Evening

What are you doing this evening?

I am probably doing what I’m usually doing, reading a book. I might listen to a little bit the Trump – Harris debate.

Love Requires Sacrifice…Always

It’s not scripture, but it’s a powerful truth I learned too late. Sacrifice often takes a back seat when we don’t want to be inconvenienced or uncomfortable. We prefer easy, speedy, and painless and then wonder why we don’t feel fulfilled. The important stuff, the stuff that leaves us joyful and alive: that’s the stuff that involves love and requires sacrifice.

We are called by the greatest commandment to love, and the truth is, we can not follow that commandment without sacrifice. Sometimes that sacrifice is small like giving a partner the last piece of pie, when we’re planning on enjoying with a cup of coffee later. Other times it’s much bigger like sand slipping through your fingers as you let go of the past or your own agenda.

Sometimes sacrifice needs to look like patience. Sometimes it feels like a swallowing of opinions. Sometimes we’re called to love someone just at by being present. There is a sacrifice in not trying to fix people.

The people who love us back make it easy to love but we’re also called to show a Jesus kind of love to those who can give nothing in return and that is truly a sacrifice.

I think about every Christmas searching for that perfect gift to show my love for someone. I few years ago I realized I was shopping the wrong way. The more we love, the more we should be willing to sacrifice our time. I can bake a simple batch of cookies and give that with a while of listening and living them. Christmas was never supposed to be about expensive gifts, but about loving others and celebrating the gift of Jesus.

Each person who crosses my path is there so I can show them the love of Jesus

There have been times when I’ve wondered if all the sacrifice of a relationship is worth it or if it was really supposed to be so hard and one-sided. But then I realized I was looking at it out of balance. Love and sacrifice are not always equal. Sometimes we receive love far greater than we sacrifice and more often than the opposite. We’re able to sacrifice and love others but at some point. We expect love in return. We want to feel there is something in it for us. We forget that our call to love others isn’t to get something in return.

Love is so much bigger than all the warm fuzzy feelings. Love is our duty if we follow Jesus if we keep that in balance and realize that each person who crosses our path is a way to show them the love of Jesus. Is not about loving so we can get something back. It’s about loving Jesus.

I know I will never be called to love with the magnitude the Jesus loves me. But when I recall His sacrifice for me, it helps me put my little sacrifices for others in perspective. It’s not about me at all.

Personality Trait To Watch For

What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?

Have you ever met someone within a few minutes you realize it’s all about them?

I very much dislike arrogant people, they always put their needs before others. They are always interrupting, they exaggerate their accomplishments, they have a sense of entitlement and lack empathy.

I try to stay clear of people like this. I have no need for people like that in my life.

Gaining Wisdom For Your Trials

James (Jacob) 1 tells us that faith produces endurance. “Let endurance have iyd perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without counting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.”

How can we gain wisdom for our trials?

The Bible tells us to rejoice in times of trial so God can mature us. The Jewish people have a theology of wisdom based on the Old Testament. For Jews, wisdom was not an intellectual thing, but a spiritual thing.

Proverbs 9:10 says, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.” Remember fearing the Lord is respect and reverence for God. Psalm 141 says “Fools say to themselves. There is no God. They sin and commit evil deeds, none of them does what is right. Therefore to be wise is to be obedient to God in our trials, and allow our trials to mature us.

Why do we need wisdom when we are going through trials? Why not ask for strength or grace or even deliverance? We need to ask for wisdom so we will not waste the opportunities God is giving us to mature. Wisdom helps us understand how to use out circumstances for our good and God’s glory.

It is easy to miss God’s purpose in our trials. It is possible to fail trials or to fall away from God instead of getting closer to Him.

One thing I’ve learned and wish I had learned earlier in life is that if you fail a trial and do not seek wisdom from God, you will face that trial again, and again until to pass the trial. It is like going around a mountain 50 times, then realizing you can go up and seek God’s insight for your trial.

It is possible to go from being hurt and maimed in our trials, instead of being healed and strengthened by them. Trials always contain both the ability to tremendously bless us and hurt us.

God uses trials for our good, His purpose is that we grow in maturity and wisdom. We always have opportunities to help others through our trials.

To Gain Wisdom For Our Trials, We Must Recognize Our Need For it.

This is where many fail in the midst of their trials, they simply don’t recognize their need for wisdom and therefore God. This is why sometimes we have to repeat the same trials over again.

When I am in a trial, I always pray,

“God, I ask for Your wisdom and perspective during this trial. Please provide it generously and show me how to see my circumstances through Your eyes -Amen.”

James could have said, “You all need wisdom for your trials” but he didn’t he said, “If anyone is deficient of wisdom.” Possible to make us stop amid our trials and evaluate ourselves, to help us humble ourselves and recognize our need for God.

We need God’s wisdom in our lives daily, especially in our trials. We can tell by how much we seek Him daily or neglect Him in lesser things. We can also tell by how we respond to God in our trials. If we are going to gain divine wisdom to not waste our trials, we must first recognize our desperate need for it.

To Gain Wisdom For Our Trials, We Must Pray For It.

God tells us to ask for wisdom and to ask without doubting. This is not a suggestion to pray for wisdom, it is a command.

To Gain Wisdom For Our Trials, We Must Be Fully Committed To God.

James 1:7-8 tells us If we are unstable in our relationship with God do not think that we will receive anything from the Lord. don’t be double-minded,

Double-minded is to be committed to God. It suggests a person who asks God for wisdom but who isn’t sure they will follow what God says. If they like what God says, then they will obey. If they don’t like what God says, then they will do what they already want to do.

Who ever wants to be friends with the world means they are hostile toward God. To be double-minded means to be wanting to live for God and have the pleasures of the world at the same time.

However, James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. And John 15:7 says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want, and it will be given to you.”

If we cherish iniquity in our hearts, God might not listen. There is power in the prayer of those who are fully committed to Jesus and living by faith.

Worldliness and compromise make our prayer ineffective, which is a double-minded person’s problem.

My Ideal Life

Describe your ideal week.

As I think about my week. I realize I don’t have a very exciting life, but here it goes,

Sunday: church, lunch with my husband. I try to make a full-course meal. I usually sit down with a cup of coffee and my Bible to learn more about the lesson my Pastor spoke. Or get into a good I’ve been reading. Right now it’s “Authority in Prayer” by Dutch Sheets. Cook dinner, and then put in as a movie to watch.

Monday: Prayer meeting with my Pastor and a few people from my church. They are friend, accountability partners as well as people I’ve begun to think of as family.

Tuesday: Deep house cleaning day and laundry day.

Wednesday: I do a Bible study at the church. It began as a study to teach new believers at began to come to church. Just a few ladies now it has grown into 14 people, and has gone on over a year.

Thursday: Ugh, grocery shopping day. The cost of food is so ridiculous I leave feeling like I’ve been robbed.

Friday: Is Coffee with Friends Day. It’s a good day. I usually get my baking done on that day and meal prep for the week. This saves me time during the week and allows me time to read my Bible or read.

Saturday: My fun day. I usually head for the hills to take some pictures or have a peaceful quiet time with God. It’s either the mountains or the desert.

Every time I try to write something on here. It helps me get down the thoughts that go through my head, or things I think might help some one. That I’ve learned through my reading.

This may not be a very exciting or ideal week. But it’s okay for me.

God Works Through The Good And The Bad

Do we limit God to just expressing His love and mercy to only the “good things in life?” Do we require God to work under our terms and conditions and if He doesn’t we are disappointed?

If so, we are really missing out on a huge amount of what He does every day. I lived my life (nearly 40 years of it angry at God because I had never seen the good He was doing in my horrors of life. I could not see anything positive because I was focused on the negative constantly. Not realizing that God uses all things for good for those who love Him, not just the things we approve of or what makes us comfortable. He even uses our defeats and losses to aid in His love and mercy.

God works through both the good and the bad in life to bless us. He uses the painful things and the things we see as hindrances to train us. He even uses what seems like the most difficult things to express His love and His mercy. When I thought God was ignoring me as a child, He was making me strong, He had a plan all along one I couldn’t see. H

e says no to what we want out of love. A loving Father steps in when He sees His children headed for a fall. When we are headed down a deadly path we have laid out for ourselves and God drops a big roadblock in our way. He does it to save us from where we are leading ourselves.

Have you ever reasoned yourself into a ridiculous situation? I know I have. I’ve been in abusive relationships, where I have just dealt with the abuse because I didn’t want to be alone. Thinking I could change Him. Not realizing that He was not going to change that was who He was, you cannot change someone who doesn’t want to change.

A funny thing happened when God stepped in and showed me mercy despite my best efforts to stay involved with an abuser. Which I had no business being there in the first place. Satan seemed victorious in my life for many years, but God had a plan.

When our plans are destroyed, but down the road we realize it is God’s love that won the day.

We are only human, there are going to be times when our plans are not God’s plans and our ways are not God’s ways. If we trust that His ways are always better than ours (and we should). Even though it may seem our lives are falling apart at that time, trusting God’s plans will always lead to sweetness and help us to avoid regret.

Professional Athletes

Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.

To be honest, I have never been a fan of any kind of sport.

The average professional athlete earns about 2.5 Million dollars a year.while the one who go out to save us and keep us free earn about 55,000 a year.

It is a serious disgrace, that this is happening. I’m not saying a military soldier should make 2.5 million dollars a year, but rather it should be averaged out.

Having Intention In A Distracted World

We live in a world of great distraction, where multitasking is necessary. The results should have been predictable. People have trouble focusing and managing time. It’s hard to find people who know how to focus and manage time in the workplace or any other place, things hardly ever get done.

When we are unable to focus, we lack intention. Intention requires the mental direction to do something, like determining the preferred outcome of a goal. Intention is knowing what you want from an activity, it is the drive to focus and execute the activity that stems from us. There is no focus without directing your attention to one thing intensely – the one thing that we approach with purpose.

What changes can we make to put our dreams and goals into action? Everyone who has a strong desire to accomplish a goal must have the best intentions to succeed. You we become distracted this will never happen. We would all end up like chickens with our heads cut off. We need to put attention on our intentions. Gay Henrrick puts in like this, “What we place our attention on grows.”

Our ongoing commitment every morning should be to set for ourselves up for success. This requires focus and a commitment toward a conscious choice about how attention and time is distributed throughout the day.

Commitment to anything requires perseverance in the face of any obstacle that comes our way. It involves maintaining focus and having determination, even when progress is slow or difficulties come our way.

Commitment requires resilience – the ability to bounce back from setbacks and failures. Resilient people view challenges as opportunities to grow and learn, rather than giving up.

In a world where we are distracted by cell phones and social media, the world isn’t going to accomplish anything until we learn to pay attention to our intentions.

Relaxing

How do you relax?

Relaxation keeps our hearts healthier and improves brain function and memory.

I usually relax by listening to music and Hebrew worship music. I don’t know why, because it is not in English, but it eases my soul.

If I am in a public setting I relax by using deep breathing techniques. Or removing myself from the situation.

Trusting In God

Maybe it’s not all about believing in God, it’s about trusting in Him. Even satan and his demons believe.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Don’t be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It will be healthy to your body, and nourishment to your bones” – Proverbs 3:5-8.

It’s hard not to give in to our own fears, thoughts, and feelings. And follow the advice in this scripture. The promises of God are “yes and Amen” but they are not always tangible or visible when we want them to be. Isaiah 55:8 tells us that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours. On the one hand, I can celebrate that, but on the other, it can be challenging because what the Lord is saying doesn’t look like what I want to hear or see.

All my life I have wanted to help people. I wanted to help people learn to cope with trauma in there lives in a healthy way. I wanted to work at a job doing this. I never understood why I hit roadblocks every time I tried to accomplish this. But it had never come to pass. It was something I thought I wouldn’t have to struggle about.

I’ve come to realize this isn’t where God wants to be. But I can help people who enter my life and with the odd jobs I’ve had throughout life. Which is where I’m pretty sure God wants me. But we’re times I think God didn’t care. Buy in the end through my prayers I know God has me right where He needs me. And that’s all I really care about is being able to serve God.

Satan was able to deceive Eve because her trust in God was misplaced, and he will gladly do the same to us of we allow him.

We need to trust God from the bottom of our hearts, and not try to figure out everything on our own. Listen for God’s voice in everything we do and everywhere we go, because He’s the only one who will keep us on track. Never assume we know it all. When we get in trouble run to God and away from satan. When we do this we can feel an overwhelming sense of peace. We only need to trust God.

Seeking Wisdom In A Trial

Seeking wisdom during trials in life is something I wished I had known about a long time ago. I wish someone would have let me in this little secret if they knew about it.

This insight is in the Bible, in James, or Jacob depending on what translation you have. I’ll refer to it as Jacob because of my translation.

“But if any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for her who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” – Jacob 1:5-8

How can we gain wisdom for our trials?

Jacob encourages believers to ask for wisdom from God. Wisdom was not an intellectual thing, it was a spiritual thing. In Proverbs 9:10 it says “The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord.” And Psalm 14:1,

“ A fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They sin and do evil deeds. None of them does what is right.”

To be wise in this context essentially refers to being in obedience to God in our trials and even more. Allowing the trial we are in to mature us and make us into the image of Jesus.

Why do we seek wisdom when we are going through trials? Why not ask for strength, grace, or even deliverance?

We need wisdom so we will not waste the opportunities God is giving to us to mature. Wisdom helps us understand how to use our circumstances for our good and God’s glory.

The world and satan will have us to believe that we should go through trials based on our feelings. The emotional rollercoaster that most people get on when trials come into their lives. But God has a purpose for our trials.

In 1 Corinthians 10:13, God promises this:

“No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way to escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

God will not remove the trial, but he will provide a way out if we seek His wisdom.

It’s good to remember that it is possible to miss God’s purpose for our trials. It is possible to fail trials and to get further away from God instead of being more mature. Anyone can have anxiety instead of peace, or even become bitter instead of forgiving. But it’s important to strengthen ourselves during trials and not become maimed in them,

For years I kept going through what seemed like the same trials over and over. Because I kept failing to focus on their purpose and what God was trying to do to help me grow.

God’s purpose as we face trials is always to help us grow in Him and to make us humble, and stronger warriors for Him.

To gain wisdom in any trial we must pray through it

We are all so ready to go to people, or self-help books, but never ready to go to God. It’s doesn’t say “Let him ask books or other people, it says “Let him ask God.”

Some of us are prone to rely on our own wisdom or the wisdom of others than God’s wisdom. We are fast to search the Internet. Only God can give us guidance and complete peace in our hearts.

Removing Words

If you had to give up one word that you use regularly, what would it be?

Words are by far the most powerful tool we have at our disposal as human beings. The ability we have to communicate complex ideas through words.

If I could give up one word it would be “but.” using the word ‘but” negates what you said before it. -” I want to call a friend but I’m too tired.”