Typically at church, during praise and worship, I stand and sing along with everyone else.  This Sunday I sat down during the middle of it but continued to worship.  As I was sitting there, eyes closed, singing, a sort of “video montage” was playing in my head.  It was different aspects of Jesus’ life that were being displayed for me during this time.  I saw Him kneeling on the ground, drawing with His fingers, waiting for the person who was without sin to “cast the first stone.” (John 8:1-11)  I saw Him teaching His disciples and overturning the temple.  I then saw Him on the cross crying out to God before He died.  I was watching images that showed me just who Jesus was, in all different situations.

            Who is Jesus?  I’ve discovered many things about who He is, who He was, as I continue to partake in His words, in my devotions, in my small church group, and in Sunday service.  I find myself learning something “new,” and focusing on that one aspect.  And then I learn something else and focus on that.  I need to learn to incorporate all that I learn into one person, because that is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.  He was gentle, with gentle hands and words.  He was loving and extended that love to all peoples.  Jesus was strong.  He was faced with adversity, mocked every step of the way, beaten.  Even His family did not believe in Him.  But through it all he remained strong, and never resorted to the actions that we may resort to when the same thing happens to us.  We tend to withdraw into our shells, or we lash out against our persecutors, and make the situation worse.  He continued on His path, not letting anything faze Him.  Jesus was faced with temptation in the desert and beat it (Mt & Lk 4).  He did not succumb as so often we find ourselves doing.

            As I look at Jesus and His life, I see all of this, and this is what I focus on.  I focus on the gentleness, the love, and the strength.  But there is more to Him than that.  I find myself at times pushing away thoughts of how He gets angry and takes action.  None of His actions were ever sinful ones, but He definitely let people know He was not happy.  He saw the temple turned into a “den of robbers” (Mt 21:13; Mk 11:17) and took care of the situation by overturning the tables and telling all of them to get out.  In some of His teachings held in front of religious leaders He would incorporate parables that spoke about them and their foolishness and unbelief (such as The Parable of the Tenants in Mt 21:33-46).  He never held back the truth even if it made someone angry.  He point blank told Judas Iscariot, “Yup, you’re the one who is going to betray me,” and then He let Peter know that He too was going to deny Him that very night.  He didn’t worry about what people thought about Him.  He was sent to do God’s work on earth, and that’s what He was doing.

            Jesus was also a person who, though not needing anything from this earth, asked His friends for emotional support as He awaited His betrayal in the garden, and put a lot of emphasis on the importance of friendship.  This part of His life also showed just how scared He was for the next chapter of His life when He would be handed over, beaten, and killed.  The final image I have is when He cried out to God on the cross before giving up His life; a powerful image in the hearts of many.

            From birth to death Jesus has shown us an array of human emotion and has given us a glimpse into the man He was, and the God who sent Him.  I have only spat out a few examples, for there are many, many more.  “Jesus wept:” a verse in John that is a topic in many churches (Jn 11:35).  Just those two words together can create much to be discussed.  It never fails how awed I am by Him each time I read or think about what He did while on this earth.  And He continues to work in our lives today with the same array of emotions.  God is not a “sterile” being.  He is a God of variety, and He Himself is complex.  We should not look at Him, His Son, or His Spirit one-dimensionally.  We need to focus on all aspects of His character, for then we will be able to get closer to knowing who He really is.

My prayer is that we all seek Him for His true self, and not the image we place on Him.  May we remember not to disregard those areas that we don’t seem “fitting” of our God, because what we learn of Him on our walk is our God.  He is a beautiful montage of actions and emotions.

_            My reading today was John chapter 5, and while reading it I started thinking about how we read Scripture today.  In this chapter Jesus speaks to the Jews who want to kill Him because, according to them, “not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” (v.18)  Jesus explains to them that He can do nothing without God, (v.30) and “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent Him.” (v.23b)  But He didn’t stop there.  He continued on, using Scripture as a sort of defense and an accusation.  He says, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.  These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (vv.39,40)  He then finished with, “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father.  Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.  If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.  But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” (vv.45-47)  So here they are, Jews who are well learned in the Scriptures, missing the key facts in those Scriptures.  They read, but do they truly understand or believe?

            The same question can be posed to us.  Those of us who read the Bible, how do we read it?  Is it an every day thing, or is it from time to time?  Do we actually make the time to sit down and read, taking our time as we do so, so that we are able to breathe His words in deeply and gain a true understanding of them?  Or do we rush through it because we want to read daily, not missing a day, and we have five million things on our plate so we’ll fit it in….um….here.  Or there.  Or maybe there.  I admit I’ve done the latter, but because I know that I try to make time to actually sit down and think about His words, what He’s saying, and what it means in my life.  When I read I have a notebook with me and write down any thoughts that come to me, and any verses that jump out at me.  Of course I also have this blog where I can take what I’m thinking and really get it down in writing.

            Let’s say that we are very good at reading our Bibles each and every day, and we even take the time to read it and meditate on it.  Then what?  Do we close the Bible, put it away, and then forget what we just read?  Or do we keep our new found knowledge close to our hearts, and on the tip of our tongue?  Hopefully we keep it close and share it with others.  The best way to keep anything you’ve learned close at hand is by talking about it.  It’s true for anything we learn be it History, Science, Philosophy, Language, or even Scripture.  If we use it we won’t lose it.  And not only will we not lose it, but we will hopefully be able to make a difference in someone else’s life through our discussions.  Everyone needs to continue their learning process no matter how “advanced” they are, and we can all learn from each other.

            What we need to do is read our Bibles daily, and truly meditate on what we read.  We need to take our time with it.  It is a precious gift from God, shared with people all over the world, written in many different languages.  I thank God when I read that I am able to read His words because they are in my native tongue.  If they were never translated from the Greek or Hebrew, think of all the wonderful teachings we would be missing out on because we wouldn’t be able to understand the words.  But, since we are able to read it, then we need to go for a different type of understanding.  We know the words, we understand the sentence structure, so now all we have to do is understand the meaning behind it, and why it was so important that it was placed in this book of truth.  The Bible is Truth, for “all Scripture is God-breathed,” (2 Tm 3:16) and He said “I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.” (Isa 45:19)

            Try to do this every day and see where it takes you in your spiritual life.

 

May we all remember to take our time with the most precious words placed in our hands, and may we meditate on those words and realize just what God is trying to tell us through them.  Some will be easier to understand than others, but with God, and with the people He places in our lives, we will be able to take steps closer and closer to His Truth.

_            In the sociology class I took in college the professor taught us that we all have what is known as a “backstage.”  In theater the main stage is where the performance takes place.  This is what everyone in the audience is able to see, the show that they came to watch.  Many things go into a performance, things that go unseen by the audience as they are the backstage mechanics.  Only those with a “backstage pass” are able to see what goes on “behind the scenes.” 

            In this same way we all have our main stage and our backstage.  Everything that we don’t mind others seeing takes place on the main stage.  Sometimes we make mistakes on that stage, as an actor may mess up a line or take a wrong step, but it’s all visible to anyone watching, and we just continue on.  There are times when what happens on that main stage is truly all just an act.  We act the way we think we should, and not how we are.  And our act may change depending on the audience watching us at the time.  Other times we are completely genuine and act like ourselves no matter who is watching.  Instead of following a specific script we adlib, and what happens, happens.  And when we’re being genuine we know that we can rely on God as our stage manager.  If we look to Him, rely on Him, He will get us through each “performance.”

            God is our stage manager.  A stage manager has full access to both the front stage and the back stage.  According to the dictionary,* to stage-manage means, “to supervise from behind the scenes.”  He sees everything and makes sure that it all goes well.  When we put our trust in him the performance will go well.  When a mistake does occurs it is not him who is to blame, but he will help correct it.  If we put our trust in God, our life will go well, for we are following what He wants for us, and He too, though blameless, will help correct our faults.  God has access to the part of our lives that others see, but He also has access to the parts we don’t show to the masses. 

    In a production stage hands are also on the set helping out.  In life these are the people we put our trust in, those whom we feel we can tell our problems to and ask for prayers from.  These are the people who are allowed to see us at our worst.  But, they still don’t have full-access.  Only God has that.  Only He holds the key to the closet hiding in the back; the closet where our deepest fears are locked up tight.  This is the same closet that holds those dreams we’re not brave enough to share with others, the secret joys we get from different aspects of our lives, and the shameful sins we may be trying to hide.  No matter how hard we try to lock everyone out of that closet, we cannot lock Him out.  He sees everything.  He knows us.  God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” (Jer 1:5)  There is nothing we can hide from Him.

            If you think about it this “full-access pass” that God has is a good thing.  We know that there is someone out there who we can talk to about everything that is in that closet; someone who will never walk away from us.  When we look to Him we no longer have to feel alone in our deepest thoughts.  And, despite what’s locked away, He does not want to harm us.  He only wants what’s good for us.  Even with the most shameful of sins, if we look to Him and ask for His forgiveness in it, He will take it away.  It becomes more like a cobweb that needs to be cleaned out, and God does the cleaning.  Again in Jeremiah God says, “For I know the plans I have you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”  (Jer 29:11-13)  In time, with His help, we can take some of the things, good and bad, that we’ve locked away and share it at least with our “stage hands.”

            Give to God all your joys, your hurts, fears and shames.  Remember that He sees them no matter how deeply we may hide them, and when we acknowledge this He will share in our joys, heal our hurts, give us courage in the face of our fears, and forgive our shames.  He is the ultimate stage manager and is there to help us in everything.

 

May we all remember that He is with us always and sees into the depths of our hearts.  And may we rely on Him in every aspect of our lives.

_            I looked in the mirror the other day and noticed a few strands of hair shining in the light.  They were a little different color than that of my light brown hair.  Shining in the light were a few strands of gray; more than the one or two strands that had been there previously.  Now, I’m not afraid of growing older.  It’s the natural process that happens on the earth, and I look forward to every experience I have day to day, month to month, year to year.  I look forward to growing older and watching my kids as they grow and mature with each stage of their lives.  My mom always says, “I’m not old, I’m older.  When you’re old it’s all over.”  Proverbs says, “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.” (Pr 16:31)  To live this righteous life we need to start young and continue to grow in His ways so that when we are “crowned” with age, we will have earned it.  Old or young, it doesn’t matter.  The young need to listen to the old, and the old should not forget or ignore the young.

            Throughout the Bible we see examples of people from all over the age spectrum being used by God for good.  Pre-flood people lived far longer than they do now.  Regardless, Noah still was not a young man when he was called to build the ark.  When he was 500 years old he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth (Ge 5:32), and when the flood came he was 600. (Ge 7:6)  He then went on to live 350 years after the flood, dying at the ripe old age of 950. (Ge 9:28,29)  After the flood, the length of life became less and less, and when Abraham died he was 175 years old.  At the age of ninety-nine God told him he would have a son, and that his wife, Sarah, would conceive this son though she herself was already ninety.  Together they conceived Isaac, who continued Abraham’s line, and from there Abraham was able to become “the father of many nations” as God had promised. (Ge 17: 4)

            Though set apart since birth, when Moses was called to bring the Israelites out of Egypt he was eighty years old.  I sometimes forget that he was “up there” in age, along with his brother Aaron who was eighty-three, because of all the things he did, and the fact that he wandered the desert with them for the forty years.  He is known as the greatest prophet.  “Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt […].  For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.” (Dt 34: 10-12)  These are just three examples of those whom God used later in their lives, those who trusted that God was able to use them at that time and changed the face of the world.

            On the opposite side of the age spectrum, Paul wrote to Timothy, telling him, “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.”  Even the young can be examples to all people, and they can be chosen by God to do His great works.  David is a prime example of this.  He was the youngest of Jesse’s eight sons, a shepherd, and with just a sling and a stone he was able to defeat Goliath.  “So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.” (1 Sa 17:50)  He was also chosen by the Lord over all his brothers as the next king over Israel even though he was the youngest.  Jesse didn’t even think about presenting him in front of Samuel when he came to anoint the new king.  Yet David was a great leader, a man after God’s own heart.

            Esther was young when she was chosen as King Xerxes new queen.  She was placed there by God, and through God was given the courage to bring herself in front of the king uninvited (which was against the law), and tell him of Haman’s plot to destroy her people, the Jews.  Because of that she was able to change what would have been their fate.  And while this was happening, she listened to Mordecai, her cousin who had adopted her when her own parents passed away.  He told her to hide her nationality at first because he knew of Haman’s detest for the Jews, and he was the one who urged her to talk to the king about Haman’s plot.  This is a great example of the young respecting the wisdom of their elder.

            Mary was still just a child when she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, and Jesus Himself was only thirty when He started His ministry.  By the age of thirty-three, the age at which he was crucified, He had made such an enormous impact, having both loyal followers and loyal adversaries.  And because of Him we have been saved.  We have accepted Him, thus finding favor with His Father to whom we now are able to belong.

            Young or old, it doesn’t matter.  If we are called, and we all will be at one point in our lives, we need to stand up and accept that call no matter what it may be.  The younger generation should not look at the older generation and see “washed up old has-beens who just don’t understand and have nothing to teach,” and in turn the older generation should not look down on the younger and think that “they’re just babies who couldn’t teach me anything for I’ve been in this world far longer than they have.”  If we all live our lives daily for Him, immersing ourselves in our prayers, our devotions, and our Bibles, we will all be able to teach each other.  As long as these lessons are from God, then they will be holy and righteous.

 

I pray that we all remember that we continue to learn every day, and that God sends people into our lives to help us with our walk.  Age has no value, it is what is in the person’s heart, and that comes from the Lord.  “For the Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at the outward appearance, but the lord looks at the heart.” (1 Sa 16:7b)

_        “Dearest friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 Jn 4;7,8)  God is love.  All throughout the Bible we see this theme over and over again.  Love.  John fills his books with this word.  Love can be a difficult thing to think about at times, and even more difficult to show or receive.  But there it is, everywhere in the Bible, telling us that God IS love, that He loves us, and what it means to love Him.  “God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him.” (1 Jn 4:16b)  “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands.  As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.” (2 Jn v.6)

            I think the hardest thing to think about is just how much God loves us.  Of course we’re told that He does, and we believe He does, but how many times have we actually stopped to think about it?  And how much do we really believe it?  In a bible study* I did a while back, one I had purchased at a Women of Faith conference, I was told to read 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7.  These are verses that, even if you don’t read the Bible, you may know fairly well.  “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  After reading it I was then told to re-read it, but instead replace “love” with “Jesus,” and “it” with “He.”  To me it became even more powerful.  The first time through I really liked it.  The second time through I was blown away.  A lot happened to me that day after this study, a lot of good spiritually, and I continued moving from there.  I realized just how much He loves me and what it meant to me, and because of that, I was able to be filled with the joy that a small group of friends had prayed over me for two days earlier.

            “Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind.  He does not envy, He does not boast, He is not proud.  He is not rude, He is not self-seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no records of wrongs.  Jesus does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Jesus never fails.”

            I believe that putting Jesus into those verses makes it more concrete and easier to understand.  We can visualize more clearly what this means, and can take delight in the fact that HE is all these things.  He does not keep record of our wrongs?  He rejoices in truth?  Not easily angered and is patient?  And all this with us.  Think of it as Jesus telling you specifically what and who He is for you.

            Most people have grown up hearing their parents tell them they love them.  I know I tell my kids all the time, and they tell me they love me as well.  We know that our parents do not only because they tell us, but because they show us.  They may use hugs and kisses, they may have tucked us in at night when we were little; they provided for us and protected us until we were old enough to be on our own.  When we’re older it may be an offer of babysitting, or going out together for lunch just to talk.  They may even help us in times of trouble.

            Some people hear “I love you” from a boyfriend or a girlfriend.  Sometimes that love is true, and other times it’s just three words uttered that don’t really mean anything.  It just “feels right” at the time.  Sometimes the true love grows, and the two decide to become one in marriage.  They become husband and wife and share a great love.

            Love is everywhere in the world, but real love is from God.  He loves us and wants us to know and understand this.  He wants us to love Him, and He’s told us how.  He also wants us to love each other.  That can be the hardest part for a few reasons.  Sometimes there are people we feel we just can’t love.  How can we love anyone who has ever done anything bad to us or to anyone else?  It’s really hard to love people in government because they don’t always seem to have our best interest in mind.  Some people haven’t received much, if any, love on the earth growing up, and don’t quite know how to receive it when it does come their way, and they don’t know how to give it.

            Regardless of where we stand, we need to love.  And that love starts with God.  We need to understand just how much He loves us, and we can only do that by reading His words, and by praying.  We can also look around and see all the wonderful things He has done for us; everything and everyone He has put in our lives.  From there we can share that love that He has so graciously bestowed upon us.  John writes, “We love because He first loved us.” (1 Jn 4:19)  He also says, “And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 Jn 4:21)  It doesn’t matter who the person is, we need to love them.  We don’t have to like them, but we must love them.  We’re told that if we claim to love God, but we don’t love each other, then we’re liars, because how can we love the unseen when we can’t even love the seen? (1 Jn 4:20)

            If everyone loved each other as God wants us to, then the world would be a lot  better place to live in.  All we can do as Christians is continue to follow God’s commands, love Him, love each other, and share His word with as many people as we can.  Never give up on loving no matter how hard it may seem at times.  With God, all things are possible, so pray and ask Him to teach you how to love as He does.

 

May we all learn that God is Love, and that all love is from Him.  May we bask in this perfect love that He has given us and not keep it hidden, but share it wherever we go.


*Women of Faith Study Guide Series
Over the Top: Discovering God's Extravagant Love
Margaret Feinberg

           When you throw a pebble into a pond it creates ripples that flow from its center, outward, one after another after another.  That one small pebble changes the surface of the water for as far as the water is wide.  This is also true for every choice, every decision, that we make in life.  What we may see as small may make a big impact somewhere down the road.  We may never be aware of its affects.  I’ve also heard this referred to as the “butterfly effect.”

            I remember the first time this concept was brought to my attention.  I was a staff member at a retreat my church at the time did every year for teens.  In fact, this was one of the sessions I was helping out with.  We filled a small blowup pool with water and provided small rocks that we had collected beforehand.  We stood in front of the group and explained to them how each person makes a difference just as each pebble (or rock) makes ripples.  And one ripple leads to another for who knows how long.  We then gave them an assignment for the weekend: each time they found someone making a positive difference at the retreat, they were to go up to them and let them know.  Then both of them were to go to the pool, and the one who was singled out was to drop a rock in the pool.  Everybody makes a difference somewhere.

            Imagine what would have happened if a daughter-in-law, after losing her husband, went back home to her family as her mother-in-law had asked.  If that had happened, then two great kings would never have been born, and a chunk of the Bible would be missing.  That woman was Ruth.  Naomi was a widow, and her two sons, after being married to Ruth and Orpah for ten years, also passed away.  At that time Naomi told her daughters-in-law to go back home.  “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home.  May the Lord show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.” (Ru 1:8)  At her insistence, Orpah did decide to leave, but Ruth refused.   “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.  Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” (Ru 1:16,17)

            From that day on Ruth stayed with Naomi in Bethlehem where they had traveled to from Moab, back to where Naomi had lived with her husband and sons before the famine.  Ruth made another decision at that time.  She chose to listen to whatever Naomi told her.  Because of that choice she married Boaz, and together they had a son.  “Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.  The women living there said, ‘Naomi has a son.’  And they named him Obed.  He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” (Ru 4:16,17)  So, if Ruth, like Orpah, returned to her home, she never would have gone to Bethlehem, never married Boaz, and King David, the man after God’s own heart, never would have been born.  And from the line of David came Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, King of the Jews.

            Another woman in the Bible also made a decision that changed life as we know it.  Ruth started the line of David, and from there Mary and Joseph were born.  The decision Mary had to make when the angel Gabriel came to her was not an easy one for she would not only be putting her reputation at stake, but she was also risking her life.  If no one believed her that she was still a virgin and had not slept with another man, she could have been stoned to death.  But the only question she asked of Gabriel was, “How?” (Lk 1:34)  And when he explained it to her, finishing with, “For nothing is impossible with God,” (Lk 1:37), she said, “I am the Lord’s servant. […] May it be to me as you have said.” (Lk 1:38)  And because of that decision Jesus was born.

            Both Ruth and Mary had decisions they needed to make, decisions that may have seemed small to them at the time, and through those decisions many people, many nations, have been blessed.  If you read through the Bible you will find examples of this all over the place.  If you look in today’s world you may also see different examples of this.  Look around, see what’s making a difference now, and see if you can follow it back to the first person.  How far do you think you would have to go?  Mary made the decision to say, “Yes,” but before that could happen, Ruth had to make her decision to stay with Naomi and do as she was told.

 

May we all remember that a decision we make today may make a difference in time yet to come, no matter how big or how small it may seem.  And may all our decisions be with selflessness, and with trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.

_           Have you ever been so frustrated you just wanted to scream?  You get to a point and you feel like you just can’t take it anymore.  It may be with someone you’re working with and you have explained one thing over and over and over again, or you’re talking to your child and they’re just not getting the fact that a) they should be listening to you, b) they should have done what you said when you said it, and c) if they had done both “a” and “b” you wouldn’t be frustrated with them at that moment, and they wouldn’t be upset and wondering “why is mommy (or daddy) so upset?” 

            Yes, my eight year old had been doing homework since she got home from school around 4:15, and at almost nine o’clock was still working on it.  Too much homework?  Not at all.  The first thing she had to do was write one paragraph.  I’m not even sure exactly how long that one took with mini breaks all over the place, and of course dinner.  It consisted of listening to her ideas, telling her that “I collect rocks” is not, as the assignment called for, “a topic sentence that draws in your reader.”  It was helping her with words she’s known how to spell since Kindergarten, and reminding her that her teacher wants a lot of description.  “The rocks are gray.”  End of description.  Gah!  Okay.  I went to fold laundry while she finished her paragraph.  I didn’t want it to be my work, so I let her do what she felt was good.

            Moving on to math.  Math.  Fractions to be exact, and if you want to be even more exact, fractions on a number line and mixed fractions.  She sat there hoping my husband and I would give her the answers so she could just finish her homework and be done with it.  Of course that was not going to happen, so we wracked our brains trying to figure out how to get her to understand even the simplest of problems.  That was not an easy task.  Our frustrations rose, and our patience waned.  She stared at the paper, possibly thinking about what the answer was (since I can’t read minds), and time and time again would say something completely off the wall, even if we had just blatantly hinted at the answer.  Third grade math with a third grader is not my favorite way to spend an evening no matter how much I love my daughter.

            Do you think God ever gets frustrated with us?  How many times do we read what He wants us to do, how He wants us to act, but we whoops.  We sit there staring at the page waiting for someone else to give us the answer, and when they do we still don’t get it?  Or how about when we do get it but forget it at the first opportunity we have to really use it?  I know it happens with me a lot.  I apologize to God in my prayers about the way I acted in this situation, or with that person, or even just the fact that I wasn’t focusing on Him as much as I knew I should that day.  I ask His help to make me better and help me to work on those areas, but then the time comes again and I fail yet again.  Back to my prayers.  Over and over again.

            In the Bible Paul tells us that “Love is patient, love is kind. […] It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor 13:4, 7)  We know that God is love, and therefore He is patient, kind, always protects, hopes and perseveres.  In Exodus God Himself says as He passes in front of Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” (Ex 34:6)  Slow to anger.  Something that we all need to work on, but God has already perfected (of course, He is perfect).

            Reading the Old Testament I’m going to say that the patience God has came in pretty handy.  The Israelites were His chosen people, and at every step of the way they failed left and right.  They wandered in the desert for forty years, a trek that, had they listened, would only have taken around eleven days.  But they didn’t trust God enough to take on the “giants’ of the land, and therefore were forced to wander until all that first generation had died out.  God provided them with manna and water, set them up with camps, made sure that their clothes and sandals never wore out, and so much more.  But, they continued to “mess up.”  They would go against the laws He spoke to Moses, they complained, they turned gold into a calf which they proceeded to worship (Aaron playing the whole, “I had no idea what was going on right in front of my eyes that I helped with” act).  Even Moses and Aaron failed to follow everything God told them along the way.

            David is another prime example of God’s patience coming forth.  He was “a man after God’s own heart,” and yet he failed time and time again.

            And yet they continued to be His chosen people, even though God knew that they would continue to fall away from Him.  In Deuteronomy God tells Moses before his death, “When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant.” (Dt 31:20)  He knew they were going to do that, but still He patiently waits for all of them to come to Him again.  He patiently waits for all us to come to Him, to repent of our sins, and to accept Him as He accepts us.

            No matter what we do, no matter where we go; how far away from Him we wander, He is patient with us and waits for our return.  So if we have a bad day here and there, or even a bad week, He understands.  But no matter what happens, He wants us back.  He will never leave us or forsake us. (Jos 1:5)  He is patient, He is kind.  He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  He is slow to anger.

 

 

Whenever we start to stray and feel we have angered Him and that He is through with us, May we remember the words we find in the Bible that tell us just how gentle and patient our God is.  And may we strive to take just a bit of that patience and share it with the people in our lives, for God is good, and what He does is something to be followed.