Random Thought: Be Thankful in All Things

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says to be thankful in ALL things.  Why be thankful in the hard times?  Faith grows.  Relationships with God deepens.  Sometimes someone who wasn't saved before will have a new beginning.  So often on the other side of the pain there's a blessing that we can't possibly foresee. 

Faith After Failure

 

If you feel like a failure at times, you're in good company. The apostle Peter himself repeatedly had a fair amount of trouble getting it right. His faith gave out as he walked on the water. He misunderstood Jesus frequently. He denied the Lord three times, and was even warned in advance he was going to do it, and he *still* couldn't manage to stop himself! Peter had numerous "fails" and he was still the rock on which the church was built. He was afraid. He was weak. His faith faltered. But he kept going. You keep going too.

Capturing Thoughts: Trusting God

 

I love it when God speaks to me.  I tuned in to my favorite Christian podcast and the two-day series was on handling your thought life.  Later, I picked up an older devotional, turned to the next reading, and darned if it wasn’t about our thought patterns and aligning our minds with the mind of Christ.

I’ve learned that when I am getting bombarded with the same topic from different sources, I need to pay particular attention.  What is God saying to me?  What do I need to do in response?

As a result, I have begun to pay closer attention to the things that go through my mind.  When something happens, I tend to jump to conclusions about the events to follow – and I have a nearly perfect track record of being 100% wrong.  Mulling over these assumed conclusions provides nothing valuable.  But it does increase my stress level – and all for nothing.  There’s no gain from it.

Something valuable I learned about thoughts is to not leave a void.  Satan loves a void.  If you are removing a toxic thought from your mind, replace it with truth.  “God has complete control over this, and I truly have no idea how He plans to play this out.  But no matter what He decides, He will provide what is needed and never leave my side.  I’m going to let Him handle this, not me.  I chose to trust Him in this.”

Another thing I learned is that this takes work.  It takes effort, and I need to be deliberate about it.  But it has huge payoffs, not only in reducing stress, but in reminding myself that God is completely powerful, He sees more than I do, He loves me dearly and is completely worthy of my trust. 

Eliminating the "Yeah, but" from our lives

I remember when I was a kid, my mother would tell me to do something and the first words out of my mouth were "Yeah, but..." and then go on to list all the reasons why her request would be impossible for me to fulfil.  I don't have time.  That's my brother's chore.  Tomorrow would be better.  Eventually before I even got "Yeah, but..." out of my mouth she'd look at me and say, "Yabut, Yabut, Yabut." and I knew at that point the conversation was over.  If this was English class, we'd just replace everything after Yeah But with a period, because that would be the end of the sentence.

The same thing is true of God.  When He tells me to go talk to that stranger, He's not interested in my, "Yeah, but what if they don't want to be bothered?"  When He tells me to do that favor, He's not interested in my "Yeah, but they won't appreciate it."  When He tells me to extend a kindness, He's not interested in "Yeah, but they treat me poorly."  He's no more interested in my Yeah Buts than my mother was.  Might as well end that sentence right there.

The Fine Line Between Helping and Hijacking

Subtitled: "My Nose Always Knows (Where It Doesn't Belong)"

My friend TJ had some great words of wisdom regarding our innate desire to want to "fix" everyone's everything for them: "I have a relatively small nose but it is always where it doesn't belong with the best of intentions."

There's a fine line between helping someone and completely taking over their situation and "fixing" it for them.

Sometimes God just wants to get someone's attention directly, without anyone inserting themselves in between.  That's a hard one to remember.

*********

Image used from Pixabay according to their Content License

Today's Random Thought: Does God Have a Better Plan?

Sometimes our plans may not work out to be in our best interest. We can't possibly see all the repercussions of getting what we want, but God can.  When what we desperately want doesn't happen, we need to trust that a perfect God who loves us more than we can possibly imagine is carving out a path that is exactly what we need, when we need it.

Today's Random Thought - Why Isn't God Doing Anything??

We pray for what we want.  It’s frustrating when we pray and pray and God doesn’t appear to be doing anything. But God has a plan for every single situation, and a perfect timeline for that plan.  And His plan is always the best.  He puts others with needs in our paths for a reason; sometimes we are the ones with needs and we're put in others' paths.  He could just meet those needs directly, but there's blessing and learning and growing when He puts people with needs in front of people who can meet those.

Be Ready. Now.

 A few days ago a friend of ours passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.  He sat down in his chair, and he died.  No doubt when he sat down he fully expected he'd be getting back up again, but he didn't.  I thank God he had a close relationship with Him and was ready, in the only really important way there is.  No doubt he left things undone, but not the one thing with vitally important eternal consequences.

Are you ready?  Do you have a saving relationship with your Savior?  This is nothing to put off for another day.  Stop thinking about it and do something about it.  Right now.

The Rock

One thing that never changes is that things will change. Sometimes it's a sudden change.  Sometimes it's slow rolling changes.  If you look back at your life 20 years ago, all of the cumulative changes, large and small, add up.

No - wait a minute - there's something else that never changes... something vastly more important.  That is God.  

If He changes, how can we count on Him?  We can't.  But He is "the same yesterday and today, and forever" [Hebrews 13:8].  Our Lord is a solid rock, an ever-present help in times of trouble [Psalm 46:1].  If God continually changed, how could we count on any of His promises?  We couldn't.  If God can change, so can His promises, and so can His reliability.  But Thank God, He doesn't change.

He has given us unchanging truths to live by in the Bible.  His love for us doesn't change.  His promises don't change. His definition of sin does not change. His patience and forgiveness don't change.  The Great Commission doesn't change. He is the rock.

How wonderful it is to have this solid rock when things around us are changing faster than we can take it all in.  We have a reliable, unchanging anchor.

Today’s Random Thought: When It Doesn’t Go Like You Want, Is God Still Good?

We all see prayer requests on Facebook and other social media. And when things turn out well, there are invariably comments such as, “God is Good!”  It heavily implies that God is only good when He averts the disaster.  Is He less good when He does not avert the disaster?  When things do not go as hoped for, I’d love to see someone acknowledge that God is still good… and He’s especially good when the bottom falls out of life.  He upholds, He comforts, He provides.  You have a much better idea of just how good God is when things don’t go well.

Why?

 "Why is this happening to me?"  That's a horrible question to have to ask.  I've asked it a lot.  I've also asked why terrible things were happening to other people, and spent a fair amount of time trying to make sense of it.  

If you believe in an almighty, all-powerful God, then you have to know He could change this if He wanted to.  If you believe in a God who knows everything past, present and future, you have to believe there's a really, really good reason He is allowing this to happen.  If you believe in a God who loves you with a love like no other, you have to believe He will provide for you while you endure your situation, and will never leave your side, and will bring you to the other side of your situation when the time is right. 

You may not know what God is up to, but He's not a random God.  He's got something planned and it's ultimately for your good.  You might not see it or feel it now, or might wonder how your situation could ever be used for anything even remotely good.  But you might possibly see it after this is over.  You might not see it until you join Him in heaven.  But trusting in the Lord with all your heart means remembering these things and making the conscious decision to put your faith in Him, even when your feelings don't follow suit.  Sometimes you just have to go with what you know and not what you feel.  Romans 8:28-29: He's working all things together for our good and to conform us to the likeness of Christ.  He won't leave you to go through your pain by yourself.

A Model of Faith in Crisis

2 Chronicles 20 

King Jehoshaphat was faced with a major crisis.  A huge conglomeration of three armies was quickly descending upon his kingdom.  Time was of the essence – so Jehoshaphat got busy.  Did he assemble soldiers and weapons?  No.  He got busy praying.  He called upon his whole kingdom to fast and pray along with him.  They gathered together at the Temple and prayed for guidance from the Lord.  He said, “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”   And God gave them direction.

What timeless wisdom for handing life when we, too, are facing challenges.  

Today's Random Thought - How Do We Prepare for Tomorrow's Challenges?

 Today’s Random Thought:

It’s hard to be prepared for the difficult things in life that are going to happen.  We work hard and save our money in case of a job loss or unexpected expense. We take care of our bodies to avoid disease.  But really, no matter what it is that has gone bad – if it’s loss of a job, a beloved family member with a tough diagnosis, or situations that try our patience – the only way to deal with any of it is to keep our eyes on Jesus.  He will guide.  He will use it to accomplish His purposes.  He will bless us on the other side of it.  He will calm our souls if we trust Him and know that He not only knows what’s happening, but how He plans to resolve it, and is involved every step of the way.  He knows.  He sees.  He cares.