Help My Brain Is Frozen

When I have had a hard day or a hard week at work I can often feel somewhat empty.  Anyone who has ever had writer’s block knows what I mean.  Whether it is writer’s block or just brain freeze it is the same feeling.  You try to write something or think something and there is nothing.   You think, Lord help me, give me the thoughts and the words to speak or write.  Again nothing, just silence.  You think at least give me a feeling, just something that can grow into a thought or story.

The harder you try the less comes out.  This sometimes translates over to my prayer life.  I promise myself to be faithful.  I promise I will pray every day regardless of how my day went or how busy I am.  I remember having a conversation with my friend, Gina, a few years ago where she confided she had gone though a spiritually dry period in her life too.  We all go through it at one time or another.  I will never forget the words of wisdom she imparted that day. 

She told me she started small.  Even though she didn’t feel anything and didn’t know what to pray for she would start praying the Lord’s Prayer.  The more she did this and made it a habit the more she started to feel that God was working to free her from the emptiness she felt.   She told me that after a time she noticed she no longer was just going through the motions but that the relationship she had with father God was back.  She felt renewed and strengthened.  She felt that regardless of what was going on in her life that she could feel the comfort of the Holy Spirit. 

Even if we don’t mean what we pray when we pray it.  If we are faithful to do what he wants us to do, God will bless our effort.  He will bless us, and eventually he will bless others through us.  He can take the emptiness and make it beautiful and perfect as he heals our wounded dry spirit.

The prayer as it occurs in Matthew 6:9–13 (ESV)

 

"Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil."

 

Thank you for listening to the words we speak and the feeling behind them.  Thank you for the times when we don’t have the feelings but say the words anyway knowing that you can take that small effort and turn it into much more then we could ever think or ask. 

Love Is the Greatest Gift

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;  does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 Love never fails. I Corinthians 13

Yes the greatest of these gifts of the spirit is Love.  Love of mankind in general, love of an animal, love of God, Love of family, yes, Love is the greatest gift.  When we lose someone we love it causes great emotional pain.  It creates a deep sense of loss within us and creates emptiness.  In the end love must endure all.   

Clark just lost his Grandmother; Gail and Carla and their sisters lost their Mother. I lost my Parents four years ago and although it doesn’t ever go away it does get easier.  Our family recently lost a family pet that had been a part of our family for years.  Today we buried one of the newest members of our family, Patton, Hilary and Andrew’s puppy who was killed by a vicious attack from a pit bull.

We grieve, we continue on, we heal, we love.  And the greatest of these is love.  I am thankful I serve a God who loves us and will never leave us regardless of what we go through.  He is there to help us to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things.  He gives us faith. 

Lord, help us today to realize the extent of your love for us as we examine the extent of the love we have for others, both human and animal, in our lives.  Help us to understand how much greater your love is for us then we could ever imagine.  Thank you for giving us the capacity to love even a fraction of how you love us. 

Have You Lost Something Lately?

We have all lost things.  I regularly lose my keys, my phone, and my channel changer just to name a few of those things.   I could probably make a career out of losing things. 

But, I was struck by a scripture I read this morning from Psalm 12:8 which says “The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men”.  Wow.  I had to just pause and think how far a society has to come when they would honor something God considers vile. 

I only have to turn on the TV or a movie to find that the world has lost it’s values and civility but has excepted brutality and hate as the norm.  We are exposed continually to outrageous public behavior, both immoral and violent, that every generation before us would be shocked by.  There are no longer any rules of decorum.  We as a society have lost are ability and right to have a code of rules to define what is good or bad behavior. 

Decorum is defined as breeding, civility, conduct,  convention, correctness, decency, dignity, etiquette, form, habits, order, orderliness, politeness, being proper, propriety, protocol, respectability.  Therefore the absence of decorum is bad behavior, bad manners, impoliteness, indecency, rudeness.

Yes, we have lost our decorum.  A word we rarely use anymore, that we no longer understand the meaning of.  How sad.  It is not only sad for us, but for generations to come. 

Lord, I pray today that we as Christians find our decorum.  We have lost it and we want it back.  I pray that the change it makes in us would radiate to a world that desperately needs rules of decorum.  I pray they find it.

Looking for help?  Recommended reading:  The Bible

Fear Not

We all fear something. We fear success and we fear failure.  We fear the changing world around us.  We fear other people or maybe loneliness.  We fear the world situation because we have no control to change it.  We fear the people who would come against us. 

In this uncertain time it is hard to control the fears that grip us.  But, we must take control of those thoughts and know that God is with us.  He is by our side every step of the way.  He knows what will happen and when it will happen.  The Bible says to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  2 Corinthians 10:4-6

As we capture thoughts of fear today trust the Lord to take care of each situation you find yourself in for he assures us in His word…

"Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God."

—Deuteronomy 7:21

Peace be with you today!

 

Perfect Imperfection

We are Imperfect people in an imperfect world.  We strive toward perfection but in our own power we cannot achieve it.  It is only through God’s eyes that we are perfected.  God sees us as he wants us to be.  He see’s us as being washed in the blood of His son Jesus who died for our sins. 

As we live each day we can rest in the knowledge that God loves us and wants us to grow in His love to be the people He wants us to be.  Today I am going to give him the Glory because I know that he is the only one that can change my life from imperfection to perfection. 

‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
Ezekiel 28:11-13

Lord, let me be sealed today in your perfection, full of wisdom and perfect beauty.

Peace Be With You

Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means. The Lord be with you all.  2 Thessalonians 3:16 

Lord grant us peace in this troubled time.  So many people are out of work, so many countries on the brink of bankruptcy.  We only have to examine the signs of the times to know it is getting close.  I don’t know about you but when I get stressed and anxious I have a tendency to over react, circle the wagons and protect myself.  I get defensive. 

I have to ask the Lord daily to help me be open to other people and not close them out.  I am not always an open person. I guess we all look out for number one first.  But, will we be called upon to look out for others during the tough times?  Probably!  So today I ask that the Lord would prepare my heart to do just that.   Make me compassionate toward others.  Give me peace so I can see through the trouble and strife to behold and fulfill your purpose in my life.  Help me to look out for others who need you and need help. 

Peace be with you.  Share the peace of God.

When Everything Goes Wrong, or (As Sliver Refined)

I call it the  “Why Me!“ syndrome.  Poor me, nothing ever goes right for me!  Why is it always me?  Why can’t it be someone else for a change?  WHY, WHY, WHY?

Yes, even when we are trying our best, when we have done nothing wrong, bad things happen.   You wake up and nothing goes right.  Maybe the clock didn’t go off, or your hot water heater quit working, you’re going to be late for work.  Yesterday the project you were working on hit a snag and will be over budget.   The doctor you have had for years decides to move and now you have to find a new one. 

I know this syndrome all too well.  Things didn’t go right this morning.  During my frustration I even kicked one of my shoes across the room.  These are the times when I am glad to be alone and no one sees me acting like that.  Ah, except God.  Yep, He saw me.  He saw my anger, my frustration, my emotional pain, and my heart, my reasoning or lack thereof, yes He saw everything. 

While I was getting ready the phone rang.  It was one of my daughters.  She was very perceptive.  “Something wrong?”   she said as she heard the stressed tone in my voice.  I briefly shared my feelings and she said to try to put on a happy face it would all be okay.

 Jennifer is a teacher and deals with the antics of small children.  I am sure I had probably been acting like one so I told her I would try.  I even told her that when her older sister was little we used to discipline her by sending her to her room and telling her she could only come out when she put on a happy face. 

It worked so well that even as an adult if her sister gets mad she will leave the room and the next time we see her, she acts like nothing ever happened. 

As God’s very imperfect child I sometimes feel these times of trial are meant more to agitate me or persecute me then to perfect me but deep inside I know they’re not.  God wants me to grow from it.  This year I have adopted the song  “This Is The Stuff” by Francesca Battistelli as my theme song. 

Anyone that has lost their keys, or has had to call their cell phone to find it can relate.  The pressures of life can take its toll if we let it.  Or we can put on a happy face, smile or even sing along knowing that He knows exactly what he is doing.  God is refining me.  Malachi 3:3: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."