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.
“If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but major surgery. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God. ” ― Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
Ouch! Lord, this quote makes me question how I chose to help others. You know I want to help them, Lord. Hold me close to you and keep me listening to the ways YOU want me to help others–in ways that will glorify you.
How often I ignore you, even though you dwell in me. Teach me to keep this sanctuary pure for you. Slow me down and teach me to be more aware of your presence, to listen to your voice and follow your will.
You enter a banquet hall; before you is a long, beautifully carved wooden table set with fine china, crystal goblets, polished silverware, and linen napkins. You may eat whatever you desire. Perhaps your first choice is a juicy steak, cooked to perfection. With it you may desire a baked potato, loaded with butter and sour cream, and topped with bacon and green onion. A tossed salad, chock full of vegetables and topped with your favorite dressing, rounds out the meal. Perhaps instead of steak, you prefer a different dish? A crispy taco, filled with flavorful meat, shredded lettuce, tomato, and two kinds of cheese. Guacamole, chips, and salsa come with the dinner. Whatever your favorite meal, you may eat to your heart’s content. Next, of course, is dessert. Would you care for a melt-in-your mouth piece of chocolate cream pie? Or perhaps a bowl of juicy, ripe red strawberries with a dollop of whipped cream?
Would the opportunity to eat your fill of your favorite dishes make you glad? Just looking at this food and inhaling its wonderful aromas would make most of us quite happy. Unfortunately for our waistlines and our pocketbooks, we cannot indulge in a feast like this, at least not very often.
It is easy to imagine joy in a feast of delicious food, but what about “joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jeremiah 15:16) from eating God’s word? Do we desire the word of God as much as we desire delicious food? Is reading God’s word something we eagerly anticipate? Probably not, but this is a feast in which we can indulge. We need not fear gaining weight and depleting our wealth; we only fear gaining knowledge of God’s wisdom and love and depleting our sinfulness.
Oh God, creator of the entire universe, I desire delicious food more than I desire Your word. How infrequently I desire Your words as a sumptuous banquet for my soul. Forgive me. Change my heart, O God. Create in me a create in me a hunger to feast at the banquet of Your word.
Jeremiah 15:16 (NKJ) “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
Lord, sometimes we forget that others don’t always want to hear your story, especially if we act as if we know it all. Keep us humbly living our faith Lord, so that others will ask us why we live with love and hope in our hearts. I pray that my actions will make others want to ask and their ears will be open to your truth. Thank you, Jesus.
“The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting.”
― Oswald Chambers,
Oh, Lord, you know that I’d love to soar! I thank you for showing me that a life of faith is not built on soaring, but on consistently walking, consistently obeying your will. Help me to walk with purpose and be grateful for the opportunity.
You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.
— Augustine of Hippo
Are you rejoicing in His fire and sweetness? Are you running toward your Lord and Savior?
Lord, may we run toward You, rejoicing in Your presence. Fill us with Your fire, Your sweetness, and Your joy. Let us love others fully, with Your fire and sweetness, that they, too, may know Your joy.
Always, Lord? Really? Joyful when I’m sick? When I am disappointed, when I am discouraged? Even when life just isn’t going well? Create in me a joyful heart, Lord, in all circumstances, for you are good, loving, and faithful.
Growing Our Faith Together 