This blog is designed to create community for believers and provide support for seekers. I encourage all readers to share their faith in an effort to lift and encourage one another.
The older I get, the more I understand that “love” is an action verb. There is a difference between saying, “I love you,” and DOING something to demonstrate that love. God calls us to love with our actions, whether we are demonstrating love to a dear one, or to a total stranger.
Lord, reveal to me the actions I can take to show others your love, for we are all your children.
I love springtime! Overnight the world changes from dull, dry, and dead to colorful, vibrant, and alive. The trees, which stretched their bare arms heavenward all winter, now dress in a pale green blush. Our Bradford pear tree nods its white, blooming head gently in the spring breezes. Yesterday, the grass was brittle and brown. Today it is soft and green. Even the dandelions (which Scott so diligently worked to exterminate last summer) look beautiful nestled in their greenery.
It’s exciting to examine new growth in the gardens. The phlox, low to the ground, carpets the yard with purple. The forsythia bushes glow a vivid yellow beside our gray house. Everywhere signs of new life abound. The greenery of snapdragons, daisies, hostas, bee balm, and yarrow promise future blooms. The clematis vines, recently just dead sticks, sprout new growth at every intersection. Dozens of purple cone flower plants already climb several inches high, assuring a future of beautiful flowers and nectar for bees and butterflies to enjoy. Spring is such an exciting time as the perennials burst forth with new life and a promise for beautiful, fragrant summertime blooms.
Do you feel that sense of new growth and springtime revival in your soul? Deep within our hearts we recognize a spirit of growth, its green tendrils growing ever closer to God, seeking His face. The palest green blush of revival is evident in us as we stretch our arms heavenward. While we work, pray, and seek God’s guidance, we can almost feel the buds of future flowers forming on the green plants of our spirits. We eagerly anticipate the new blooms, filling our lives with God’s beautiful purpose and the fragrance of His sweet spirit.
Oh God, our master gardener, nurture the garden of our souls. Eradicate the weeds of doubt, dissention, and fatigue. Enable our garden to bring forth lovely blooms infused with heavenly fragrance, and receive all the praise and glory for the sweet beauty of the heavenly garden of our souls.
John 1:1, 4 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener….Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”
“Have your heart right with Christ, and he will visit you often, and so turn weekdays into Sundays, meals into sacraments, homes into temples, and earth into heaven.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon
Great words of wisdom here from Charles H. Spurgeon. Keeping our hearts right with Christ is a process, often involving time in His Word, in prayer, and in reflection. If you want to draw close to Him, seek Him. He promises that you will find Him.
Lord, keep my heart ever close to You. Keep me growing always more like Jesus.
Ever feel trapped or boxed in? It could be in a relationship, a job, a health issue, or any difficult situation. That’s the time to remember, before Jesus left this world, he promised to send us the Holy Spirit to live in us. He’s promised that Spirit to all who believe in him. So remember, whenever you feel trapped, there is freedom. It may not come in the time or the way we wish, but God always keeps his promises.
Thank you, Lord, that you always keep your promises. Thank you for giving us your spirit and for our freedom in you.
“God’s definition of what matters is pretty straightforward. He measures our lives by how we love.”
— Francis Chan
Lord, show me the ways you would have me demonstrate your love to others. Teach me love like you do.
Thank you, God, for loving me enough to teach me. Keep my heart open so I might listen and obey.
Picture the caterpillar. Its belly nearly drags the earth, and its tiny legs work furiously as it inches from one plant to another. On the plant it blends in, camouflaged by leaves. It spends its life contentedly munching its leafy green diet. But one day the caterpillar drastically changes. It stops eating and spins a cocoon around itself. Here it stays, snug and secure for a time. We don’t know exactly what happens to the caterpillar while in its cocoon, but we do know it emerges totally changed. The caterpillar, once confined to traveling slowly on its little legs, can now fly. In its freedom, it flits from one flower to another, its diet no longer green leaves, but the sweet nectar of the flowers. It no longer shows dull green, but instead displays beautiful colors in its gossamer thin wings. What was once a slow-moving, plain creature has become a free-flying, colorful work of art. The old caterpillar has passed away; it has become a new creation.
Like the caterpillar, we are to become new creations. When we are “in Christ” we no longer crawl with our bellies close to the ground; we no longer see ourselves or others from an earthly perspective. With Christ, our perspectives change. Before, hundreds of earthly concerns reigned central in our lives: making more money, driving the latest cars, wearing the latest up-to-date fashions. When we crawled like a caterpillar, we saw other people from an earthly perspective: how they looked, how we could judge them, whether or not they were part of the “in-crowd.” We loved to gossip about others; we loved to tear others down in order to build ourselves up.
But we who are “in Christ” have become new creations; we have gossamer wings with which we can fly. Christ in us lets our thoughts soar heavenward. Suddenly, our earthly concerns seem less important; we are more concerned with gaining fruits of the spirit. Acquiring these becomes more important than acquiring material goods. We now view others from a different, higher perspective. Christ in us can love others through us. Instead of seeing other’s faults, Christ lets us glimpse what He sees in each of His beautiful human creations. He lets us see what each person could become through His love. Instead of gossiping about others, we now talk to God about them, lifting them up in prayer.
Are you concerned that you haven’t undergone this metamorphosis? Then look to the example of the caterpillar. Before the caterpillar could change, it needed to spend time in the cocoon: sustained time alone with God, studying His word, listening to His still small voice, talking with Him, and hearing the testimonies of all the “new creations” in His word.
Father, wrap us in the cocoon of your love and wisdom and make us butterflies. Work the miracle of change in our lives. Create us anew as beautiful new creatures flying on the wings of your spirit.
“The literal translation of the words ‘pray always’ is ‘come to rest.’ The Greek word for rest is hesychia, and hesychasm is the term which refers to the spirituality of the desert. A hesychast is a man or a woman who seeks solitude and silence as the ways to unceasing prayer. The prayer of the hesychasts is a prayer of rest. This rest, however, has little to do with the absence of conflict or pain. It is a rest in God in the midst of a very intense daily struggle.”
Henri Nouwen
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:29
Whether I wander a couple of feet off the path, or I walk miles away makes no difference. I am so thankful, Lord, that you welcome me back, whenever and wherever I may wander. Thank you for your grace. I pray you’ll keep my feet on your path of life.
Do I truly let Christ’s peace RULE in my heart? Peace, not fear, anger, or dissension. It’s so easy to revert to those emotions rather than letting peace rule.
Lord, forgive me for letting my own emotions rule my heart. Teach me to yield to you and allow your peace to be primary in me. Let your people live together in peace.
Growing Our Faith Together 