OBSERVATION: If I tried to make sense of this world from my own understanding, I think I would pull my hair out in frustration. Prominent football coaches being accused of 40 counts of child molestation; children sold into slavery for sexual use; child sacrifices to bring wealth in Uganda; accidental drownings and near drownings in Florida; suicide; depression; alcoholism; college shootings…

APPLICATION: Through my lens, none of this makes sense and it saddens and angers me. But there is comfort in knowing that it saddens and angers God as well. This is not how He intended the world to be. And there is also comfort in knowing that God is bigger than each and every one of these. He will redeem these situations and every hurt and pain the world has ever and will ever see. But we need to trust Him in His word. It’s one thing to say we trust Him. It’s another to actually believe it in our hearts.

PRAYER: Lord, I say I trust you, but often times I doubt. You are so much bigger than any hurts or pains this world has ever felt. When I stroll down the path of doubt, help me remember to not lean on my own understanding, but to trust in you and you alone.

OBSERVATION: Jesus just died, rose again and ascended into heaven. Chaos is raging in the streets. Here are the apostles in a room “…along with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” A big decision sits before them. Instead of making lists, writing out pros and cons, debating over who should take Judas’ place, they go to prayer. It’s not just a blanket prayer or a quick, “Dear God, guide us in this decision and help us choose this man. Amen.” That may have been part of it, but that was not all. How do I know? Scripture says “constantly” in prayer. What does being in constant prayer even look like? What does it mean to pray without ceasing? What would my life look like if I always went to prayer first? How would my life be different if I sought God in the daily, not just in the depths?

APPLICATION: Just today I’m freaking out about a decision I have to make and certain situations in my life. I make a mental list of what needs to be done, be even as Philippians 4 pops into my head, I STILL don’t lay it at God’s feet. Why do I neglect to seek the guidance of the Creator of the world in everything I do? When written out like that, it becomes clear as to what it is – stupid.

PRAYER: Father God, you know the fears, the anxieties and the decisions that lay before me. But I don’t want to include you in just these things. I want you in it all. My flesh, however, doesn’t. My flesh thinks we can handle the little mundane  things on our own. It even wants to try to handle the tough situations on our own first before we realize we’re in over our heads and need you to fish us out…again. Lord, I want to “in every situation” (Philippians 4:6) – the big, the small, the good, the bad – I want you in it. I want to know what it means to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). I want to be a person who goes to prayer first, second and last.

OBSERVATION:
Mary has just been told she is going to conceive a child, yet she is a virgin. That in and of itself is difficult to grasp, hearing it from an angel. But the people in the town are likely not to believe. They’ll believe she cheated on Joseph and could  have been cast out of the village or killed. But she humbly obeys. She understands the greatness of God and the importance of what He’s asking of her. She understands that she is a servant of the Lord.

APPLICATION:
I don’t always want to do what the Lord tells me to do through His Word. It’s hard or uncomfortable or too time consuming. It’s selfish. What if Mary was more concerned about her image in the community than about what the Lord was commanding her? How different would our world be? How different would things around me be if I fully obeyed the Lord?

PRAYER:
Lord, thank you for the example of Mary. I pray for her same humbleness and obedience towards You. Father, please forgive me for the times I chose to do (and will choose) what I wanted to do and not what You have commanded.

OBSERVATION:
What separates Christians from other people? We go to a place once, maybe twice, a week to gather with others who believe and think like us. Well, so do non-Christians (sporting events, the movies, the bars, etc). We tithe our money to help the church and missionaries – both good causes. So do non-Christians, except they may choose to give to the 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk, or give to help find a cure for AIDS or give to the local animal shelter – all good causes.

God calls His children to be different – not just in the way we act, but in the way we love. It’s easy to love someone who loves us back. It’s easy to help someone who will one day be able to return the favor. It’s easy to be nice to a stranger who looks (and smells) nice. Jesus is our example of how to love. He loved the untouchables, the unclean, the unlovables. He loved the outcasts, the sick, the lame – all the people everyone else avoided. And He loves us, even when we don’t show Him our love for Him. He helped us knowing there would NEVER be a way for us to return the favor. And He loved us before we ever knew Him – since before we were even born.

APPLICATION:
I believe I do things that I and society would label as “good.” I believe, and I’m sure others would believe, I’m a “nice person.” But so is a friend of mine. Yet he doesn’t believe in Christianity, in fact, he believes many Christians are hypocritical. So what separates us? Without me saying, “Hey, it’s me! I’m the Christian here!” how can one tell the difference? I want people to know I’m a Christian, not because of the things I do or the things I say. I want them to know I’m a Christian because of the way I love. And I want to love as Jesus loved. I want to love those who won’t love me back. I want to help those who can’t pay me back. And I want to be nice – genuinely nice – to people who are not like me. But I fail and I will fail. But as I continue to sit at my Father’s feet and learn, His love becomes contagious. When I see how much He loves all of His children, and I see how much we’ve messed up His world, and I see the grace He has extended towards us, how can I not let love just consume me? I will never love as Jesus loved – I will be judgmental, hypocritical and snooty at times. But Jesus is my example and I want to strive to love as He loves. He has set the bar high. I just need to shoot for it.

PRAYER:
Forgive me, Father for all the times I have been and will be judgmental, hypocritical and snooty. You call Your children to be set apart, yet we act as if we don’t know what You’ve sacrificed for us. Fill me, Father, with Your love so I can pour that love out on others. So they, too, can experience Your love and Your grace. Amen.

OBSERVATION:
Salt. We see it everywhere in America and most of us consume way too much of it. But salt has such a rich history (no, that pun was not intended). Roman soldiers were once paid in salt, which is the origin of the word “salary.” In salt’s history, it was rare, it was coveted, wars were fought over it. Why? Why would such extreme meausres be taken to obtain such a simple thing? Well, salt has many more functions than to just add flavor to food. Salt was used as a preservative to keep fish fresh as they were shipped to various places to sell. Salt has also preserved dead bodies, it helps to produce different condiments, such as soy sauce, and it helps manure become good fertilizer. Such a tiny thing has such a huge affect.

APPLICATION:
God calls us the salt of the earth. We may seem small and insignificant, but we can have such an impact on so much. As a preservative, we should take God’s Word and – not add to, alter or change it – but to make it last for years and years. As a producer, we should make things that are enjoyable and that adds to peoples’ lives. And as a changer, help something that seems worthless change into something that produces life.

But in order to do what God has called us to do, we need to keep our saltiness. We need to stay connected to our Father. When we lose our saltiness, we are worthless. We cannot even change manure into fertilizer.

PRAYER:
Abba, Father, so often I feel so small and insignificant. I often wonder how I can make an impact on others. But salt is smaller than me and way more insignificant, yet it has such a HUGE affect on so much. Use me, Fater, to be salt for others – to expose them to Your Word, to add joy to their lives and to help them become more than what they are. Most of all, Father, help me to stay connected to You so I do not lose my saltiness. Amen.

There are a few things I regret having done, but not one do I regret having gone through.

Having gone back home this past weekend, I was immersed in my past – both high school and college. I’m not gonna lie to ya…there were some pretty stupid things I did. I don’t regret a lot of things. There are a couple big things I do regret…a couple sad things…things I’ll never get the opportunity to change or do over. Some of them were reactions to things that happened and how I treated people.

However much I may regret having done them or wishing certain things never happened, I do not regret having gone through them. As I have gone through the fire and come out the other side, I have become a stronger person for it. I think I learned a lot about God’s character as I look back on those days and see His handprints throughout my life. I also think it helps me relate to people a lot more, especially when they’re going through something I already went through.

I think too many times we want to surpress the hardships and the heartache. Totally understandable. But when we leave it, we can’t learn from it. We cannot use that to help others. I thank God for the verse Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

Who better to comfort someone whose child died an early age of cancer than a mother who experienced the same thing? Who better to comfort a college athlete who gave into the peer pressure of drinking with her teammates and made mistakes along the way, than someone who made the same mistakes? Who better to comfort someone who has lost their job and struggling to make ends meet, than someone who has been out of work for two years?

Our hardships make us stronger…when we rely on Christ to bring us through the valley. He comforts us so we in turn can comfort others. As hard and as difficult as it may be, don’t hide from the pain…learn from the pain.

OBSERVATION:
The new king of Egypt feared the Israelites were growing far too numerous. It’s interesting that he says, “IF a war breaks out…” Was there a threat of a war coming or is he just hypothetalizing (is that even a word???) Was there a threat the Israelites would even fight against the Egyptians (maybe there was truth to this, but I’m not sure)? Or was the king just paranoid and wanting to secure his kingdom?

APPLICATION:
I think too often we jump to conclusions – both good and bad conclusions. We create fantasies of what “could” happen, yet have no basis on which to make our assumptions. In a panic, we may do something irrational, something that doesn’t make sense because of a fear of something we created. A fear of something that isn’t real. It’s like the monster under the bed – he’s really not there, yet we refuse to sleep without a baseball bat.

PRAYER:
Father, destroy my monsters before I create them. Help me to see the reality of what is truly there. Let me not get lost in the “what if…” or the “could be…” game. Help me to focus on truth.  Amen.

OBSERVATION:
The second half of Galatians 5 talks about life by the Spirit. We are in constant battle between doing what our flesh wants and what our spirit wants. Paul said it best in Romans, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do…For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:15, 19).

But we have an ally that can help us do what we want to do, just cannot. We want to love people, but a certain someone is so difficult to love. We want to have peace, but we are so anxious about our new life or circumstances, peace seems impossible. All we have to do is walk down the aisle of the produce section and obtain the power from the Holy Spirit to do what we cannot do on our own. We can ask Him for the love we should give that individual, because we don’t have the love to give them. We can ask Him for that peace to overtake us so we can face our difficult situations. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to empower us to do the things we ought, but cannot.

APPLICATION:
Lately, I have been learning a lot about the Holy Spirit. I will admit He is new to me. I’ve always known about God and Jesus, but not so much the Holy Spirit. It is so comforting to know I do not have to do life alone. I do not have to face any situation – good or bad – alone. I am learning that if there is something I want to do, but cannot – or I am to lazy to do, I can ask the Holy Spirit to help me – to give me the desire and motivation to do whatever. God said He will never leave us nor forsake us (Joshua 1:5) and this is evident with the Holy Spirit.

PRAYER:
Father, thank you so much for giving me the Holy Spirit. I am so grateful to have Him in my life. I love knowing I do not have to do life alone and that I have constant companionship. Thank you for such a precious gift.

OBSERVATION:
When I think about kings and peasants, I envision a huge chasm between the two. So much separates the and in fact, the king is on high ground while the peasants wallow below. But our King, our Lord is not like any human king. There is no separation between the King of kings and His servants…if there is, it has NOTHING to do with the King, but everything to do with the decisions of the servants. our King doesn’t live in a palace upon a hill, but He resides in our hearts.

APPLICATION:
I am humbled when I think aout who God is and then realize He loves me as I am and looks at me as His child. I have a great inheritance waiting for me and nothing I did made me worthy to receive it. And even more so, he stoops down to me – He comes closer to me, which is great all in of itself.

PRAYER:
Abba, You are the King of kings and are like no other. Thank you for extending Your hand here on earth and watching over all of us. Continue to bless us, enlighten us and show us Your ways.   Amen.

God is so gracious. These words brought tears to my eyes – good tears. God blessed us, chose us and saw us as holy and blameless before the foundation of the world was even laid. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that gazillions of years ago, God saw me. He saw me as holy and blameless and He chose me. He chose me.

Blessed are you, Father, who chose me before the world began. I am honored to be a part of Your purpose – a part of Your will. Grant me Your eyes and Your heart to see and feel as You do.  And then grant me the power and courage to act as You would have me.  Amen