The Powerful Name of Jesus

My heart was so heavy this morning. Look around, it doesn't take much to get that way. So many people are hurting and you want so much to take the hurt away and you can't. Sickness, accidents, struggling marriages and families, struggling churches, it is a self-centered, sin-centered world in which we live. Our focus is on what I have done, what is best for me, what works for me and how others can help to meet my needs.

We have the ability to help. We can give advice, we can listen, we can encourage, and most importantly, we can pray. What is exhausting and discouraging is when you have done all of this and people are still hurting. We grow frustrated. Doesn't God care? Doesn't God want to heal this marriage, grow His church? Then I remember the one other most important thing I can do. TRUST. God has this. As I listened this morning to a song performed by a talented young man who is also a friend, I was reminded. God is all powerful. He can do anything, but He chooses that which is best for us, that which will further His Kingdom. In all of this God wants to draw us nearer to Him. He wants us to put aside our own selfish desires, lay down our own agenda and trust the beautiful, powerful name of Jesus. He gave His life to give us life and we still try to bargain and fuss about not getting our way. He wanted us to be with Him in heaven and made the ultimate sacrifice to get us there and we still act ungrateful.

I thank God that He speaks to us. That in our tough spots He opens our eyes to things that are there but we haven't paid attention to. I am so grateful that He looks down on us and desires to remind us of His love for us, His forgiveness, and His mercy. I am so thankful that He desires to have us as His own, draw us closer to Himself and grow in relationship with us. Today, let's put aside me. Let's put aside my agenda and really take an honest and hard look at what God wants for us.

The Day Begins

The sun is beginning to cast shadows on the landscape, though you cannot yet see it. It is there. I am sitting with my first cup of coffee (and probably last if the kids come in from choring before I get done) beside the fire basking in the quiet for a short time before the day convenes. The early morning quiet and stillness does the same for my soul. Quiets me, centers me, helps me to be still and listen. I don't always get to experience it when the day starts late or everyone else starts early. It is a blessing. My husband is off with the semi truck to fix a flat tire then he and our oldest will head out west to deliver a load of hay. I will need to get moving and get the pickup and horse trailer hooked up, take the trailer in and get a tire fixed and then head out with the rest of the crew to town for a violin recital and to pick up "milk". On the hoof. Last year was hard on our milk cow herd so we are adding new blood. Then our oldest can let her current charge, a crippled up black angus cow that was suffering from foot rot, back out to pasture. The kids are pretty excited. It may mean that we get to experience calving a couple of months earlier than we normally would. I guess that is reason for excitement. At times calving brings more excitement than Christmas. It is like Christmas, each little one is a gift to a ranch family like us. When I look out now the drifts around the shelter belt are beginning to take on a glow, the wind is nearly still this morning. A glorious morning after days of wind and blowing snow making roads impassable. The sky is nearly clear.
 I love a new day, every day is as that sky. A clear slate. My decisions determine the course my day will take. My attitudes determine what my experiences will be like. Despite circumstances, my reactions to circumstances can bring life to those around me or, figuratively, death.  I didn't do so great yesterday, some days are like that. A struggle to put aside selfish motives, to not give in to fear or self pity, a struggle to put away the things of the world and to put on Christ. To seek God's good for us and let His work change us into something new, and beautiful. That is my goal today. To be something worth looking at. To live a life worthy of the calling of Christ. To run toward the One who has only my good in mind. Yes, today I choose life. I choose to allow my words, actions and demeanor to give life to those around me. I choose to let God work anew in my own life.
The sky has turned from blue to pink and purple. The few clouds are taking on a tinge of orange. Time to face the day, get a start. May you find life today. May your desire be to seek after the One who gives life. Eternal life, given in the form of a baby, become man, who suffered and died on a cross so that the gift may be yours. Enjoy your day!