amends. When we’ve failed we need to put boundaries in place to keep us accountable and protect us from making the same mistakes. But then we need to move on.
The new year is a great time to look back over the previous year and evaluate the path you have taken. What things can you do better?
What things need to be corrected?
What relationships need to be mended?
What relationships need to be ended or at least put on hold?
Are you closer to Christ now than you were a year ago?
When Paul says, ‘forgetting the past and looking forward’ I don’t think he said that flippantly. I think he looked back at the past, made up a plan to make corrections and then he moved on. He didn’t dwell on his failures, he used them as stepping stones to a better tomorrow.
As the calendar flips to a new year, what things do you need to learn from? What things do you need to let go? How can the Holy Spirit help you? Who can you seek out as an accountability partner to walk through life with you?
”Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.“ Psalms 51:12
We’ve been talking about joy-killers this week. Those things in our lives that can take away, or appear to take away the joy promised to us through the birth of Jesus.
Joy-killers can be a result of the actions of others, or natural things that happen in life such as life transitions, grief over the loss of a loved one, natural disasters, etc.
While actions against us, or those actions we perceive are against us, can rob us of joy, I think one of the hardest joy-killers to deal with are the self-inflicted ones. It’s relatively easy to point the finger at others and play the victim. It’s easy to blame Mother Nature and say, ‘Woe is me’. But what about those times when you look in the mirror and realize the person you see is both the perpetrator and the victim? Then what?
That was the decision King David faced. His enemies were largely defeated. He was popular among the people. And God had a nickname for him, ‘A man after my own heart.’ Imagine that! The God of all creation looking down on you and seeing someone so in tune with His heart that he calls him out. God says, ‘HUGE SHOUT OUT to my buddy Dave. He’s got it all together. He knows what I like and he does it!’
Pretty cool, right? Not so fast. David had a heart for God but he also had a heart for pleasure and sometimes pleasure took the place of God.
Can you relate? Oh, maybe you didn’t have an affair and murder one of your friends like David did. Maybe you didn’t see your daughter raped and ignore it. But what about the other ways we choose satisfaction over surrender?
Those times we gossip. The times we lie and then lie to cover up that lie, and then lie again…well, you know the picture. The times we harbor wrongs committed. The times we hang on to judgmental attitudes.
Surrender brings joy, satisfaction (in the human sense) destroys joy. I love David’s honesty in Psalms 51:12, ”Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.“
David knew his limitations. David knew how easy it is to sacrifice surrender for satisfaction. But David also knew the joy that comes from total surrender to God’s ways. Easy? Definitely not. Worth it? Beyond description. Available? That’s grace.
The joy of Christmas is much more than a babe in a manger. It’s being totally surrendered to God through the power of the Holy Spirit, because of the babe in the manger.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 