Monday, August 22, 2016

Seeing clearly



Recently I broke the screen on my phone.  I don’t mean a little crack; my screen was shattered.  As I waited for the new screen to come in, I had to deal with what I had.  I used clear fingernail polish to cover the many small cracks so I wouldn’t cut my fingers.  I learned to work around the cracks and use my phone as it was.

Our lives start with a brand new screen, like our phones.  When we sin our screen gets cracked and we have trouble seeing the world clearly. Sometimes we learn to work around the consequences of our sin, but the cracks are there to stay unless we turn to God.

When my screen came in, I took my phone to the store and waited all afternoon for the new screen to be put on the phone.  While I was waiting, I ran errands for work.  During this time, I missed phone calls, texts and emails.  Some of them were important, but there was nothing I could do until I had my phone back.

Just like with my phone, we have to repair our lives and our relationship with God when we sin.  This starts with acknowledging our sin and then confessing it. Sometimes correcting our lives can be painful and it can take time.  But if we let God work in our lives we will be blessed with a “new screen”.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Lord, I Believe; but Help Me in My Times of Unbelief!

From my spot at the kitchen sink, I watched a car pull up to the house.  My son hopped out, raced through the kitchen door and back towards his bedroom on some unidentified mission.  A few moments later he ran back up the hall and through the kitchen, grabbing a piece of pizza from the counter as he passed.

“Hold it!,” I yelled, “Don’t you go out there with that pizza unless you are going to bring enough for your friends!  You know our  rule!…you don’t eat in front of friends.  If there isn’t enough to go around, you don’t eat it either.”

He laughed, waved goodbye with the pizza, and sprinted out the door, leaving me to wonder how I had managed to raise such heathen children.

At that point, Travis, who had been observing, looked at me seriously and asked, “Mom, would you ever treat your friends like that?” then after a moment’s pause, ‘If you had any friends?”

Now, I had to stop for a moment and think about that.  Truthfully, I am not a complete wench.  I have relatively good manners, I almost always say “please” and “thank you,” I clean up nicely, and I’m usually not an embarrassment in public.  I like people, I’m a peace maker, and I’m trying to get better at returning my phone messages.  I tell you this so you can believe that I really do have friends.

It’s just that in order to simplify things on my end, we usually meet during the day while Travis is in school, or in the evening, after he has gone to bed.  Since he hasn’t really seen my friends, he assumed I didn’t have any.

That’s not an uncommon phenomenon.  Remember in the Bible when Thomas didn’t believe Jesus had risen because he hadn’t seen Him?  When he finally did see Jesus, of course he believed.  And Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” 

We have it even tougher than Thomas, because we’ve never had the opportunity to sit down at the dinner table and talk with Jesus face to face.  We must rely entirely on our faith .

But here’s the thing—  it’s easy to believe when life is good.  It’s when things get tough that we can begin to doubt God’s love, or our worthiness.  But remember, faith is a gift, it’s not a feeling.  Just because you’re not feeling God’s love at the moment, does not mean He’s isn’t  there loving you.  Just because you have doubts doesn’t mean you don’t have faith.  It means you need to nourish your faith so will you have strength during difficult times 

Jesus promised us that if we believe in Him even though we have not seen, we will be blessed.   Seems to me like a benefit that’s worth the fight.

So when you doubt, resist it.  Journal, write a letter to God, talk to your friends,  to your pastor, or to a spiritual director.  And pray.  As Mark says in his gospel,  “Lord, I believe; but help me in my times of unbelief!”


What do you do when you begin to feel doubts?

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Spiritual defenses


The best defense is a good offense, and how we have a good offense is to be prepared and well-trained.  Nothing we do in life comes to us automatically.  We have to actively seek skills to achieve the goals we have, then find a way to obtain and master those skills.

This is not a new idea, but many people seem to think that their prayer life and spiritual life will come easily and automatically.  Sitting down and closing your eyes and waiting for the magic touch of God is not how we obtain the skills necessary for our spiritual defense.

Spiritual defenses take time to build and a willingness to work every day on our armor.  Read the bible every day.  Meditate on the passage you just read.  How is God speaking to you through it?  Take time to prayer for your family, friends, the world and include your failures and how you would like to improve.  Ask for God’s help in these areas.  Every day.  We sin every day and need to acknowledge those sins so we can ask for help to become the people God knows we are.  Perfect Sons and Daughters of God.

This daily spiritual food is just the beginning.  This nutrition is necessary to build our strength to fight the spiritual battles we will encounter.  The enemy is sneaky, a liar, will seek to deceive you and will hit you with everything he has.  Every day we go into the world and engage in battle.  It’s a battle for your soul, your everlasting life.  Be ready.  Seek the Lord and keep his name ever on your lips.  To do anything less is to give your life over to the enemy.