Loneliness

Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, Psalm 42:5


Nowhere to go – trapped
Within the confines of my own emotions.
Nothing seems right –
I’m at odds with the world –
I wallow in self pity
Though I prefer to call it “feeling down”.
That others do not care is obvious to me
Then why would they? What have I to offer?

Then a voice deep within my soul begins to speak -

“You have your life – you have My love
Will you take the risk?
Reach out instead of waiting to be reached?
You’ll be surprised to know the joy that can be yours
As you give instead of waiting to receive.”

Will you believe the truth of God’s great love for you, receive it, rejoice in it, revel in it and be thankful for it. Then let it flow over into the life of another person and watch it warm another once cold and lonely heart. Begin your journey out of loneliness into joy.

Prayer: Loving Father, thank you that you love me at my most unloveliest. You love with a love that will not let me go. Thank you that you promise never to forsake me. Help me to hold tightly to your love, believe your love and be a bearer of that love to others. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Weeping


Weeping may go on all night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:5

I wept many more tears when I was young than I do now. I wept when I was unjustly punished, when my friends made fun of me, when my mother had long term illness, when I felt deprived of something I really wanted. I have wept for my children, for my relationship struggles in my marriage, for the death of my parents and of my friends’ children. I have wept over the loss of a friendship, over the death of my daughter’s marriage and over my own sin. There are many reasons to weep and mourn, but weeping does not need to continue if we know the Lord, the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others with the comfort we receive from Him.
(2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

Tears are our emotional release – God created them for a purpose and we need never be ashamed of tears, they are so precious God keeps them in a bottle (Psalm 56:8). But life goes on and, if we know the God of all comfort, we know that he longs to comfort us and replace our tears with joy. There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to grieve and a time to dance. Our grief is not to consume us. We are to receive God’s comfort and receive His joy for the joy of the Lord is our strength for service (Nehemiah 8:10). We must move on.

It is a problem if you stay in your grief – perhaps you have not allowed God to bring you forgiveness or take away your guilt for something you once said or did to your loved one, and now they are gone. God can release you from that guilt, you can be free. You can ask Him for forgiveness and then let Him clothe you with the garment of praise which will replace that spirit of heaviness.

Weep in the darkness but let the hope of the morning dry your tears and bring you joy. Life must go on. There are things for you to do – others for you to share with who need your comfort. You have a gift to give – you know what it’s like to weep and mourn - whatever your situation has been there is someone experiencing something similar. You can share with them the comfort that God has previously comforted you with, if you have learned first how to receive it. Arise wounded one, let Jesus wipe away your tears and strengthen your heart. Let your tears be a springboard to bring wisdom, courage, blessing and hope to others. He will be with you. His joy will be your strength.

Prayer: Dear Father, comfort me and dry my tears – help me to see the hope of better days. Give me courage to use my grief to help others. Let the lessons I have learned through this time of weeping become precious seed that I can sow into the lives of others to bring them hope. In Jesus’ name. Amen

Patience


Wait patiently for the Lord, be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. Psalm 27:14 (NLT)

The Lord tells us that we are to become as little children in order to enter the kingdom of God. We are to have that simple childlike trust, even when we don’t fully understand what’s happening in our situation. We are to be childlike in believing that He is a faithful Father who can be trusted to keep His word to us. To be like a little child who says, “My Dad said so, therefore it’s true!”

However in the area of patience we can’t be childlike because a child hasn’t yet learned to be patient. “I want it now!” or “Are we there yet?” or “How many more sleeps till Christmas?” Today’s verse, and many others, exhort us to wait patiently for God to act. God’s timing for answering our prayers rarely fits into our preferred timeframe. We want answers now – not next month, next year, or in a few years. How do we learn to wait patiently for the Lord to act?

Patience is a fruit of the Spirit that will develop as we learn to trust God more deeply and allow His character to be developed in us. Hebrews 6:10 speaks of following the example of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises. I can think of Moses who patiently, most of the time, led God’s people towards the promised land year after boring year. Actually his impatient anger with the complaining Israelites caused him to dishonour God and so he did not get to enter the land, but God did graciously allow him to see it from afar. Then there was Joseph who, it seems, patiently endured much hardship but finally saw the fulfilment of what he had dreamed as a young man.

We may know of Christians who have patiently waited for loved ones to come to faith in Christ – some died still waiting for their prayers to be answered (and they were). I waited (sometimes impatiently, sometimes in unbelief) for 20 years for God to fulfil a promise he had given me in 1976. How wonderful it was when I realised that I had the answer and how thankful I was that I had continued to believe that God would do what he had promised.

What is it that you are waiting to receive from God? Are you waiting patiently? Do you have a sense of peace that God will do what you’ve asked? Do you have a promise in His word you are holding onto? Remember that we are told in Philippians 4:6 that we are to make our requests know to God and be thankful. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Don’t give up, wait patiently for Him.

Prayer: Dear Lord, forgive my impatience. Help me to trust you and wait patiently for you, trusting in your faithfulness. Amen

Work


John replied “God in heaven appoints each person’s work.” John 3:37

It is good to know that God has appointed work for each of us. There is plenty of work for everyone to do and God has gifted each of us according to the special work that He wants us to do. Simply put, He has assigned work for us to do and given us the ability to do it. How good is that!

John the Baptist’s disciples were concerned – that’s probably a nice way of putting it – they were possibly rather jealous, that the crowds who used to flock to John, their master, to be baptized were now all going to Jesus. They brought their complaint to John.

John wasn’t concerned because he knew that his work that God had assigned to him before he was born (Mark 1:2-4) was to be the forerunner for Jesus the Messiah – the one who would prepare the way before Him. He was to prepare the people’s hearts to receive the Messiah when He was revealed. Now that John knew he had accomplished the task, he wisely told his disciples “He must increase but I must decrease.” (John 3:30).

We never need to be jealous of another person’s work in God’s kingdom. We each have a job to do and as we do it faithfully God is pleased and the Body of Christ is built up. (Ephesians 4:16)

In God’s eyes everyone’s work is important. The choice of task which he gives to each of us is His and His alone. Our part is to be faithful in doing the work He assigns to us. In doing this we grow. Part of our growth is the testing of our faithfulness in the stewardship of our gifts (Matthew 25:14-21) and if we are found faithful I believe that God will entrust us with greater and greater responsibility in His kingdom.

To compare our work in the kingdom Paul says is unwise (2 Corinthians 10:12). It is up to God to commend (2 Corinthians 10:18). It is up to us to be faithful. Comparing ourselves with others causes us to fall into one of two traps; either we will look at our work and say “it’s nothing, not very important or not spiritual”, or we will say, “Wow, this is important – I’m important in God’s kingdom.” Both are wrong responses.

Let us set our hearts to be faithful servants whom God can trust.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for the work you have assigned for me to do in your Kingdom. Help me to do it well to bring glory to your name and pleasure to you. Amen

Thoughts - 1

“My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”
Isaiah 55:8 NLT

Why, I wondered, are God’s thoughts so different from ours if we are ‘made in His image”? The verse goes on to say, “My ways are higher than your ways.” God’s thoughts are so different from ours firstly because our thoughts have been tainted by sin, but secondly and more importantly, because He is God and we are not! He sees the overall picture – we do not.

This is why we often have difficulty understanding or coming to terms with His word. We believe it is truth but sometimes when His word doesn’t line up with our experience or expectations of what a great, all powerful God should do and when He should do it, we try to explain why, or we decide that He’s not “on our case” so we take matters into our own hands.

It is because God’s thoughts and ways are so different from ours that He has to say to us, “Trust me”. Proverbs 3 verses 5 & 6 says “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.” God says we are not to trust in or rely upon our own understanding because our understanding is limited – we don’t see the big picture as God does.

It brings much joy to the Father’s heart when we will trust Him, even when we don’t understand, even when things happen that seem incomprehensible, even when our prayers aren’t answered in our time frame. But can we do this? I believe we can if we set our mind to please our Father. We can say, “I trust you Lord but help me when I doubt. Strengthen me to stop when I want to take matters into my own hands.” Our heavenly Father can be trusted with our lives and the lives of our loved ones. He is the One who does all things well, the One who will “perfect that which concerns us” (Psalm 138:8)

Man’s ways would have kept Joseph from many years of unjust slavery and imprisonment in Egypt; man’s ways would have delivered David from the hands of King Saul’s persecution many years before it happened; man’s ways would have kept Daniel out of the lions’ den; man’s ways would have kept Jesus from such an unjust trial and horrible death, but in each case God had a higher purpose. For Joseph it was that he might be the one to save his nation from starvation; for David it was the character development of a shepherd boy turned soldier who was destined for the king’s throne; for Daniel it was to show God’s power and raise him to a greater position of authority and to get done with his opposers once and for all; for Jesus it was to fulfil the very purpose for which He came to earth – the salvation of mankind.

Prayer: Heavenly Father forgive me when I find it hard to believe that you want the best for me. Please give me patience to trust you and faith to believe that you will act in my best interests, perfecting that which concerns me. Amen

Asking

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
John 14:12-14

Jesus says it twice in this short passage – “ask for anything in my name and I will do it.” Why will he do it? He will do it because it will bring glory to the Father (vs 13). Bringing glory to the Father was Jesus’ mission and life work. He came to reveal to us what God the Father is really like. He told Philip that to see him (Jesus) was the same as seeing the Father (John 14:9). Showing the Father’s character – caring, compassionate, life-giving, truth-speaking, forgiving, loving God was Jesus’ mission on earth. God is One who wants more than anything to be involved with His creation in vital ways. Jesus was the living human expression of God on this earth. Now he has passed that ministry on to us who believe. We are to show the world what the Father is like by the way we conduct our lives.

Jesus states very clearly in verse 12 “The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.” He has left us to be the living expression of the Father here on earth. Our challenge is always this, “What is the Father asking me to do that will glorify His name?” If we believe what Jesus said, we need to be asking that question. He has made so many promises to us; to guide us in the way we should go; to give us wisdom when we ask for it; to bring things to pass when we commit our way to him and trust in him; to make our way straight if we trust him and not on our own human understanding.

So many promises including the promise to give us grace for the tasks he wants us to do. Let’s step out and trust him to glorify himself through us as we obey his Word and abiding in his love. Let us ask him for the things that will bring glory to His name on the earth.

As we abide in Him and delight ourselves in Him, we will find our heart stirred with His desires. “Ask and you will receive that your joy may be complete.” John 16:24

Prayer:Heavenly Father, thank you for the privilege of being one who can show the world what you are like. Help me to know what to ask you to do so that you will be glorified through my life and draw people into a vital and personal relationship with you. Most of all please help me to love this world as you did. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen

Rest


Jesus said, “Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29


Psychology tells us that our soul is the part which is made up of our mind, our will and our emotions. Jesus seems to be saying here that this is the area that we need to find rest. It is our mind that is the place where worry seats itself and affects our emotions – makes us depressed, discouraged, despairing, anxious, hopeless and so on. The will is the part that chooses – either to hold onto the anxious thoughts or to give them up.

Jesus knows that if the mind is burdened then the body will be affected – by tiredness, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, overeating and any other number of things. We will either try to avoid facing our worries by pretending they are not there or we will try to find comfort for them – usually in the wrong way. That is why He offers us the wonderful alternative of coming to Him.

Farmers used to put a harness or yoke on the oxen so that they could pull the carts or farm implements together. The yoke shared the burden evenly across their shoulders. Jesus offers to share our burden – that’s what happens when we put His yoke on. When we choose to come to Jesus and become yoked together with Him, we are making a good choice and we can then experience the rest that he speaks of.

Think about your life right now. Is there a part of it that is not at rest. Will you choose to make the change and bring it to Jesus and allow Him to give you rest. The Bible says “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.” Psalm 94:19

Prayer: Lord Jesus I need to share my burdens with you rather than try to carry them by myself. Help me to recognise when I am ‘going it alone’ and remind me that You are there for me. I only need to make the choice to come to you. Amen