In Our Weakness
I know that I should be spending more time with You, Father, but I am glad that this time is a point of commitment for me. May it be what You desire it to be. Amen.
Romans 8:26-27 (<<click here to read the passage)
A song many of us learn early on is Jesus Loves Me. And it’s one of those songs that we don’t mind singing as adults either. (A few years ago, I shared a post, History of “Jesus Loves Me”, click on the title if you’d like to read it.) But as I read through today’s passage, the opening stanza came to mind.
Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
they are weak, but he is strong.
The beginning of verse 26 reads,
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
The example the Apostle Paul gives talks about our praying. I spoke of my need for a deeper prayer life in the past, and it is still something that I need but with which I continue to struggle. The verse doesn’t give us a reason to cop out on praying but I think we all realize that many times there are situations in our lives that are just very difficult. (Real fast here’s Cambridge Dictionary’s definition of cop out – to avoid doing something that you should do or that you have promised to do because you are frightened, shy, or you think it is too difficult. Ouch, that smarts!)
But we must not think that we are totally inept when it comes to praying about hard things, i.e. death, pain, and suffering. God calls us to do what we can and beyond that, we are often at a loss. But He’s got us covered!
Here’s all of today’s passage,
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers [God’s holy people] in harmony with God’s own will. NLT
We surely can’t be surprised! Remember Emmanuel? God with us! He, in so many ways, picks up the slack that even with our best efforts, we cannot begin to do. We are incapable, by the frailty of our being.
Once again, the opening stanza of Jesus Loves Me,
Jesus loves me, this I know,
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
they are weak, but he is strong.
We are small, we are weak, we are frail…but He is strong! May we lean on Him who will never let us down! Amen!
Mar 21st, 2023, Tue, 5:49 pm
Spirit Control
Father, thank You for Your hand in all the things we are in the middle of. Everything is coming together in the best possible way. All praise to You!
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One thing that I regularly take advantage of is the cruise control on my bus. I’ve had some lengthy portions of a state route since I started driving. It’s odd but for some reason, I tend to pick up speed heading back to the schools – and it’s a gradual uphill grade all the way. (We’re Highland Local Schools for a reason!)
I strive to abide by all posted speed limits, but I will regularly creep upwards toward 60 in a 55 mph zone. I’ve learned that setting my cruise control to 55, eliminates that problem. I try to set it at the beginning of my high school route, but after a few stops I forget…until I’m heading down a downhill stretch. I see I’m getting above the speed limit, so I hit my cruise to set myself aright. Interestingly enough, I’ve found that when I first activate it, there is a brief surge and then it settles down to 55.
It’s like my engine is going, “Oh, yeah, here we go! I’m going to move now!” and then realizes, “Oh, I guess not… I’m heading back to where I need to be…”
It’s a little odd how my mind works, but today when it happened, my mind made a connection with how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. And instead of cruise control, it’s even more important that we have Spirit control!
There are times in life when we’re cruising right along, and we start to get into dangerous territory. With Spirit control, we throttle down back into safe territory and out of danger’s way.
There are times too, especially with traffic behind me, when I tend to maybe drop below the posted speed limit. Most people, myself included, don’t strictly adhere to the speed limit but regularly run about five miles an hour faster. So, when there are people behind me, I want to make sure that I’m driving as fast as I am able to.
How many times in our spiritual journey, do we lose track of what’s what and begin to unknowingly slow down? Being in Spirit control helps us maintain the best pace for our growth and development in the Lord. Keeping in step with the Spirit, helps us stay on the straight and narrow and helps us keep our focus on Him.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who by faith have testified to the truth of God’s absolute faithfulness], stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity]… Hebrews 12:1-2a AMP (emphasis mine)
Mar 15th, 2023, Wed, 6:25 pm
Past, Present, and Future
Father, You are fully aware that there have been some twists and turns in situations close to our hearts. You are already there; we trust that Your will will be done. Amen.
Romans 8:24-25 (<<click here to read the passage)
In reading the notes of my Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation, I found the comments on verses 24-25 very interesting. I’ve never thought of our salvation this way, but it stated that in Romans, Paul presents the idea that salvation is past, present, and future.
It is past in that from the instant we placed our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior we have been saved. Romans 3:22-24 reads,
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. NLT
Our new life – eternal life – begins at that moment.
And it is present because each day we are being saved. Paul speaks a lot on this concept from the beginning of chapter 6 through the end of chapter 8. From the moment we accept Jesus’s forgiveness, we begin our journey of becoming like Him. Sometimes it feels like a one step forward, two steps back kind of thing.
We have this habit of thinking that we are the only ones that struggle, but the reality of it all is that we all struggle. Yes, some may be more diligent in pursuing Jesus and His call on their lives, but being transparent here, that has rarely been me. Most of the time I feel like I’m falling more than I’m striding in my walk with Jesus. Too often I’m pulled off the path, by some simple distraction, and before I know it I’ve wandered far from where I was headed.
But know this, Jesus is with us all along the way, and though our actions may break His heart, He is more than willing to lovingly…gently lead us back onto the path of His choosing. Each day we are being saved in that we grow, and stall, and grow some more. It all makes us who we are, and Jesus patiently walks all the way along with us. It is an ongoing process.
But at the same time, we have not fully received all the benefits and blessings of salvation that will be ours when Christ’s new Kingdom is completely established. That’s our future salvation. While we can be confident of our salvation, we still look ahead with hope and trust toward that complete change of body and personality that lies beyond this life, when we will be like Christ.
Beloved, we are [even here and] now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be [after His coming]. We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory]. 1 John 3:2 AMP
Know this, God has it all thought out. Don’t give up! Keep on striving to be all He knows you can be! And probably most importantly of all, you are not alone – He is with you all the way!
Mar 13th, 2023, Mon, 5:02 pm
Time Continues to March Forward
As I sit here in the quiet of the afternoon. Father, I would ask once again for Your guidance in where my thoughts will lead me. May it be down paths of Your design. Amen.
Romans 8:19-25 (<<click here to read the passage)
And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. v23
This year was a big mile-marker for me. I’ve officially ridden this old globe for 60 rotations around the sun! Age, my own and others around me, occupies a fair amount of my thoughts.
This week one of my cousin’s sons forwarded a picture of my extended family from an event at my uncle’s church several years ago. I was able to get a rough idea of when the picture was taken in that I could tell that my son was around two years old at the time. It was a little less than half of my lifetime ago. At the time, my parents would have both been a little younger than I am now. My grandmother would have been a little past ninety.
Since then, all of our lives have changed significantly. My uncle and my grandmother have both passed on to their eternal reward. My parents are now edging closer to 90. Just the hair alone in the picture has changed. There is far more of it that is white. And on the other hand, some have far less hair than pictured there. Though many wish they could slow time down, it continues to march forward, regardless of our hopes and wishes.
My mom posted a meme today that read, “As you get older you will understand more and more that it’s not about what you look like or what you own, it’s all about the person you’ve become.”
A portion of verse 23 reads,
…we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. NLT
I’ve mentioned before that my grandmother and a highly respected pastor of mine, toward the end of their lives, both wanted to know why the Lord had not called them home. Both were confined to their beds and felt that their lives weren’t worth much at that point. They both longed for their bodies to be released from sin and suffering – for what is suffering but the end result of our sin?
I don’t know when my time will come but there are things that wear on me, even at my age.
The older we get, the more we can understand what the Apostle Paul had to say at the end of verse 23,
We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
I know the groanings I have now are just the beginning, but what is next, thanks be to God, is most definitely not the end either! Amen!
Mar 12th, 2023, Sun, 5:06 pm
Pigs Do Fly!
Well, this is a change of pace! I usually write later in the day but the work of Your hands, Father, has got my mind a-whirling and I must get it down before it slips away!
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A couple of years ago I made an amazing discovery – pigs do fly! Well, they’re not actually pigs but they sure eat like them! We have a very healthy population of American goldfinches in our area. In the winter the males are a bit more drab, but as spring approaches they turn a bright yellow. I used to feed them Nyjer (thistle) seed, but one year I ran out, and ever since then they will only eat black oil sunflower seed. They won’t even touch the Nyjer feeder. But boy, they can put away the sunflower seed!
I got a two-pound feeder for my birthday, and it’s easily half-eaten in a couple of days. My schedule was too full yesterday to fill it up when it was half empty, and when I looked out this morning, it was totally – not just almost – totally empty! I tell you those piggies fly in and out all day long!
Who can blame them? They have access to all the food they can ingest and all they have to do is to fly up, perch in front of the opening, and go at it!
We can have all we could ever want of God, as well, but many won’t have anything to do with Him. Others just nibble a little here and there – never enough to satisfy our innate hunger and thirst for such things.
Here are a couple of appetizers from God’s word.
“Blessed [joyful, nourished by God’s goodness] are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness [those who actively seek right standing with God], for they will be [completely] satisfied. Matthew 5:6 AMP
…Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35 NIV
Take delight in the Lord,
….and he will give you your heart’s desires.
Commit everything you do to the Lord.
….Trust him, and he will help you. Psalm 37:4-5 NLT
God will give us all we could ever ask of Him. All we have to do is to go and sit before Him and go at it! He welcomes us with open arms! As the old hymn goes, “He will fill your heart today to overflowing”!
Oh, to be a finch in the Kingdom of God!
Mar 9th, 2023, Thurs, 9:36 pm