The same God

Image by Pixaby

If you ever feel anxious but you're not sure why

And a vague sense of uneasiness 

Just nips at the edge of your consciousness

Then please, please know, 

O child of God ... 

The same one that formed the earth

The same God who established the heavens

Is guiding you. 

Pursue HIS wisdom, and

Embrace HIS ways, and 

You will never stumble

And you will always be safe

And you will not be afraid

When you go to sleep, 

And your dreams will be sweet,

Just as long as you keep holding

Unto Him. 

The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath the established the heavens. By his knowledge hath he established the heavens. ... My son let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion. ... Then thou shalt walk in thy way safely, and they foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid, yea, thou shalt lie down, and they sleep shall be sweet. 

Proverbs 3: 19, 21, 23-24

Are You Taking Time To Rest?

With our busy schedules these days, who has time to rest? Who would even admit that they were taking time to rest? Being busy seems to be the main thing people brag about these days. 

Image via Pixaby

A few months ago, I remember a friend posting on Facebook that she couldn't remember the last time she had a good night's sleep. I remember being surprised at the responses to her: several women confessed that they were getting by on four hours of sleep or less. The sad part is they seemed to accept this as normal.

Four hours or less! A study by the National Sleep Foundation found that adults from 18-64 need seven to nine hours of sleep a night to function properly. These study also states that sleep is a basic need, like food or water.

I know I sure struggle to get my eight hours rest. Work is so busy, and stress often keeps me from sleeping properly. As I was reading God's word yesterday, I was asking the LORD for wisdom for the exhaustion I was feeling, and came upon these two verses:

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Genesis 2:2-3

God rested on the seventh day, after six days of working. He took a whole day! And I was reminded of how he created the world: day and night. The day was for working, and before electricity, people slept at night. God himself rested -- and he gave us a day just for resting. He also gave us a time of darkness every day, just for resting. 

LORD, please give me the wisdom to learn how to take care of my mind and body by getting my sleep. Forgive me for being so careless in meeting my need for sleep. LORD, let me not give in to our culture's dictates that I must be busy every day, every hour. Let me take time to rest, O LORD.

His Grace Makes Me Right

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Do you ever struggle with pride? I admit it,  I struggle with pride, even though I know, know, know it's wrong! Many commentators say that pride is the original sin, the one that got Satan kicked out of heaven: he thought was better than God, and wanted glory for himself.

You know when I seem to struggle with pride the most? I find it's when I have been especially insecure: unsure of my abilities and down on myself. And my flesh thinks it needs an ego boost: a way to feel better about myself. What does it sound like? It is a swarmy, tempting voice whispering: 

• you're better than her
• you're so smart -- you deserve to be praised
• you're so righteous -- better than those Christians over there
• look at you, with all your talents

Do you ever hear that voice? So many times have I heard that voice, and often pray to God to rescue. I don't want pride in my life, but how do I escape? 

These verses spoke especially strongly this morning to me, about pride:

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight...For all have sinned,  and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...Where is boasting then? It is excluded.

Romans 3:20a, 23-24, 27a

We can never be justified, in our own strength. We can never be good enough, without Him. Our own greatness is never really that great. 

Please, O God, remind me that I do not have to be better than anyone else, because we are all sinners saved by grace. Wrap me in your grace, so that pride's voice cannot even reach me.

When We Are Confused

My husband has been at his job for 31 years. And he is ready for a change: retirement, and then after some time, he will be starting a new phase of  his life.  I, myself, am also doing a change from full-time school teaching. 

Sometimes we feel  like a deer caught in the headlights! 

Boy oh boy, are we both confused right now! The possibilities seem endless: go back to school, start a business, move somewhere and start over? We go over scenario after scenario. After 31 years of working in one place, he really doesn't know how to imagine himself anywhere else.  I am simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices available to us.

It's confusing when you can't see something shaping up, you don't know which direction to take. 

Yesterday, I was reading in Genesis, and came across this verse:

And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 

Genesis 1:2

I was curious about the phrase "'without form, and void."  I discovered that the words "without form, and void" refer to confusion and disorder.  There was confusion and disorder before the Spirit of God moved. Wow, I could relate! And then the verse says, the spirit of God moved. The next verse refers to the light that God brings: 

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. 

Genesis 1:3-4

He was bringing light into the confusion, and darkness! Next, it says:

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 

Genesis:4-5

So, he created the light, but he also allowed the darkness to stay: the times of "non-light." Just as he does in our lives. We have these times of confusion and disorder, where we don't understand what is happening. 

But then, he brings light. We begin to understand, to see the form of what is happening in our lives. God is the one who moves upon the depths of our souls, showing us what we need to do. He is the one who brings light, and then direction as to go where to go. He is the one who brings wisdom. 

I know we just need to keep seeking Him, first of all, and then he will show us. Because when it is just us flailing about in our confusion, the light never seems to come. 

Are you in a time of confusion right now? Draw close to God, so He can start to bring light, and start to move. He has been bringing light into situations since the beginning of time. It's what He does! 

Selah! 

In the Beginning, God ...

Do you remember your first day of school? I don't exactly remember it myself, but I do know that my mother told me I clung to her, and did not want to enter the classroom. But once I did, I absolutely loved it. It was a new beginning for me. It meant leaving the safe environment of home, and entering into an exciting world of learning. 

Starting school is one of life's new beginnings.

Prrince Christian
By VisitCopenhagen [CC BY 2.0)
via Wikimedia Commons

And every September, children also get a fresh star when they are promoted to the next grade. They get a new teacher, new classmates, and a chance to start again. Whatever happened last year is gone. And there is a general buzz in the school as the kids re-connect, share about their summers and maybe most importantly, show off their new "school clothes!"

Why do we humans love new beginnings so much? Weddings make us emotional. Babies being born get us so excited. Opening a new building deserves a ceremony. Why do we value "new" so much? 

I think it's because somethig new gives us hope. We muddle along in our lives, messing up, falling down, feeling like things might never get better. But when we experience something new, whether it's for us, sor someone else, we feel hope. We feel like things are not alway going to be the same. And it revives us. It's the cycle of life. It's spring, for us, and it's what makes us feel alive.

Today, I read a couple of Scriptures that referred to beginnings. The first one is the first verse of the Bible: 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

And this one from the New Testament: 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1 

And finally, this one from Proverbs: 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. 

Proverbs 1:7a

These verse all tell us that the beginning of everything is God. He created everything. Without Him, we have nothing, and we literally are nothing. And without fearing (respecting) him, we know nothing. 

So, I know I need to be reminded that ultimately, all my hope comes from God. My knowledge ultimately comes from him. And my very existence comes from him. He is the new beginning, and very time we draw near to Him, our hearts can have hope. In fact, His grace makes every day a new beginning: 

His mercies are new every morning. 

Praise you, God! 

What Will We Do Without Our Phones?

At the school where I teach, we recently mandated a policy of "no electronic devices" in the school. Kids, like all of us, tend to be distracted by their phones, I-pods and tablets. When I explained the new policy to my students, one boy said, "but what we will do without our phones? You are taking away our childhoods!"


Image from Pixaby.

And it's easy to see how the kids today are addicted to technology, but I am the same way, too. I would also say, "what will I do without my phone?"

What would I do without my Google, my Facebook, my e-mail?

But where is God in this constant flow of information? I realize that the opinions of people on the Internet, on the news, on my Facebook feed are influencing me far more than the opinion of God.

Today I was reading and these verses spoke right at:
Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary. Isaiah 8:13, 14a

I realized how caught up I am in the world around me, as I am constantly online, and aware of what other people are saying and thinking.

I want to be more caught up in God's word, than in the Internet's word. Because He is the one who can save me, who can help me, not the Internet!

It's Hard to be Humble

Let's face it. Being humble is hard sometimes. It seems there are so many people trying to put us down, that being humble can feel like we are just acting against ourselves.

By Dingler, via Flickr, used under CC BY 2.0

And it doesn't seem like the world around is promoting humility very much, either. Have you ever noticed that the people in an office that talk about themselves a lot, are the very ones that seem to get ahead?  And the quieter ones -- well -- they often get ignored!

Humility, even in its very definition sounds kind of unpleasant: One meaning is to "have a low estimate of one's self." Another definition describes someone of a "low rank," or someone of "less importance." 

But the Bible says, in Micah 6:8b, "what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

What does that mean? It means I am not meant to live my life, as if it was just me. I am not supposed to stand there, and act like only I count, and not worry about anyone else.

Being humble means I am part of something bigger and more important than myself. Being humble means that God is more important and I am someone of lower rank, and less importance than Him. And I am also willing to be less important, and of lower rank, than other people.

Does that mean I have low self-esteem?  No, not all! It means I am living in love. And living in love means I don't have to be better than anyone else. I just have to be me. And do what I am called to do, to the best of my ability. There's really no need to be better, but it is SO hard to stop the striving sometimes!

I am convinced that the only way to stop pushing ourselves to be better, to always live in the knowledge that God is more important than us. And he loves  us. Because it's so easy to get off track.

Here is one more passage, from my reading this morning:

"I ... beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. Will all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love."

Ephesians 4:1b-2