Proverbs 3:5-6

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.

Do you trust God? Do you know in your heart that He is in control? If you said yes to these questions and still worry over things in your life, then you just told a really BIG one. When you worry, you are saying that you don’t trust God or feel like He can handle a situation. And we worry over everything! We worry over our finances, our health, our job, projects, finding a husband, having a baby, dealing with others, getting the dishes done….. The list can go on and on. If there is nothing big in our lives ready to be worried over, you’ll find something in our worry-closet. There is always something minor stuffed in there ready to use for a worry-free day. Then we chew on it. Our heart rate increases. Our tempers flare. No one wants to be around us. Then we come up with ways to get out of it. Our own wonderful ideas that land us in a world of trouble each and every time. Instead of a straight path, we find hills, dales, valleys, rocky mountains, and messed up roads when we choose the path to take. Let God do the navigating. When you do that, you are allowing the only one who can really see around the next bend work out your finances so that all will be well. Only then will the unknown be met head on with surety. Only He knows what your future holds. Let go and give God your troubles. Let Him fix it all. Let Him show you the straight path. I’m sure He can find other uses for your worry-energy.

Romans 10:9

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

A very powerful verse. One as black and white as they come. This very verse can end many debates. The very verse should be one you are extremely familiar with. Many people walk this earth saying that they believe. They believe many things. Most of them will even say that they believe in God or that they believe Jesus was the Son of God. That is well and good, but according to this verse and other Scripture references it is not enough to just believe. Even the demons believe and they are not guaranteed a place in heaven, so why should we expect otherwise? Believe is a starting point, not the finish line. You have to go beyond the believe stage and enter the confession/submission stage. So, there is a God. What is He is your life? Is He your Lord? Is He really? What does it mean for Him to be your Lord? To have a lord of any kind, means that you have someone that you are subject to and you give homage to. Do you do that with God? Are you subject to His commands and directions? Do you give Him appropriate acknowledgment and honor? More than likely not. So many of us might open up the Bible and casually read the words. But to implement them in our lives, that is another thing. To stop and think of God before opening our mouths, is another thing. Do you believe? Is He LORD of your life or is He a place to blame everything? Before you do anything else today, stop and think of what your relationship with God really is and where it really should be.

Matthew 5:5

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Who are the meek? What are the meek? The meek are the ones who have learned humility and know what a servant’s heart really is. They are the ones who are acknowledging Christ first and following His commands quickly and obediently. But inheriting the earth? How will those that are not out front or taking charge be the winners in the end? That doesn’t make any sense at all. It is when it doesn’t make any sense that God can shine the brightest. They are the ones that God will be putting in charge of His new kingdom. They are the ones that know what good servitude and stewardship is. Now, the question lies in where we are on the meek-o-meter. Do we have a servant’s heart? Are we familiar with humility or more with arrogance? Are we good stewards and obedient servants? Will we inheriting the earth or watching on the side lines?

Learning So Much

My children teach me so much. They make me look at things so differently. My son is the expert at that.

We were watching the movie Ben Hur. He is studying Latin and the history of Rome. As we are watching it, he begins to make comments. Leave it to an eleven year old to find historical errors that not even adults find. He begins to ask questions that we have trouble answering. Here we are with five degrees between us and we cannot answer these questions. So humbling.

Humility is something we never want to experience and never want to advance through. It means that we are not as "good" as we thought and need to correct a few things. It means that we are not perfect and need guidance. For an adult that can be painful especially from a child. What could they possibly teach us? More than you could guess. Their insights are amazing because they do not contain ideas that are "concrete" or "the norm". They have imagination and thinking out of the box is the norm for them.

My oldest taught me that I need to slow down and spend more time with her. She is the tender age of 13. She needed more one on one time with her parents. She is struggling getting our attention from her brother and sister and work and life in general. She needs us. She taught us to stop and smell the roses. She is the rose in our life that is blooming against our will. The child is becoming a young lady who still needs love and attention.

I haven't learned it all yet. I've got a long way to go.