Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. (Psalm 25:4-5, ESV)
PRAYER: God, you are leader and guide. Be that to me. Help me know which way to go and keep me on the right track.
It was quiet at the fitness room this morning. I did my workout and was just about to leave when I saw the couple come in. He pushed her in a wheel chair.
This was not the first time I had seen them. Six months earlier I had been visiting my mom and had to use a fitness room on the other side of town while the one close to home was being remodeled. This couple came there to work out too, but she was able to walk in on her own. Her gait was slow and aided by a souped up wheeled walker. Her husband not far from reach.
Husband and wife, in their late eighties, I’m guessing…though people look younger and younger to me all the time. There isn’t an ounce of fat on either of them. I’m sure my wrist is bigger around than his ankle.
He got her settled on a recumbent bike while I was changing my shoes to leave. He disappeared into the bathroom. As I tied my laces I felt a nudge from the Spirit to go and tell the little lady what an inspiration she was to me.
I walked back into the fitness room and found her on her machine. I knelt down beside her.
“Hello, I just wanted to tell you what an inspiration you are to me.” She smiled and looked a bit surprised.
“I come to Green Valley to visit my mom and I was here a while back and saw you working out with your husband. Whenever I feel like giving up or quitting, I close my eyes and I see you and I find the umph to keep going.”
“That’s so sweet. I had no idea.”
“Well that’s why I decided to say something.” Then my eyes began to fill and I felt my throat tightening. “There’s another way you inspire me, too.”
She tilted her head and then reached to lay her hand on my arm. If I hadn’t seen it I wouldn’t have known, her touch was so light.
“The way your husband cares for you is so precious. I close my eyes and see my husband, he’s just as caring, and I feel so blessed.”
“Aren’t you a dear.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know I wanted to tell you how inspirational you are. Have a blessed day.”
I stood, we exchanged smiles, and I walked away. My eyes full of tears.
I dug a tissue out of my pocket as I got into the car. I could hear my husband’s voice as I pulled out of the lot.
Many times we would have conversations in the car on the home from church or other times with friends, where we would talk about how someone’s song blessed us, or how much someone meant to us. And the listener would always respond with, “So, did you tell them?”
This would always result in a follow up note or call, or in recent years: an email, text, or pm on Facebook.
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When I turned out of the lot I was treated to a magnificent sunrise over the mountains. I pulled over and snapped a picture on my phone.
So many songs of praise began to flood my mind. It was a truly an inspirational moment.
Have you had any moments like that lately?
Is there someone who inspires you?
Have you told them?
While you “wait” this Advent rest assured this is something you don’t have to wait to do. And I think it’s pretty safe to say, hearing these kinds of things will mean a lot to that person.
They may need your words of thanks to encourage and inspire them to keep going to.
Who will you call first?
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:34, ESV)
I recently read this thought and it reminded me of today’s verse: If you fill your heart with regrets, of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.
But I liked this one better: Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.
My mom always counselled me to “neither a borrower or lender be.” I know that’s meant to be a statement about money, but it fits this verse as well.
If we worry about what tomorrow might hold we borrow or bring those troubles into today, and we lend our strength and peace to the one who doesn’t deserve it…the enemy of our souls.
SO instead, let’s live today. Be in today. Find the good in today. Praise and thank God for the gift of this day. It is after all the day which he made…and gave to us.
PRAYER: God of the present. Help us today today to live each moment, accepting them as gifts from you. Amen.
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him. Isaiah 30:18, ESV
I never threw a tantrum when I was a child. I was too afraid to.
When I became a teenager, I remember stomping up the stairs and slamming my bedroom door.
Tantrums usually happen when we don’t get our way. When we’re sure we know what’s best and it’s not happening.
We get miffed when we have to wait.
But have you ever considered how God feels when we don’t, won’t, or can’t receive his grace?
Today’s verse tells us God is waiting to be gracious to us. He has the gifts, the answers, the guidance, the everything we need…but we’re so busy stomping our feet and demanding our way we aren’t able to receive it.
There is nothing attractive or positive about a tantrum. Especially when an adult is throwing it.
Our blessings will come as we wait on the One who is waiting to give us what we need.
PRAYER: Patient and loving God. Forgive us for the tantrums we throw when we think we know best, or when we are frustrated because we have to wait for what we want. Thank you for not giving up on us, for continuing to wait to be gracious to us. Keep showing us mercy. Amen
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! (Psalm 37:7, ESV)
I’ve always been a watcher. I find people fascinating.
But there are times when my watching is not fascination, it’s frustration. It’s filled with fretting.
They have better. Then have more. Why can’t I have what they have?
I begin to whine and stomp like a three year old not getting their way in the playroom.
It’s not a pretty sight. And it doesn’t feel good inside either.
God’s solution: stop it! Still yourself and wait patiently. For him.
I will not get it “right” if all I do is try and wait for the things others have.
That’s not what God is offering.
He’s offering himself. And I am to wait for that…to want Him.
No toy, no gizmo or gadget, will ever satisfy the way He does.
Be still, wait patiently for Him.
PRAYER: God, you offer more than the toys the of world. Still me. I don’t want to fret over them any longer. I want you.
“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.” Psalm 39:7, ESV
The world says: Don’t just stand there, do something.
The world warns that if we wait to act the future will be shorter.
The world’s pattern is typically: ready, shoot, aim.
God says, “Wait.”
Henry Blackaby encourages, “Don’t just do something. Stand there.”
Do you know what you’re waiting for?
Do you know who?
PRAYER: God, I don’t want to be doing something or anything just to fill up time. I will wait for you to tell me what I’m waiting for. For only in knowing that will I have any hope of finding my purpose.
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. (Psalm 62:5, ESV)
When I have to wait, I am typically not silent about it.
I can find all kinds of ways to grumble and complain about the waiting. The line’s too long. The Musack is too annoying. I’m wasting time.
I am learning all the grumbling in the world will not make the wait shorter or more enjoyable.
Perhaps if I allow silence into my waiting…if I will quiet my mind, my heart, my spirit…I will hear another voice speaking and assuring me the process is the point.
PRAYER: God who dwells in silence and whispers, quiet me and speak so I can hear.
How do you do at waiting?
Me, not so good. I like my instant cocoa and pudding. I count on my microwave. The other night my husband was in a foul mood because he waited over twenty minutes in the drive-thru at Taco Bell.
Over the years, Advent has become a good exercise in self-control; a reminder that I really don’t live in an instant world.
Have you noticed the two separate lines of thinking and behavior as it deals with this season? On the one hand, people complain mightily about how Christmas is creeping further into the year as retailers begin setting up displays as early as September—but then they whine about having to wait for the day to arrive…and be over.
I remember one Christmas our church was going to observe a “strict” Advent. That didn’t go over well. The big beef was having to wait to sing Christmas hymns and songs.
So this Advent, I’m going to purposely focus on waiting. Each day will highlight an applicable scripture passage and a prayer for a specific group who are “waiting.”
I hope you join me and find a blessing as mark the days of this holy season.
Dec 1
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Pro. 3:5-6, ESV)
The biggest deterrent to waiting is the ability to trust. At the beginning of this Advent let’s determine to grow in our trust of God. He has the big picture in view and our best interests in mind. Test him, he truly is worthy of your trust.
Prayer: God of time who is beyond time and over time, walk with us in this Advent season and teach how to trust…and to wait. Be especially near to those who are waiting for someone they love to come home. Amen.
The very first scripture that I learned was Psalm 100:
If I close my eyes I can still see myself as a third grader holding my red hard bound RSV version of the Bible reading the psalm with the other children n my class.
To this day those words shape who I am.
And who I am is about giving thanks today.
Blessings to you!
I just finished a heart pounding, sweat breaking, ab tightening, arm wiggle shrinking workout on my total gym.
I feel good. I feel physically good, and I feel good emotionally. I just made an investment in myself, my health and well-being on several different levels.
The endorphins must have really kicked in because I started thinking, “I wish someone could get as excited about this as I am…so excited that they would pay me a thousand dollars to lose a hundred pounds and another thousand to keep it off for a year.”
I’m sure that this kind of thinking is residual fallout for the incentives my parents dangled before as school kids to get or keep good grades. The best one of those was dinner at the Kahiki in Columbus, Ohio. That one was pretty motivating…and tasty.
But I’m not a kid anymore. So where’s my motivation? What’s going to push me further? Is feeling good enough?
As I sat here pondering this, my mind naturally drifted to a conversation I had recently with my husband. He is the quintessential provider…and sometimes worrier regarding money and our retirement status. At some point as we talked he said, “The older we get the harder it is to invest.”
That little nugget of truth may not apply to everyone. Some folks received sound advice at an early stage in life and they began systematic and profitable savings that will keep them comfortable in their retirement. We were not so lucky. And it didn’t help that we struggled while I pastored very small churches that weren’t able to pay much and the many moves kept Nelson from establishing fiscal longevity…not much fiscal at all.
So we do what we can and pray a lot.
Maybe that’s another reason I was day dreaming about some benefactor who would invest in my health venture.
Don’t we all dream about that someone who will ride in and rescue us from the mess we’ve made of things? Someone who knows the enemy and how to defeat them. Someone who would give their all. Someone who wants more than anything to see us succeed.
Do you know anyone like that?
Sitting here pondering, I felt a nudge at my shoulder. Perhaps you know the kind. I stopped and reread what I had written and it became undeniably clear that I did know someone like that.
Someone who loves me, wants me to succeed, knows my enemy and how to defeat it, and made the ultimate investment for me.
I guess the question now is: what will I do with that investment? Will I work at ways to make it grow, or will I squander it?
What about you? That investment was made for you, too. Here’s how I know that to be true:
For this is how God loved the world: He gave[a] his one and only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
(John 3:16, NLT)
Now that’s a retirement plan I can get into.
Pot of Manna 