Weekend Words

 From Be Still and Know...

"Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations?  Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow (James 1:2-3 LB).

Today the world is full of people with lives full of trials.  Our attitude and approach to trials has an important effect on our reaction to them.  We can let them become problems, or we can let them become triumphs by lifting our sights above them to the Lord who is in complete control of them.

Christians can expect the PRESENCE of trials in their lives.  They are not exempt.  "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7).  We would prefer another method than trials but we have no right to question God's method.

The presence of trials is a part of the refinishing and developing process of bringing us to a place of spiritual maturity.  This should be our goal - reaching out to a life of maturity in the Lord.

Christians throughout the Roman Empire were noted for the joyful way they met problems.  Paul is a good example.  He and Silas could sing praises to God at midnight in prison.

But God's Word assures us that in the midst of our trials joy can be real.  "Is your life full of difficulties and temptations?  Then be happy."  The important thing is how we react to trials.  As they come, count them one by one, and count them with JOY, not joy for them, but joy in the midst of them.  We think it is joy when we escape trial, but not so in God's plan.  As we accept and count them all joy, we mature and grow in patience as we learn the needed lessons.  Adversity is a great teacher.

Our reaction to trials reveals the level of our maturity.  What is our reaction when we are criticized?  Our feelings are hurt?  When lonely, discouraged, or disappointed?

If we are growing, can we COUNT our testings with joy?  We may not always be joyful, nor enjoy our trouble, but we can count it with joy.

From Oasis of Hope...

God's Consolation

"When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Your consolations delight my soul." - Psalm 94:19 NASB

As you go about your day, do you ever worry over a problem?  Perhaps it's how you're going to pay a certain bill.  Maybe a situation at work or with a coworker causes you concern.  One thought leads to another, then another.  Soon your mind becomes an anxious mess.

It's so easy to get into that cycle.  God doesn't want us to live that way.  Anxiety doesn't come from Him.  We make it worse by worrying instead of asking God for help.

Frequently, the issues we are distressed about are outside of our ability to manage anyway.  By allowing anxiety to grow we think we can gain control of the situation, and we don't want to give it up.

God wants to help us.  He's waiting for us to ask Him.  He will relieve the burden on our minds.  He can be trusted to take care of our needs.  He longs to comfort and console us as a human parent would.  When we hand over control, our minds can be freed of anxiety, and this will delight our souls.  It is such a relief to let it all go and trust God to handle all our concerns.

Releasing the need to control and acknowledging God's power over all things, we can learn to trust Him with the things that cause anxiety.  What is weighing heavily on your mind today?  Is worrying about it going to help?

God wants to lighten your burden.  Take your concerns to God in prayer and leave them there.  He will give you peace and console your mind.  Sit back and watch what God will do.

- Julie Wilson Smith

Weekend Words

 From Behold the Lilies...

"Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man then understand his own way?" - Proverbs 20:24

"Do all things without murmurings and disputings." - Philippians 2:14

The view of my home from the top of the hill was different.  Instead of looking horizontally at the house and barn, I looked down on them.  Instead of seeing only patches and spots, I saw the whole place.  I had a distant, encompassing view rather than a close-up view.  How refreshing it all was.

Another time I had the privilege of looking down on thousands of treetops.  The sight was completely different from that of looking up through the branches and leaves of a tree.  I was humbled and awestruck as I gazed at the swaying sea of green.  It impressed me to realize that God sees each individual leaf among the millions of leaves below me.  Then I thought of how He also sees me and cares for me.

The view from above is different.  It takes in the whole plan, the complete layout.  The view from below sees only patches and spots.  The narrow view from below allows us only to look at things, while the wide view from above allows us to look on them.

You may wonder why the Lord had brought you to a certain place or put you in your circumstances.  You may have struggles you cannot understand.  God has a perfect layout, an overall plan into which you fit.  He does not expect you to understand everything, because you do not have the view He does.  But He expects you to trust His view and plan.  He reveals enough of His plan in the Scriptures to give you a refreshing view even though you do not have the same lofty position that He does.  Then someday, if you keep trusting, you too will see things from a heavenly point of view - and you will see that His plan was perfect.

From In Green Pastures...

A Lamp for the Footpath

God's Word as a guiding light is a lamp unto our feet, not a sun flooding a hemisphere.  It is not meant to shine upon miles of road, but in the darkest night it will always show us the one next step; then when we have taken that, carrying the lamp forward, it will show us another step, and thus on till it brings us out into the full, clear sunlight of coming day.  It is a lamp, and it is designed to lighten only little steps, one by one.  We need to learn well the lesson of patience if we would have God guide us.  He does not lead us rapidly.  Sometimes we must go very slowly if we wait for him.  Only pace by pace does he take us, and unless we wait, we must go in darkness.  But if we wait for him, it will always be light for one step.

Weekend Words

From Our Daily Bread...

Artist: Abbot Fuller Graves - American painter (1859 - 1936)

Love Beyond Boundaries - Read Psalm 103:8-17

"So great is his love for those who fear him." - Psalm 103:11

"God has been so good to us!  I want to thank Him for our anniversary."  Terry's voice was steady, and the tears in her eyes showed her sincerity.  Those in our small group were deeply moved.  We knew what past years had held for Terry and her husband.  Though a believer, Robert suffered from the sudden onset of severe mental illness and had taken the life of their four-year-old daughter.  He would be institutionalized for decades, but Terry visited him, and God did a beautiful healing work, helping her forgive.  Despite profound heartache, their love for each other grew.  

Love and forgiveness like that could only come from one source.  David writes about God this way, "He does not treat us as our sins deserve ... As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:10, 12).

The mercy God shows us comes through His expansive love: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love" for us (v.11).  Love so profound compelled Hm to go to the depths of the cross and grave to take away our sins so that He could bring all who "receive him" (John 1:12) home to Himself.

Terry was right.  "God has been so good to us!"  His love and forgiveness reach beyond unthinkable boundaries and offer us life that never ends.

- James Banks

From In Green Pastures...

Artist: William Kay Blacklock - British painter (1872 - 1924)

Serving Christ in His People.

When we lay our lives at Christ's feet in consecration, and tell him that we want to serve him with them, he gives them back to us again, and bids us use them in serving his people, our fellow-men.  In the humblest and the lowliest of those who bear Christ's image Christ himself comes to us.  We do not know when he stands before us in a lowly one who needs our sympathy or our help.  It would be a sad thing if we turned him away unfed from our doors some day, or neglected to visit him in his sickness.  Let us not say we love Christ if we are not ready to serve those whom he sends to us to be served.

Weekend Words

 From Be Still and Know...

"The joy of the Lord is your strength." - Nehemiah 8:10

Many physical fitness programs have been developed to produce strong bodies.  There are programs for developing strong muscles, programs for exercise and diet, programs for taking a series of vitamins and minerals.  This is done to increase the strength and energy needed for each day.

In God's Word we are given a prescription for increasing our strength.  One ingredient of this prescription is joy; and inner joy produced by the Spirit of God.

Nehemiah and his people were observing the Feast of Tabernacles.  As the law was read the people began to weep over their sins.  But Nehemiah and Ezra said, "This day is holy to our Lord, and be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold" (Nehemiah 8:10, Amplified).

Nehemiah encouraged them to rejoice in the Lord as they read the Word.

There is a special inner joy that overflows from the heart.  It shines from the eyes.  It gives special beauty to the lives of people.  The secret of this joy is the Lord, for He is the source of the joy.

When we have the joy of the Lord we are strong in the midst of trials and tensions, fears and frustrations of life.  Joy gives strength to our bodies and spirit.

The Amplified Bible reads, "Strength and stronghold."  He who trusts and rejoices in the Lord has a strong fortress in which he is safe.  The joy of the Lord transforms our weakness into His strength.  It is not every joy that brings strength, but the joy of the Lord.  His joy is the joy of salvation, the joy of a yielded will, the joy of fellowship with Him, the joy of His steadfast love.

Do we know that inner joy that brings strength because we spend time with Him who is its source?

Someone has said, "The oil of gladness reduces friction and eases the wear and tear of living."

A joyful heart gives a joyful face.

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine" (Proverbs 17:22).

From Behold the Lilies...

"And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.  And all the people saw him walking and praising God." - Acts 3:8-9

Did this man overdo it with his thanksgiving?  He had something to be thankful for, and he was not ashamed to let others know about it.  In his gratefulness, he probably even forgot that there were onlookers.

Can those around us tell by our lives that we appreciate what Christ has done for us?  Do we express our thanks to God?  Or are we like the nine lepers who, although glad to be healed, forgot to say, "Thankyou"?

Do we dwell upon God's benefits to us, or do we think negatively?  Do we lift our hearts in praise, or are we prone to discontentment?  Our circumstances do not determine whether we rejoice or not.  As the saying goes, "If Christians do not rejoice, it is because they do not live up to their privileges."  May it be our common experience to give thanks in everything.

Be of Good Cheer - There's Nothing to Fear

Cheerful thoughts like sunbeams lighten up the darkest fears,

For when the heart is happy there's no time for tears...,

For the nature of our attitudes towards circumstantial things

Determines our acceptance of the problems that life brings.

And since fear and dread and worry cannot help in any way,

It's much healthier and happier to be cheerful every day.

And if you'll only try it, you will find, without a doubt,

A cheerful attitude's something no one should be without,

For when the heart is cheerful, it cannot be filled with fear,

And without fear, the way ahead seems more distinct and clear,

And we realize there's nothing that we must face alone,

For our heavenly Father loves us, and our problems are His own.

- Helen Steiner Rice