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.
“We lose interest and give up when we have no vision, no encouragements, and no improvements, but only experience our everyday life with its trivial tasks. The thing that really testifies for God in the long run is steady perseverance… Ask God to keep the eye of your Spirit open to the risen Christ and take the next step.” Oswald Chambers
Lord, show me how to keep my vision focused on your will in my life. Help me to keep my eyes on your will and to wait for your vision, encouragement, and strength.
Do you remember watching a baby learn to walk? First, she holds Mom’s hand tightly, walking with the reassurance of that grip. Soon she lets go, taking tentative steps on her chubby legs. Back and forth she walks, from Mom to Dad and back to Mom. She has complete confidence; her parents will protect her. After her confidence grows, she ventures out on her own.
The steps are slow and the child is wobbly, sometimes swaying to capture her balance. She falls often, usually by plopping onto her padded bottom. But she doesn’t give up. After falling, she may crawl toward her goal and then get up and walk a few more steps. So it goes: walk, walk, plop, crawl, crawl, walk, walk, plop. Repeatedly, she toddles her erratic walk. Sometimes she’s off balance and lurches to one side; sometimes she rushes to keep from falling forward. But she walks. She learns. Before long, she is running. She runs everywhere. She is so full of the joy of running that she forgets to crawl.
When we first accept Jesus as our Savior, we are born again; becoming babies in the spiritual world. As spiritual babies, we learn to walk spiritually. Our heavenly Father watches over us as we learn. Like a baby, we are tentative at first, unwilling to venture out on our own. Just as the earthly father encourages his children to walk, our heavenly Father encourages us on our spiritual walks. Like our earthly fathers, He holds his out arms, hoping we will bravely walk toward Him. With God’s guidance and encouragement, we gather the courage to take tentative steps. We wobble, just as the baby does. Yes, we fall down. Unfortunately, unlike the baby, we sometimes refuse to move. The key to improving our spiritual walk is to keep trying, just as the baby does. When we lose our balance and fall, we cannot just sit. We get up and continue to walk; if we cannot walk, we crawl. Learning to walk with God is a slow process: walk, walk, plop, crawl, crawl, walk, walk, plop. The baby does not give up when she falls; neither should we. Over and over, we step toward our Father. No matter how wobbly and unsure our steps, we make progress toward Him. Before long we find ourselves walking toward God with confidence, perhaps even running with joy.
Oh God, our Father, guide us as we learn to walk with You. Teach us, encourage us, help us stand back up when we fall.
II Peter 3:17, 18 “Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
“Home is the center of my being where I can hear the voice that says: ‘You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests’—the same voice that gave life to the first Adam and spoke to Jesus, the second Adam; the same voice that speaks to all the children of God and sets them free to live in the midst of a dark world while remaining in the light.”
“We can be in our day what the heroes of faith were in their day – but remember at the time they didn’t know they were heroes.”
― A.W. Tozer
Lord, keep us strong in the faith and eager to share with others. May we share our time, our talents, and our spirits. Show us how to humbly live for you, to follow in your footsteps.
It’s snowing! I love to watch the snow fall from the heavens, especially the way it falls today. There is no wind, so the flakes drift lazily downward. The flakes are big and fat, my favorite. Standing by my dining room patio window, I watch them descend in the light of my patio porch light. Some of these flakes are huge, and they plummet quickly to the ground. On the patio, which is still warm from this afternoon’s above freezing temperatures, the flakes quickly melt and disappear. But the trees, the ground, and the patio furniture are colder than the cement patio. Here the flakes accumulate, and the back-yard world is covered in a beautiful blanket of white. The dark underside of the tree branches creates a vivid contrast to their snow-covered tops. The black wrought iron patio chairs, covered in snow, shine whitely in the night.
As I watch, fascinated, I think of the old hymn, “Showers of Blessings.” Surely these flakes from heaven are showers of blessings, for I am blessed by watching them fall.
Watching them land reminds me of the parable of the seed. Some of these tiny white blessings disappear as quickly as they hit the pavement. Others accumulate, forming a mass of white splendor. How many times do blessings from God quickly disappear because those for whom those blessings were intended are unwilling to receive them? Like the flakes on the concrete, these blessings disappear, just as if they had never fallen from the heavens.
When, on the other hand, we are looking for God’s blessings, and are receptive to them, then they pile up. When covered with these tiny blessings, the barren winter landscape of our spiritual lives becomes a winter wonderland. The more the snowflakes accumulate, the more evident their beauty.
When we allow ourselves to be blanketed with God’s blessings, we, too, are covered in beauty. This beauty is evident for all to see. This doesn’t mean our lives are perfect; it simply means we have allowed God’s grace to blanket all our imperfections with His pure, white grace. When we are covered in His blessings, others can see the beauty and purity of our risen Lord.
Father, open our eyes to see the many blessings with which you constantly shower us. May they not fall in vain. Let your beauty and your blessings cover our humble human hearts so others may see how beautiful you are.
Ezekiel 34:26 “I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing.”
“His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners after great lengths of time and then gives great favors and great privileges and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God!”
Growing Our Faith Together 