​10 September 2019
Don’t Try Harder
Jeremiah 29:13
If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
   

On Sunday, we studied the history of Naaman, who was healed of leprosy. He was unimpressed with Elisha’s instructions to wash in a dirty river, but he was persuaded by his own men, so he was, in fact, healed. But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” (2 Kings 5:13)

Just like Naaman, we all want God’s salvation a lot, but we also want to make sure we have something to do with it. God can change my heart, but I will have to help him with my will power and positive thinking. But God doesn’t require our help at all – just simple obedience.

Naaman was an impressive man with lots of means; he was ready to have an experience matching his expectations. An impressive person should do something impressive, but God doesn’t need our abilities for HIM to save US. Salvation is based on his love and kindness not our skills or worth.

Rob said on Sunday that “if I seek a better version of myself, I will never find it.” But if I seek the LORD with all my heart, I will find! We don’t put our trust in God so that he will make us better versions of ourselves; we come to him because he promises to make us more like his Son, Jesus.

My family doesn’t need a better version of me, they need me to be more like Jesus.  So whatever I think I need to ADD, I won’t. God didn’t require anything extra from Naaman, and he  isn’t requiring anything of me for me to save & help me. HE decided to generously give me the desire and the ability to please him (Philippians 2:13) and be like his Son – not to be a “better” version of me.
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Dear God,
Help me seek you with all my heart today. Help me not pursue the futile exercise of trying harder today but to simply let you give me the desire and the ability to be like your Son, Jesus, in whose name I pray, amen.
    

​9 September 2019
Just Ask Lillie
Matthew 7:7-8 NLT
Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
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On Saturday at Women’s Breakfast at our church, my friend Lillie shared a personal experience from a time when she prayed fervently for something. Her husband’s family are Jehovah Witnesses, and she decided that she was going to pray for her mother-in-law’s salvation, but quickly learned that this woman was just a deeply rooted in her faith as Lillie is in hers. After several years of praying and eventually living under the same roof, so the mother could receive the care she came to require, Lillie finally got the opportunity to pray with her husband’s mother a few months before she passed away.

This is why I love this passage from Matthew 7. Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. YOU WILL RECEIVE... It never seems like it, does it? We pray out of desperation and obedience, but do we pray out of genuine assurance and HOPE? We should. We should keep praying about whatever that impossible thing is, and pray with great hope and expectation, because no matter how long it takes (God doesn’t seem as concerned with time as we are), God is working. In fact, he never stops working (see Psalm 121), and he doesn’t have to run his plans by us either.

Am I really ready for God to answer my desperate and sincere prayers? Lillie did NOT pray for her mother-in-law to move in with them, but that is what the answered prayer in her case looked like. We shouldn’t resist and fear changes that come; it might be what an answer to prayer really looks like.

But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. (James 1:6 NLT) And it doesn’t matter if an answered prayer takes 5 minutes, 5 days, 5 years or 15 years. Never stop believing that God will do the seemingly impossible. He always does; just ask Lillie!!!
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Dear God,
Thank you for remembering every single one of my prayers. I know you have. Thank you for how you sustain me during the waiting and how you surprise me at your unveiling. I appreciate so much for the journey that prayer is. I have never been disappointed or ashamed for bringing something to you in prayer. Thank you so much for the mechanism of faith that is prayer, and that you use it effectively and faithfully in my life. I love your faithfully answered prayers, and I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

6 September 2019
There is no Box!
Jeremiah 32:17 NLT
O Sovereign Lord! You made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you!

Jesus put it this way, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke 18:27 NIV) And he also said, “For nothing is impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37 NIV)

My hope gets elevated when I trust God. I see a circumstance and have extremely limited expectations because my strength and imagination is so finite. I can’t think outside “the box.” God says, “There’s a box?!”

There is no box! There’s no reason to believe God isn’t going to do the unimaginable, the unthinkable and the unrealistic thing today! He is not a man. His scope isn’t limited, and his power isn’t either. There is no god like our God. (1 Kings 8:23)

Whatever I am dreading today, whatever problem I can’t see a way around, whatever feelings of discouragement that may pop into my head at any given moment today doesn’t have to be what my day is made of. Knowing that God is all about the impossible, I can be full of hope and pleasantly surprised by joy, peace, strength, wisdom & even obstacles completely removed because God doesn’t operate from my confined box.

Dear God,
Everyday I will put my trust in you because you return hope to my heart. I am not stuck. You see tiny escape hatches for me everywhere: Think this way, do this simple thing, let that one go, Janys...  Thank you! Help me not live today by my limited point of view but simply enjoy relying on you and what you will do because of your great love and power. I appreciate you so much and the relief that accompanies trusting in you. And I pray in your Son’s name, amen.

​5 September 2019
Encouraging Others to Encourage Others
2 Corinthians 13:11
Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

Rob said something on Sunday at church while he was teaching that has stuck with me all week, “Don’t be passionate about what doesn’t matter.”

This is funny because isn’t most of what we do in life focused on what doesn’t matter much? Most moms will probably agree with me that if we buy the “wrong” toilet paper or a different brand of peanut butter, we will certainly hear about it. But I’m really encouraged by what Rob said. I conducted a little heart inventory and realized I have been focusing a lot on things that don’t really matter. I won’t elaborate on what those things are but simply report that this week I decided to pay attention to what I focus on. 

Let me just say that focusing on joy, making encouraging others my priority, and pursuing peace this week has not been a disappointment at all. I’m not even in an office, volunteering somewhere, or trying to change the world. I am just a wife and a mom at home encouraging the people I live with. 

Replacing criticism and critiquing with encouragement is actually very refreshing. I’m having alternative interactions and responses that have been much more effective than my automatic position. My hope has increased, my faith has increased, and my expectations have increased. That’s not normal. I’m finding that focusing on joy, encouragement & peace is a way more enjoyable, peaceful and freeing way to live than focusing on things that really don’t matter at all.

Dear God,
Thank you for your instruction all over scripture that is like finding treasure! Your solutions are not only full of life but enjoyable and even simple! Thank you for being with me. Thank you for helping me encourage where I’d automatically criticize. Thank you for the peace and joy in our home that YOU put there. I love you, and I pray in your Son’s name, amen.

​4 September 2019
He Saves Them Anyway
Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.
         
What Jesus did is provide something that we all desperately need. There is no other way to be made right with God except through the forgiveness of his Son. Jesus didn’t save us because we might one day deserve to be saved. AND Jesus didn’t ever say, “Nah, not you” to the ones who would fall away and stop following him. He forgave their sins too. This is hard for us to wrap our brains around. Some people will even make a bold statement and declare that the one that falls away was never saved in the first place. Maybe. We know there are plenty of people who make insincere confessions of faith. But wouldn’t it be just like Jesus to save them anyway? That doesn’t mean they never had the free will to leave their faith in him, but it does mean they know what they’re missing when they walk away. And, better still, they will have something they miss and want to turn back to when they come to their senses.

Jesus tells a story about a guy who did just that. He rejected the salvation and belonging he had, missed it horribly and then returned. (See Luke 15:11-24) If he never belonged in the first place, what, from experience, would he know to return to?

That’s how kind Jesus is. Everyone who wants his salvation gets it. Everyone who wants to hold on to it gets to without adding any feats of personal strength or strict self denial to it. Everyone who wants to walk away can walk away. AND anyone who wants to return gets a hearty welcome back!

Dear God,
Your ways are way more gracious than ours. I like how you parent. I like how generous you are. I like knowing that the one that falls away has the option of remembering your goodness; you give them something to miss horribly and want back. Thank you for your open arms policy that affects every area of my life as I walk with you and even as I parent my own kids. You are amazing and great, and I love you very much, and I pray in your precious Son’s name, amen.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21
And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

3 September 2019
Coffee with Jesus
Philippians 4:6
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. NLT

Pray about everything... Last Sunday at church while Rob was teaching he said we tend to pour our hearts out to people when we should be pouring our hearts out to God.

I’m thinking that a lot of things I feel the need to “pour out” on my inner circle of peope might not even come up if I more faithfully exercise the practice of telling God first. When I experience frustrating circumstances or unexpected emotions it’s time to get together with someone for coffee and dissect it all, right? That’s just what we do. Truthfully, my own experience shows me that coffee with Jesus first is much more helpful. Pouring out to Jesus what has frustrated me or made me an emotional hot mess yields different results than saving it for friend’s ear. Actually, unloading in prayer first makes it even unnecessary to unload it on a friend too. Do you know why that is?

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7 NLT)

I’m still going to have coffee with friends, but hopefully the conversations will be encouraging about what God has done rather than just an unloading of things I should be “pouring out” to God in the first place. Confirmation & encouragement does come from time with friends, and I am so thankful for this, but real peace (the peace that I need) only comes from time with Jesus.
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Dear Jesus,
You know what is on my heart today. You know my desperate prayers. You know what I mean to do and mean to say. I need you to help me today to have the desire and the ability to do what please you. Thank you for getting me through yesterday and the day before with all my emotions running wild. Thank you for restful sleep. Thank you for peace and joy that you personally put in my heart this morning. I love you and I thank you and I know that because of YOU, everything is going to be ok. And I pray in your name, amen.

21 May 2019
Today, You are Purple...
Deuteronomy 6:5
And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

The same words are found in the New Testament too (See Luke 10:27 or Matthew 22:37.)
But what exactly does this look like?

Fortunately, it doesn’t mean to love everyone else less. Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 22 when he goes on to say that the second greatest commandment is just like the first. A second (command) is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. (v.39) That means we all automatically love ourselves. It is obvious. We shower, sleep, prepare food, eat food, relieve ourselves, have a job to buy a little somethin’ nice, etc. That is love. He doesn’t say to stop loving, that is caring for, ourselves but to love others like that - not instead of that.

So this ginormous charge to Love God with all my everything doesn’t mean others take a back seat; it means to love the people I love as much as I possibly can, then, on to of that, love God more. The interesting part is that I’m typically used to loving others with my own limited amount of patience, will-power, or personal preference. The reality is that I need God to actually help me love in my relationships and also to help me love him more than those.

Love the Lord with all your heart...
But my heart gets weary. (Proverbs 4:23)
Love the Lord with all your soul...
But my soul is often under attack. (Ephesians 6:12)
Love the Lord with all your strength...
But my strength is unreliable. (Isaiah 40:31)
Love the Lord with all your mind...
But my mind sometimes gets confused by my feelings. (Romans 7:23)

Thankfully, the answer is simple. Tell God what you need. (Philippians 4:6) Tell God I need to love him more today. Tell him I want help to think about him more than my worries (the bills), my desires (shoe shopping), and my relationships (pray over & not control).  If I need more of him today, I can just tell him, I need more of you today. It is actually that simple.

One lady shared at a Mom’s Meeting I went to many years ago that she chose a color one day to represent thinking about God. Sure enough, that color showed up all day. She chose red and for the whole day saw the color red in the most unexpected places. Her story culminated with her husband bringing her a box of McDonald’s fries by surprise. And that box is RED!  So, I tried this myself, and chose a different color every day. Jesus, today you are purple. Guess what? Purple everywhere. I thought about God and his goodness all day because I kept seeing purple all day. It’s silly, but it was no accident and it never is. If you ask God to give you more of him, he will. If you ask God to help you love him more, he does. If you ask God, you’ll be amazed!
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Dear God,
I love you. I can make you biggest in my heart with just these words over and over directed to you. I can thank you for all you’ve done and all you’ve promised to do. You are great and greatly to be praised, may you be the greatest thing in my heart, mind & soul today. And I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

​17 May 2019
Lighten Up:  Why isn’t this anyone’s favorite verse?
Deuteronomy 31:20 NLT
For I will bring them into the land I swore to give their ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey. There they will become prosperous, eat all the food they want, and become fat...


I don’t think anyone in modern society today has any idea how difficult hunting and gathering is. We are so used to grocery stores; no one I know can fathom the idea of getting food all on our own. It sounds hard. And even if you have a garden, you have to wait for it to grow.

I love this illustration from Deuteronomy 31. This description is actually placed in the middle of a stern warning from God, but it is still and accurate description of how God desires to be all that we need. His desire is to bless us, even beyond what we need & beyond what we imagine.

Imagine going where God leads and having every single need met. These Israelites have nothing, and he tells them not to worry because where he is leading them will contain everything they need. They’ll even be able to eat all the food they want and become fat! That doesn’t sound like barely scraping by. It sounds like God is willing and excited to bless us FAT, HUGE, and BIG TIME.

We’ve never had it so easy, and yet we complain. Food is readily available and inexpensive, but it isn’t organic enough or gluten free enough or sugar free enough. So we worry about what we’ve actually been freed from what God did not intend for us to worry about. Maybe God provides for us so readily so we can use our surplus to bless others. Instead, we spend way to much on what we think we need and never notice how much God has already blessed us. No thank you, Lord, I read an article today that said eat this not that.

Anyone tired of trying to save ourselves? Anyone sick of making sure you won’t put something in your mouth that will kill you or make you break your scale? That’s a lot of pressure, and clearly, God did not intend for us to live under that kind of pressure. Eat and be thankful; that’s all the instructions God gives. If there were special instructions beyond this that would enable us to help God make our lives better, Jesus would’ve said something, but God doesn’t need my help nor the insight I received from the internet anyway.

1 Timothy 4:3-5 NLT
False Teachers say it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten with thanks by faithful people who know the truth. 4 Since everything God created is good, we should not reject any of it but receive it with thanks. 5 For we know it is made acceptable by the word of God and prayer. (And I reject the argument that we don’t have the same food as they did back then, for God knew what the food of 2019 would be like and still gave no further instruction about it.)

Whatever I’m about to eat, I receive it with thanks. It doesn’t matter where it came from. And if food is part of fellowship, I should be eager to eat it all the more. I want to tell my girlfriends who always seem to have a headache to just eat some food; the headache will go away.  God did not send Jesus to save me from sin and death so that I would die from the food available to me.

Clearly, I learn from experience that eating food that doesn’t agree with me and overeating will make me feel sick, but the idea of getting FAT off what God provides is very appealing to me. It is a biblical truth I find comforting and amazing. Fat is a perfect word that compares with God’s generosity. His desire is to bless and bless some more as we follow him, not watch us barely scrape by for those who ignore his Word and his direction and insist on meeting our own needs for ourselves.

The vegetarian who thinks red meat is evil, is ironically eating pesticides. Everyone nowadays knows to drink plenty of water too  – water that is full of plastic residue from bottles or whatever contaminates from our trash that has leeched into the water table. If you think your are saving yourself, you are fooling yourself... The wisest thing to do is pray before eating, thank God for it, and lighten up.
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Dear God,
I love how you provide for me. All that I need. More than I need & more than I would have ever thought of too. You are generous. And FAT is a perfect word that compares with your generosity. You are great, and kind and faithful and do not delight in people struggling to get by or trying to save themselves. YOU are the one who gives life, health, food and many, many blessings to those who love and fear you. And I love you so much and thank you and pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

​15 May 2019
What Makes Women So Unhappy
Galatians 2:19-20
For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

The reason Jesus came is because it is impossible for people to keep God’s Law and be made perfect by it. No one can accomplish it. So God made a way for us to be saved that has nothing to do with how well a person can obey laws all the time.
But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.
(Romans 3:21-25)

God did not free us in order for us to imprison ourselves with something else. The reason so many woman are very dissatisfied these days is because they are trying to perfectly adhere to a diet or exercise program that someone else promised would give them what they want. And they are disappointed and let down when they can’t stick to it or get the results they want. Unfortunately, Christian women get caught up in this too.  The simple truth is that people, Believers and unbelievers alike, can’t keep laws; that’s why God sent Jesus.

God knows we can’t obey anything perfectly; that’s why he sent Jesus. Some Believers put this great gift of salvation on the back burner and try to be their own salvation in other areas of life.  They mistakenly think that since they don’t have to worry about sin and death that they’ll strive for their idea of perfection in other areas. Then frustration and self-loathing creep in when they go off their diet and never set foot in the gym. Who asked them to do these things in the first place? Someone selling a book? Some beautiful stranger on a podcast or a vlog? Did we forget where the idea that “you can have it all” even came from?! It came from Satan, ya’ll. (See Genesis 3)

We can’t “have it all.” God never promised that. He did, however, promise us his Son and generously lavishes his Holy Spirit (his power) upon all who believe in Jesus. So if there is anything I need to do today to live for him better, I get those thing from him not me. I can do those things through him. His generous power of his Holy Spirit is available to me to help me with everything I actually need for today. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2:13)

If I think I can get up this morning and not need him for anything because he already saved me, I won’t accomplish much and end up disappointed because my imperfect, unreliable self is all I’m accessing.

And nothing Jesus adds is burdensome...
Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.  (Matthew 11:28-30) 

The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
(Proverbs 10:22) 

If I feel like a failure at life today, it is because I looked at someone else's standard and didn't meet it, I've based everything on what I am able to do in my own will power, or I've decided who I am without the power of the Holy Spirit will just have to do; and these little self-imposed prisons make for a very unhappy woman.

If you are a Christian woman who is very unhappy and upset with herself lately, pray something like this...
God, I need you to help me be patient with my children.
God, I need you to help me not eat when I’m just bored.
God, I need you to help me get my butt of the couch.
God, I need you not a life coach, exercise program or diet book.
God, I need you.
Amen.

​13 May 2019
Prayer Partners
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

Sometimes Believers are afraid to go pray with someone because we mistakenly think it’s our responsibility to take on their problems. But our responsibility is simply to point them to the One who is able to do more than we could possibly ask or imagine... 
(see Ephesians 3:20)

When Jesus was teaching a crowd of people, the disciples thought it would be a good idea for them to take a break so everyone could get food. But Jesus said, “You feed them.”  And their response was perfectly natural, “With what!?!” (Mark 6:37-44) But Jesus wasn’t asking the disciples to do a miracle; he was asking them to point the people to the One who can!

If I go pray with someone who is overwhelmed with sickness, financially in trouble beyond my paygrade, or devastatingly heartbroken, I don’t need to think it’s my responsibility to solve any of their problems. I must simply hold their hand and point them to the One who comforts me.

I have received God’s comfort personally. I know God has been miraculous and gracious towards me, and I know that his promises outweigh my problems especially when we consider the long timeline that is eternity.

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. (Philippians 2:1-2 NLT)

And that one mind and purpose is to help people get caught up in Jesus and not their problems. That’s what prayer partners are for.
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Dear God,
Thank you for those who extend your comfort to me, the dear ones who pray for me, and the ones who are faithful to express your faithfulness to me. Help me not catch someone else’s stress or overwhelmed my what seems impossible. Nothing is impossible for you, and I pray for you to make me an encourager with those words. Help me be faithful to comfort others as you have comforted me. I don’t need to be anyone’s solution; help me always point people to you. I love you and thank you for the amazing things you have done, and I pray in your name, amen.