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“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” – 2 Corinthians:  12:9

Growing up in this earthly world, we are raised to think that worldly success is necessary in this life.  But God does not measure success the way our earthly world measures success.  God does not measure success by the size of our house or the size of our bank account.  He measures success by the way we follow His Son and the way we treat others!  And God’s Grace will always be enough to help us succeed in following His Son ?.

There are times in which we all feel that we are lacking in some way.  We feel that we have failed or we feel too weak to serve anyone, much less God.  But feelings lie!  God never said, follow My Son if you feel like it.  God said “My Grace is sufficient”.  If fact, God’s Word says that we should “boast” about our weakness so “Christ’s Power may rest on” us.

It doesn’t matter where we are in life, and it doesn’t matter where we are in our walk with Jesus.  Perhaps we are just beginning.  Perhaps we started, but stopped.  Wherever we are, we can begin walking with Jesus, and He will help us ?

The first step is speaking less! 🙂

“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.” – Proverbs 17:28

I don’t know about you, but I often suffer from speaking a little Too much, lol…  Sometimes, when someone is sharing, it’s just better to remain quiet.  Or perhaps someone is annoying, but sometimes it’s better to just let it go.

It’s hard sometimes, but it is still the better choice…

Personally, when I need help with disciplining myself; I pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help me.  Sometimes, a word of warning or caution are needed, but more often words of encouragement and kindness are needed.  And sometimes, no words are needed at all.

The Holy Spirit really can Help with making the right choice, just ask Him ?

Pray!

¹⁶ When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

¹⁷ On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Mark 2:16-17

At times, we all feel that we are not “good enough” to pray or to come to Jesus.  Whether there are sins that weigh us down or we are struggling to believe that Jesus really does love us, or even if there really is a God, we hesitate.

But the truth is – Jesus will meet us wherever we are and God has always loved us-on our good days and bad!  God always will!

When Jesus came, He came for the sinners.  He came for us!  It’s not just that He loves us; Jesus likes us too ?.  And Jesus is patient and so is our Father.  Our Father knew our road would be long and, at times, difficult.  That is why He sent the Holy Spirit to Help us.

So if you are having one of those days, where “you don’t feel good enough”, remember Jesus loves you and thinks you “are good enough”.  He died for you and would do so again, because He loves you! 

God will meet you where you are, just call on Jesus because He will answer ?. And God will be there 🙂

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?”-Hebrews 1:14

One of my best friends and prayer partners used to say, “you never know when you are entertaining Angels, so be nice to everyone ?.  She said it to me for the first time the day before my years of daily prayers for my son were answered.

My son had been sick almost since day one.  He had so many painful ear infections that they did three surgeries on his ears starting when he was 9 months old.  He had so many bouts of strep throat, that they took his tonsils out as well.  He developed extreme pain in his hip.  Because he was always ill, we took him to several specialists, and at one point they thought he might have developed a serious autoimmune disease.  After all that, he developed severe pain in his hip due to his leg turning in, the next step for him would have been more surgery.

As you may imagine, as his Mom, I prayed and asked God to heal him every day.  I often prayed for him with my friend and prayer partner who lived across the street. 

The next day (after my friend and prayer partner mentioned “Entertaining Angels”), I raced to the grocery to get something for dinner.  As usual, I was in a hurry lol.  When I came out of the grocery, there was an elderly gentleman struggling to get into the car.  His car was very, very old.  Museum old.

I hesitated a moment, fearing I would embarrass him, but as he continued to struggle with the door, I walked over to him and asked, “if he needed some help” and offered to drive him home.  He thanked me very nicely, but said he was okay.

From that day on my son started getting better.  Prayers may take a while to be answered “Yes”, but never give up praying.

Entertaining Angels?

An answered Prayer?

A Miracle?

“God-incidence or Coincidence?”

You decide ?

God did make women and men equal, but He did not make them the same.  God made them in such a way that they complemented each other.  Women and men have equal value simply because God made them both ?.  But they do not serve the same purpose! Our country, indeed the world, may try again and again, in a variety of ways, to make men and women the same.  But they will never succeed.  Because God’s Purpose can not be thwarted or “cancelled” and those who try to do so will eventually face the consequences.

For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? (Isaiah 14:27)

Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).

It’s funny how faith grows from acceptance, but it does.

By accepting God’s Will, by asking God to make our will, His Will, our Faith will flourish and grow.  But it’s not until we accept God’s Will as our own –  that faith grows.

There are any number of things that we want, but figuring out if we truly need them is the key.  God does give us what we need-always, but He does not always give us what we want!

Think of how we parent our children.  We always want to give them what they want, but we know that it is not always good for them!  For example, what child would not rather go out and play versus doing homework, but then they do not learn.   So they may be happy in the short term, but definitely not in the long term! Memorizing Bible verses may not be as fun as playing, but a deep seated knowledge of the Bible will be needed to survive in this world. When a child is sick, they learn strength. And when a child struggles, they learn perseverance. All of these – they will need as adults…

 It’s the same with God, He loves us and wants us to be happy ?.  But always giving us what we want does not help us to grow, or necessarily give us what we will need in the future. 

It is, no doubt, harder when the issue is more difficult as when someone dies or we lose our job.  We can’t always understand why God allows bad things to happen to good people, but there are reasons. Good ones!

One is that God has to answer everyone’s prayers, not just our own.  Another is that what we think is a need, is actually a want.  We may not understand until we get to Heaven, but we will understand.

Until then, we need to Trust in God’s Love for us. Whatever His Answer-Yes, No or Not Yet, IS based on His Great Love for us and is ultimately for our Good 🙂

Seems to be a common debate these days.  Those for masks say that they are for them because they help prevent others from becoming ill with Covid.  Those against masks say they do not help protect anyone.

It’s a complicated issue, an issue on which many good people disagree, and an issue upon which  Christians disagree.  But masks in and of themselves are not yet proven to be a Christian issue.  What is a Christian issue is loving thy neighbor!

We can’t always help what we “feel” and sometimes we have to ask God to help with our “feelings”.  But we can always help how we act!  Jesus didn’t say “love thy neighbors” with whom we agree.  He told us to love ALL of our neighbors.

So the next time we meet someone with whom we clearly disagree with-let’s make it our personal project to reach out to them and to be kind to them. 

God always keeps His Promises.  We promised to “love our neighbor”, so let’s keep our promise and let’s make being kind to everyone we meet our special project this week and see what a difference that makes ?

It’s been my experience that when God says no, it’s because He has something even better in store :).

It’s easy to see why that is a difficult concept to understand. How can God have something “even better in store” when someone dies. But when someone dies, and they go to Heaven-that is “even better”. We may not see it that way, because we miss them, but for them – Heaven is as good as it gets!

I had a really close friend die not that long ago. She was so sick and suffered greatly! I miss her so much, but for her-it’s great! She isn’t sick or suffering anymore-she is free! And happy! To wish her back here would be selfish on my part, no matter how much I miss her.

God is good and He loves us so! We need to practice Trusting His love for us. If we do not get that new job, if someone we love goes to Heaven, even when we suffer from illness, we need to Trust that God has a good reason for it all.

God wants only what is good for us, because He loves us! And because He knows our current days and our past ones, and our tomorrows, God can make the best choice for our ultimate good 🙂

No matter what His answers to our prayers may be, We can Trust His Love for us 🙂