The other evening I was driving through a winding stretch of road. The road was narrow, and it was also dark. I found myself worrying that I was going to drive into the oncoming traffic. I was brought up short in my worries by the thought, “Why would I do that?” It wasn’t like I was going to all of a sudden steer my vehicle into one heading for me for some unknown reason. Of course accidents happen, deer run out and people veer to miss them. But what I was worrying about was that I would literally steer toward those headlights like a giant metal moth.
As preposterous as that sounds, I also worry I will do this in life. I worry I will somehow fail to see the danger and head straight for disaster. Not only is this a lack of faith in myself, it is a lack of faith in my Heavenly Father and even a lack of faith in my friends. I love the verse in Proverbs that 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.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) As I learn more and more to trust God, He is showing me His straight paths that keep me from danger. Even if I were to miss a cue from God, I am also blessed with several truth-speaking friends who would be quick to pull me out of harm’s way!
I don’t know if this is something you struggle with as well, being afraid that you will somehow “miss” God’s direction or warning. I find a lot of comfort by staying in God’s word, the Bible. He uses verses to speak very personally, comforting me and guiding me. I would encourage you to spend some time reading the Bible, asking God to show you what He wants to tell you. In the hardest times I read Psalms and for very practical guidance, Proverbs. Really though, God can speak no matter where you find yourself wandering in His word.
I pray that we will worry less and less as we trust God more and allow Him to make our paths straight. Even on winding mountain roads!
I know we have all heard many times how powerful words are. Most of the time it seems these sermons or talks focus on the destructive power that misspoken words can have. However, the opposite is just as true. Words can have amazing healing strength as well. They can bolster our confidence. A well-spoken word from someone can change our entire day. Most amazingly, words can even have creative ability; after all, everything that exists was actually spoken into existence by God.
As we head into a new year in just a few days, it is a good time to think about words. What kind of words do we want to speak? What words are we willing to have spoken to us? Are we going to allow the words of our thoughts to drag us down and defeat us or are we going to believe God’s word to us?
The beginning of the year is a good time to set goals and think about things we might want to change in our lives or do a little differently. One of the things I started doing a few years back was picking a word for the year that I felt God wanted me to grow into during the next months. I found this to be an empowering exercise. As I would read the Bible during the year, God would show me the word in different verses, and teach me more about the quality the word expressed. One year a friend gave me a necklace with my word-of-the-year printed on it. It was such a thoughtful reminder to me as I strove to grow that quality in my life.
In these last few days of the year, I am thinking and praying about my words for 2019. I want to choose kinder, softer words for my children. I want to find encouraging words for my friends. I even want to strive to have kind words in my thoughts for others, as well as myself. Would you like to join me? I pray that God will show you a word or two that He has especially picked out for you this year!
“Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” Proverbs 16:24
Do you ever think much about names? We humans like to name things. Maybe it’s because that was the first job God ever gave us way back in the garden of Eden. Adam first named his wife Eve, and then God gave them the task of naming all the animals. In the Bible names are a big deal. God is called by a lot of different names, each reflecting a different one of His attributes.
As I was reading my Bible one day, I came across the name “Ebenezer.” The only Ebenezer I have ever heard of bore the last name Scrooge. It was the footnote in my Bible, however, that really got me thinking. It said that the name “Ebenezer,” means ‘stone of help.’ It made me wonder about Dickens. Did he know the meaning behind the name he dubbed his infamous character? I like to think that as the author, with the redemptive end for Scrooge in mind, he did know the meaning. By the end of his Christmas Carol, Ebenezer was most definitely living into his name, providing help for many in his town.
I believe that God creates each of us with a special plan in mind. Sometimes part of His plan is revealed quite clearly in our name. Even if your name has not been something that you have been especially fond of in your life, I would encourage you to talk to God about it. Ask Him to reveal His meaning for your name to you. He may even want to reveal a new name to you, or a new meaning for your name. No matter what the meaning for your name, I pray that you come to realize more deeply that God created you unique, with a special purpose that He will reveal more and more the closer you walk with Him.
Do you struggle with the concept of faith? I know I do. I think of faith in all capital letters: FAITH. As though it is a huge work that I have to do before experiencing good things such as grace, hope or love. I think of it as a feeling that I have to create inside myself before I can move forward.
This whole tiny faith concept makes me think of snowballs. They technically start as a single little flake of snow, but as you roll them, they grow quickly. Snow can even become an avalanche. What if God wants to take your little bit of faith, my little bit of faith, and turn it into an avalanche of faith? After all, isn’t an avalanche like a mountain moving?
Think about what could happen if each of us had faith like that, if we could trust God that much. I know my life would look different. I would have far fewer worries and I would stop wasting so much energy on the, “what ifs.” Then I could have real trust, which as an unknown author said, “Bounces on eager toes of anticipation–laughs with pure delight of knowing in whom it believes–rests easy on whom it waits.”
Despite the fact that the baby Jesus came to earth to seek and save those who are lost, He regularly gets Himself lost at our house. We are always on the hunt for the wayward Savior. Sometimes He slips down between the couch cushions. On occasion He has been found under furniture. One year He disappeared for almost the whole Christmas season. He has been vacuumed up twice, and shockingly, ran over by the Christmas train more than once. (He is just too tempting of a victim, being bound in swaddling clothes!)
Normally we don’t enjoy being last. Especially us Americans. We have been taught from birth that there is no other place than first, and that second place is just the first loser. However, I have found something recently that I do like being last to. There is a stretch of road construction on a highway I drive several times a week. This is a major project which involves fairly long traffic delays. I am very happy to come up to the traffic stop last, just as traffic is being allowed to start proceeding!
Being motivated to succeed is not necessarily a bad thing, we just take it to extremes many times in our culture. We also, as believers in Jesus, have to be very careful not to measure our relationship with Him the same way the world would. We can very easily fall into the thinking that we need to be “first” in His eyes by doing a lot for Him. If we volunteer to teach Sunday school, sing at church, give to a lot of causes, follow all the “rules,” then we will be worthy to be in a relationship with Him.
Back in Jesus’ day there were people with the same mindset. They believed that if they followed all of the law, or “rules,” they would be first in the kingdom of heaven. In the book of Matthew in the Bible, Jesus told them it didn’t work that way. He explained that God’s economy is the exact opposite of our human one. In fact, He flat out said that the first will be last, and the last will be first. This was revolutionary to the people of His day and to us too. We cannot work our way into heaven and we cannot buy our way in, salvation is a free gift of grace.