Weakness

This morning, I asked my dad a question that was on my mind. Do the gifts God's given us indicate what He has called us to do in life? His answer was very interesting to me. He said, "Yes, I'm sure they will have something to do with what we do with our lives. A lot of times God calls us to our weaknesses, and uses the gifts He has given us in those weaknesses. God makes us strong though them, and we can only rely on Him through it."

"But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, and in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." ~2 Corinthians 12:10

Growing

"Grace + Truth + Time = Spiritual Growth

"This is the spiritual equation for spiritual maturity in our lives. If we lack any one of those variables, spiritual growth is interrupted and prolonged.

"Each individual is at a different level in their Christian walk. We have to allow grace, truth, and time in their lives and our own lives for growth and maturity in the LORD to take place.

"I don't know about you, but I am impatient when it comes to giving others and myself the grace, truth, and time to grow, heal, and mature in Christ. In my impatience I stifle the very work our LORD is trying to accomplish.

"So what is the solution?: Grace + Truth + Time. We need to give ourselves and others grace, wrap ourselves and others in the truth of God's Word, and allow Godtime to work in our lives and the lives of others. When we do this, we allow God the time He needs to mature us, and we accept and love ourselves and others just where we are at."

Mom sent this devotion this morning written by Dr. Henry Cloud. How often am I impatient for the Lord's plan for my life? Wow. All the time. It breaks my heart to see that my own impatience blinds me from seeing and participating in what the Lord is doing right in front of me, for me, even through me. Time is something that is not in my control, only in God's. What, then, can I choose but to trust Him in my life.

"Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." ~2 Peter 2:17-18

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."~Proverbs 3:5-6

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time ti weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live...I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere Him." ~Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Snowed In

Through out these several snow days, some things have come to my mind:

• Reading through the Psalms, I have come to desire something. I want to wake every morning in the Lord. I want the first thing that my mind thinks of when it awakes to be of God's love.
• No one has any control over the snow, or, really, anything else. The snow keeps coming and coming whether we like it or not. What an awesome view of God's power! We cannot underestimate His power. The snow is full of His love too! He wants us to see HIM. We have so many "snowed-in" days. HE wants our attention NOW, and always. Don't know about anyone else, but this "blizzard" is a wake-up call to me to give God more of my time.
• There are many snow flakes that fill the trees. Each flake, by itself, does nothing. But God brings together many to break away the tree branch from the tree. There are many Christians that fill this world. Each one, by himself, does nothing. But the Holy Spirit brings together many to make one body, to break away from this world and live as God intends.

"My prayer is not for them alone, I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one. I in them and You in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me." ~John 17:20-23

Relationships

As Veronika and I were planning Monday night Bible study and decided to do it on relationships, I remembered a study that I did at Lakeland Church in Illinois. Seth Fagerland, the youth pastor, did a series on relationships and what they look like in God's eyes. I remembered that I still had the papers, so I told Veronika about them and we ended up basing the first study last night off of Seth's. It was a small group last night, but the conversation was amazing. Here's what we discussed:

1 John 4:7-21

"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made compete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

God is love. How beautiful. How amazing to define it in Him completely. God called us to love one another. If we "know" God we will love. Christ showed us the love of God in His relation to us on this earth. That is how we are to love. If we "know" God, we claim to have a relationship with Him. Our relationship with Christ should define all other relationships - not the other way around. Our personal relationship with Christ is the most important. It is Him who empowers us to love as He does.

"If I depend on anything or anyone other than God for my significance (trust, hope security...) I will be unfulfilled. Every human relationship will fail me, and you, at one point or another. God will never fail us!!!"

"Biblical 'love' is not so much a feeling, as it is a decision. Fundamentally it is the commitment to value and esteem a person through words and action. Though it is accompanied by emotion, the emotion is the fruit of it!"

I can't get over how important it is to love as Christ loved us- to love ALL people, not just those who are kind to us. Christ died for All people, not just those who loved Him in return. His love to give us that opportunity to have a personal relationship with Him, the Holy God, is so amazing and so humbling.

God wants us to have relationships with one another and keep each other accountable- to be helpful to each other. He wanted this even from the very beginning. (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:15-18) He gave us relationship with Him, even in the beginning. (Genesis 2:7)

John 17:6-26 ~ Jesus prays for His disciples and all the people of the world ~

⁶"I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. ¹²While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. ¹³"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified."My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. ²⁴"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.²⁵"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."