Waiting For An Answer

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”  Matthew 7: 7-11

I have a friend who has been praying for a miracle for her daughter Mary for the past 20 years.  Her daughter almost died from anorexia, drugs, and alcohol.  She prayed and prayed and prayed unceasingly….along with her family and friends.  Nothing happened.  But, she never gave up.  I ran into her yesterday after not seeing her for years. I reluctantly asked about Mary.  “I prayed for a miracle and finally got one.” Mary has been clean from all her vices for several years.  She went back to school to get her Master’s Degree in Psychology.  She is married and just had a beautiful, healthy baby girl. “Wow, you prayed so long for this.”  Her reaction really impacted me…”I prayed long but he sure did answer BIG!”

God answers prayers in His own time and they might not be with the answer we are expecting.  But He always answers.  If you are waiting for an answer, be patient. It is coming. Even though you may be praying for a long time,  God answers in a BIG WAY.

We Are The Company We Keep

“Bad Company Corrupts Good Morals” 1Corinthians 15:33

We are always concerned about the friends that our children have.  It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that peers are a huge factor in behavior.  We believe that by “hanging around with the wrong crowd,” our kids’ character will be compromised and they will soon be traveling down the wrong path in life.  All parents want the best for their children, so we try to direct them to hang around with kids of good moral character in hopes that these traits will rub off on them.

Same is true  for adults.  We become like the people we surround ourselves with.  Take a good look at the company you keep.  Are they of good moral character in their actions, thoughts, and words?  Would you give them a thumbs up if your children hung around with them?  Do you feel more elated or deflated when you are with them?  Are most of your conversations with them  more positive or negative?  Is their perspective on life morally sound or unsound?

Sometimes it’s difficult to be honest about our friends’ character … especially when they have been friends for a long time.  Sometimes we can become enamored with the “larger than life” personality of new friends only to find, as time goes on, that their personality is morally unsound.  Sometimes, like our kids, we just want to fit in, ignoring moral inconsistencies.

Maybe now is the time to open our eyes to our friendships.  Then we can make a decision to keep them, talk with them about our observations, or leave them.  Whether we want to believe it or not, the truth is simple.  We are the company we keep.

Are You Confused? It’s Not God

“God is a God, not of confusion, but of peace.”  1 Corinthians 13

This is a simple truth that can keep us grounded when our lives seem to be spinning out of control.  When our lives are filled with confusion, drama, negativity, gossip….anything that keeps us shrouded in anxiety and turmoil, we can know one truth.  It isn’t something caused by God.  God is a God of peace, serenity, good.  As humans, we are given free will to make choices that have consequences.

I find that when my life is in disarray, it’s because I’m not letting God be in control.  I’m the one trying to control things and this leads to faulty thinking.  Even in the craziest of times when there are a thousand things going on in my life, I can be very calm and centered in my decisions when I’m following God’s lead, kind of like the eye of a hurricane.   How do I know it’s God?  Simple.  I am at peace.

Allowing God To Find Me

“What is prayer?  It is an experience that happens when God finds us. When I go to pray, I do not go to find God. When I pray, I allow God to find me.  When you pray or reflect on your day, try asking yourself these 3 questions:  Where was God? What was God doing? What was God leading me away from or towards? The focus is on God and not on you.”  Paul Coutinho

This certainly is a different perspective on prayer and on God.  Too often I go into prayer very self centered.  I seek to find God and to do all the right things so God will be pleased.  I notice I try hard to be a good Christian and it becomes an effort to always be God focused.  However, if I stop seeking God and allow God to find me,  everything changes.  Life becomes more joyous  and simple as I open up to God because His presence will infiltrate my life and I won’t really have to do anything.  I just have to be. And in this stillness, God will find me.

What Is A Holy Kiss?

“Greet One Another With A Holy Kiss”  2 Corinthians 13:12

I just LOVE this passage from the Bible.  To be honest, I never noticed it before.  I probably have read it numerous times, but for some reason my eyes were shut to it.  Today I noticed.  I had such a vision of what this could look like.  A holy kiss doesn’t have to literally be a kiss.  To me it is more metaphoric.  Holy is the key word here.  We are recognizing the holiness, or God, in ourselves and recognizing the holiness, or God, in the person we are greeting.  And that is before we even speak a word.

I wonder what a Holy kiss would look like?  And when I say kiss, I mean greeting.  It could be a kiss, hug, nod….any encounter with another human being.  I think it would simply be a gesture to welcome someone into our “sacred” space for a moment.  It would have nothing attached to it….no judgments, no expectations, no fears.  And I think the recipient would respond the same.

Imagine all the people we greet in a day; and imagine how magical and miraculous each encounter would be if it started with one Holy kiss. Perhaps you may want to give it a conscious try….and see if it doesn’t change your attitude about life.

Take A Breath and Rejoice

Aside

 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!  Philipians 4:4

In a world that seems to be spinning out of control, this passage can certainly be very hard to believe or to do. Our news is saturated with the evil in the world: poverty, massacres, abusives of every kind, human trafficking, genocide, failing economy, foreclosures, sickness … to name a few.  REJOICE  about what?  This just doesn’t seem to make any sense.

Sure, we can make a list of all the things we are grateful for in life.  But honestly, I don’t think it has to be that complex.  Perhaps it is as simple as focusing on our breath.  Take a breath, take another one, take another one.  Rejoice in that one simple gift that God has given to  us…the gift of life itself.  Rejoice in the fact that we woke up today.  Rejoice because no matter what we do, or how much we screw things up, we are loved unconditionally by a loving God.

Make it simple. Simply Rejoice in the Lord.

Stillness + Silence = Strength

The essence of prayer is listening.  Sure, we talk to God as a friend.  Sure, we praise Him, petition Him, serve Him, give thanks to Him.  But, if we don’t listen…we will never hear His voice directing us.  It’s like an air traffic controller.  If a pilot wants to land the plane safely, he/she must be silent so they can hear where to go and what to do.  The  mouth must stop chattering and the ears must start listening.  This is pretty much the same with prayer.

Two passages I love and have thought about many times,  “Be still and know that I am God,”  from the Bible.  “Strength is born in solitude,” from Bill Hybels is another.  I’ve read these and repeated these many times.  But honestly, the stillness part and listening part…..not so much.  I’m just “too busy” to sit in silence.  Anyways, God is everywhere.  I can hear Him on the run.  Right?

Today, after morning prayer, I decided to give this “stillness” thing a try.  So, I committed to sit in silence for 10 minutes or so.  This is what I heard.  “In the stillness I will find you and you will be at peace.  Be still, be silent, listen with the ear of your heart. Busyness and idle chatter are a distraction.  I am the light in a darkened world.  So, clean out your ears, focus your eyes, and open your heart.  I am right in front of you.  Be still and you will see me and hear my message.”   WOW!  Honestly, I am in shock, utter disbelief, that those words actually came to me.  After a few minutes of sitting, I picked up my pen and just wrote the words I heard.

I guess the bottom line here is pretty simple.  BE STILL, BE STILL, BE STILL, BE STILL….because that is the one place for SURE you will find God.  Maybe  this “stillness thing” really does work.  I invite you to give it a try.  What do you have to lose?

Me A Prophet! Really?

“I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit in them!” Numbers 11:29

I have been reading a book, Draw the Circle, by Mark Batterson that has inspired me.  One idea really opened my eyes. ….Prophets aren’t just people we read about in the Bible.  Every person is a prophet because we all have the power to change lives. How incredibly awesome is that!  Our words and actions have the power to change every person we meet.  How?  By simply recognizing the “God” in them.

So, I have decided that today is the day that I am going to say a silent prayer for everyone I come in contact with.  And yes, this means EVERYONE…even that co-worker of mine who can push my buttons in a split second. Instead of  judging them, I am going to try loving them because maybe , just maybe, there will be a moment that something I say or do will change a life.

When you think about it, it’s pretty simple.  Prayer changes everything.  And I’m not talking about the kind of prayer where we get down on our knees and have a private conversation with God.  I’m talking about the kind of  prayer  that we display through our words and actions….the kind of prayer that brings people closer to God.  As my brother once told me, ” Our job here on Earth is to make it to Heaven and bring as many people along as possible.”  Let today be the day that we let the “Prophet” in us shine through.

Climbing Mountains

“There comes a time when you must quit talking to God about the mountain in your life and start talking to the mountain about God.”
Mark Batterson

We all have mountains in our lives – those difficult things in life that seem insurmountable.  We pray and pray and pray to God to remove those mountains.  We become stuck. We become angry. We give up hope. We become paralyzed.   Instead of losing faith, we must remember,  “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 10:26.  Too often, we want God to do all the work.  But, that’s not the way it works.

We can do several things when confronted with problems.  We can stop dead in our tracks and become paralyzed. We can climb that mountain or we can go around it.   Actually, all problems in life lead to personal growth when they are dealt with and not just pawned off on God to fix. It certainly would be easier to say a simple prayer and “Poof,” like magic, our problems would be gone.  But honestly, we would never grow or develop into the people God created us to be if it were that easy.

So, the next time a problem arises, instead of asking God to fix it, go to that problem and say, “With the power of God in me, you don’t stand a chance;”  and then work your hardest to climb that  mountain.  And know that you will never be alone because God will be right along side you all of the way. When that new mountain appears in your life, you’ll be stronger, more confident and it will be much easier to get to the top.

 

Start Now To Rewrite Your Life

“What you have done in your life until this point cannot be undone….What you do next is still unwritten.”  Mitch Albom

I just finished reading Mitch Albom’s new book, the time keeper.  The above quote really jumped out at me.  Too often we spend so much time regretting the past.  We obsess about it and let it consume us.  Yet, we are the authors of our own lives.  We write our own script.  How freeing that one little thought is.  At any point, at any moment, we can change the direction of our life.  It isn’t as complicated as we make it.  It starts with a simple decision; and it’s from that point on that things can change.

Nothing is written in stone.  We might be scared to change things because we are comfortable with the familiar regardless of how good or bad that familiar is.  So, if you are struggling with, or unhappy about, a life that is unfilling, now is the time to change it.  Pick up your pen and rewrite the next chapter of your life.  Start  anew. Everyone deserves to be happy and happiness is simply a decision away.  Make this day the day that your life changes.  And never ever forget for a minute that you will never be alone because God will always be at your side.  As the Bible says,  All things are possible with God.