Proverbs 17:17 KJV — A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Dear Lord Jesus, Thank You for friendship. Thank You that You are the best friend we can ever have. Thank You for friends inside the body of Christ. Thank You for those brothers and sisters who are so faithful, caring, long lasting, and full of love. Lord, thank You for how You work through others to touch us. Please help us, help me, to be a friend like You are. Please help me to be a friend who loves at all times. Lord, help me to see the sin, but love the sinner well. To speak Your truth and to let no unwholesome talk out if my mouth, but only that which will build up those who listen. Lord, please help me to stand before You in prayer for others. Help me to know how to pray. Lord, please bless them, provide for them, walk with them, guide and protect them. Help them to live daily unto You in all they do and all they are. Bless others through them. Thank You for each and every one. Lord, thank You for Your love. Thank You for friendship. May we serve side by side to be used to bring glory to Your name. I love You, Jesus. Amen.
Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
But he honors those who fear the Lord ;
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
He who does not put out his money at usury,
Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved.
Psalms 15:1-5 NKJV
I want to dwell with the Lord.
My heart wants to live with God each and every day.
And I can!
Through Jesus’s sacrifice, my salvation is secure.
The Holy Spirit resides in me, giving me my heart’s desire of dwelling with the Lord.
Of course I still long to be physically present with Him, but that time will come.
In the interim, I look to scripture daily as my guide and direction for the fruit of a life surrendered before Him.
Therefore, I love these verses.
Words of guidance: walk uprightly, work righteousness, speak truth in my heart, be careful of my words, be cautious with my speech.
Words of comfort: “He who does these things shall never be moved.”
My physical place of residence has changed many times, but my spiritual dwelling with the Lord is secure.
John 10:28 NKJV — “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
What comfort!
To know my soul is safe in the hand of Jesus.
Thus I dwell in today as His bondservant, dead to my personal short-sighted dreams and alive in Christ and His plans for me.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Thank You so much for Your Word. How great and wonderful it is to live daily for You and with You in my life! How great a comfort and assurance there is from knowing nothing on this earth can snatch my life from Your hand. Lord, I am Your humble servant, do with me as You see fit. My life was nothing before You and I know it is only through Your sacrifice that I find salvation and safety. This day is Yours. Please help me to walk in Your ways, keeping Your Word, living unto You in all things. Lord, please put a guard on my lips, that I might not sin against You. Please place a hedge of protection around my mind, that my thoughts might be only truth. Thank You, Lord. Amen.
These past few days I’ve been reminded of a lesson I learned years ago.
More than ten years ago our family were missionaries.
It took us two years just to get there.
One morning, after a few weeks of settling in, I went to the Lord with a heavy heart.
I prayed about how I was being overwhelmed with the daily tasks of life.
I just felt like laundry, dishes, and mopping the floor was eating up my time and I couldn’t get to the reason I was there.
“Lord, I just want to minister! How can I get to that with nonstop housework?”
He answered.
He took me to Ruth.
So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” Ruth 2:2 NKJV
She just needed to survive.
But instead of feeling sorry for herself, she did the task at hand.
That was the key.
Housework is just as important as leading a Bible study if my heart is serving Jesus.
God is interested in my heart.
“Am I serving Him in this task I’m engaged in?”
It’s something I’ve been trying to ask myself frequently this week.
Not as a religious stipulation, but instead as a guard rail.
Guarding my heart from useless pursuits or pride.
I also find it helpful as a way to combat an old lie.
As a young believer I thought I had to : “Do big things for God”.
However, the Lord has shown me over and over again that He wants me to surrender my own agenda and simply live daily to Him.
When I’m sick, my “do” shrinks.
In those times, I have found it vital to remember: God isn’t disappointed because I’m not “doing” more.
He knows my limitations.
He even has things for me in those seasons, like prayer, Bible study, or sometimes just resting in His hands and trusting Him while struggling.
The task at hand may not seem valuable.
Ruth couldn’t have known that daily gleaning the fields would endear her to the man who would become her husband.
She couldn’t have seen that this back breaking task, which went on throughout the whole harvest, would end in her having a place in the lineage of Jesus.
Her faithfulness in the task at hand was used by God.
She was His servant.
And God used this humble lady to be the grandmother of kings.
The lesson is clear for me.
I need to do what God has set before me with joy and faithfulness.
I need to surrender my own ambitions, dreams, and desires before Him.
I need to trust Him in everything.
Including my “To Do” list.
Matthew 22:36 NKJV — “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
Matthew 22:37 NKJV — Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
Dear Lord Jesus,
Thank You for this lesson. Thank You for continually bringing me back to this place of surrender. Please Lord, help me to be Your servant, humble, faithful, and filled with joy of serving You, no matter what that entails. Lord, thank You that my life is so much more valuable than self fulfillment. Instead, You call me to pick up my cross and follow You. Lord, thank You for reminding me of these truths. Please continue to wash my soul of sin and renew my heart through Your Word. I love You, Jesus. Amen.
Although, I had wanted to learn how to crochet lace for many years.
Nothing could have prepared me for the diligence it would take.
Like the moment I realized I’d put together three Celtic Flowers and I’d used the wrong number of stitches.
Which meant pulling it all out and starting completely over.
Now, that might sound like a little thing, but it feels very disheartening.
Crocheting lace takes tiny little stitches.
I’m always surprised at how much thread I wind back around the spool as I unravel stitches.
But it’s worth it.
The diligence in doing it over correctly means the end result will be something worth keeping.
Not necessarily the item, but definitely the lesson.
There is so much self discipline in diligence.
The lesson is so vital to those who follow Christ.
It takes a daily, sometimes moment-by-moment, choice to die to our own wants, desires, and ideas.
Following Christ means we don’t make our own agenda, we are servants of the Most High God.
A servant doesn’t plan their day, they wait upon their master.
Jesus is our example in all things and He laid down what serving God means.
John 5:30 NKJV — “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
John 15:10 KJV — If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
These are just a tiny slice of the depth of being a Christ follower.
For a servant to do the will of the Master they must know what He says.
Therefore, constant and continued prayer and Bible reading are the follower’s direction.
And the Master is so gracious and loving.
He understands each one better than that one knows themselves.
He even has sent the Holy Spirit to walk with His servants, to comfort them in their efforts.
He also supplies all the provision required.
I’ll be honest.
I’ve not always understood all this.
My efforts have often been warped by my own selfishness or my blindly trying to force circumstances into what I thought God was directing.
I’ve learned that when things go sideways, it’s time to seek God’s face.
Often, the error is in my understanding of the direction He gave.
Other moments it’s been a call to stop charging ahead of Him, but to do things as I’m lead, side-by-side with the Lord.
On some occasions, He allows things to catch my attention.
I’ve been known to “get things done” while missing the people God wanted me to minister to.
His heart is for the individual, not the project, and He has used circumstances to redirect my focus.
No matter the situation, it should be God who directs us, hones our character, and gives us the pattern to follow.
Then the Christ follower can diligently seek Him as they serve.
We can’t always see the beautiful and useful creation God is making.
But I’m certain that His crafting will produce a fair more valuable treasure than any crocheted lace.
May God bless you, dear Reader, as you diligently follow
I realized this morning that those words are life changing.
Many years ago, as I read my Bible I read those words and realized how much I long for that to be me.
When I reach heaven, I want to hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
And yet I am a wretched sinner who struggles daily with simply living in and walking in God’s will.
At that moment Jesus opened my heart and showed me: it comes down to surrender.
If I choose, moment by moment, to surrender my very thoughts before the Lord Jesus then I will be shown the path of servant-hood.
Why?
Because that’s exactly what Jesus did.
He left the glory and magnificence of heaven for the humility of humanity.
And he didn’t even come as a wealthy proud dictator.
He came as a humble carpenter rabbi.
-wow-
He purposely threw off all mankind’s ideas of what the important people “do”.
He came to serve.
And to hear those words, I too need to place priority on service.
And it is servant-hood before Jesus.
All the service done to man is worthless if I’m not serving Christ first.
So as I walk into today, I’m glad of the memory and the reminder.
I want to hear the Father call me a good and faithful servant.
“Jesus,
Please help me to surrender all myself today and simply walk with You as a servant. Help me to hear Your voice and to respond quickly to Your calling. Please help me to learn Your Word each day that I might not sin against You. For I do not want anything to hinder my walk with You, Jesus. Thank You so much for loving me.”
patientlyhopeful 