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.
“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.
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.
We are in the middle of an arctic deep freeze. We’ve run out of words to describe the cold.
Last night during the weather forecast, the woman was trying to be positive about the fact that the sun was going to shine. But she was quick to add that the sunshine would be ineffective because it was going to be so cold.
Ineffective light. How can that be?
As you can imagine, I was quick to begin thinking in spiritual implications.
I was immediately reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount:
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it
be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and
trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither
do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and
it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before
others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:13-16)
I have often considered what “un-salty” might be, or how it would taste, but I had never considered light that wasn’t light.
That would be darkness…wouldn’t it?
Maybe not.
Have you ever reached for a flashlight (after hunting all over for it) only to find the batteries or light bulb were too weak to light what you needed to see?
Ineffective light.
The flashlight holds all the potential to dispel the darkness, but because it has not been maintained or cared for, when it is finally located it fails to live up to that potential.
So how is your light? What does it take to not be ineffective?
That reminds me what of Peter said:
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to
goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control,
perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection;
and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing
measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2Peter 1:5-8, NIV)
That’s quite a list. Maintenance of our light takes a bit of effort. We can’t hope to dispel sin’s darkness if sit on a shelf during the week and just show up occasionally at church on Sunday. Making every effort means making the most of every opportunity, and maybe even creating a few opportunities along the way.
I don’t want to have it pronounced over me that I was “ineffective and unproductive.”
I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
How about you? What effort are you making? Do you struggle to add what Peter recommends? What works best for you?
Prayer: God, help us, teach us, lead us to know how to make our light shine more brightly for you. Amen
My mom lives in Arizona. Think Southwest architecture and décor.
The wall that separates her from her neighbor has three niches in it. Each one had a statue: Jesus, Mary, and St. Francis. It’s sort of on the order of the picture, but much less ornate. Think stucco wall with turquois painted statues.
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One day a strong storm came in and knocked Jesus from the wall and he shattered on the stones below. Mom had been looking for a replacement for some time without much luck. My husband and I went out for a visit and joined her in the search.
We took a day trip to one of our favorite spots, Tubac, Arizona.
Now without intending any offense to Tubac, we really wondered if we would find Jesus in Tubac.
It sounded a little funny to us and I’ll admit we laughed a few times. So it was quite the joke when we actually did find a statue of Jesus. Too bad it was twice the height we needed. Too much Jesus?
Several months later my husband and I were shopping in an Amish community not too far from home. And guess what? We found Jesus there, too. But alas, Jesus was too heavy to carry around all day and we were without cell coverage. Before we bought we wanted to be sure it was what Mom wanted. We figured we could come back and get it after we called Mom.
But when we got back, Jesus was gone. And though they thought he might be back in a few months, they weren’t sure and couldn’t reach the distributer to confirm that.
I’m so glad it’s not usually that difficult to find Jesus.
His final promise was that he would always be with his followers: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)
Paul was clear that finding Jesus would be too hard either: 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ (Acts 17:26-27)
I looked through lots of images for an ending picture. I considered using a picture of embracing Jesus, or finding Jesus. I chuckled when several images associated with finding Jesus were his image on a piece of toast.
I couldn’t decide what to use. Then it occurred to me that the main way people will see Jesus in me and you.
Will they see a broken Jesus?
Will he big too big, overpowering, too heavy?
Will he be there one minute and then not the next?
Will anyone be sure when he’ll back?
Pot of Manna 