So many times we long for answers. Why is there such evil in the world? Why do people kill others? Why do children have to die of cancer? There are so many questions and few answers. Faith is trusting that God loves us and wants the best for us even thought there are no answers.
Category: actions
Love
Today being all about love the most important description of it comes from 1 Corinthians 13. Nothing says it better.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; 10 but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. 13 So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Love is what you do
Too often we think about love as an emotion. When we love there are times when we do feel an emotion surrounding it but that is not all there is. Love is what we choose. Love is what we do. The emotion may not be forefront but the choice and the doing always are.
Let God
Worry. Something that I mastered a long time ago. I turn things over to God and then pick them back up. We have to remember that God can handle anything and he is with us every moment. Worry does nothing. Let God handle it.
Can you serve and be served?
Today I have been thinking about “The Servant Song.” It so clearly sums up what Christ has called us to do. It is seldom that we have to not only be servants but to let others serve us. Sometimes is it harder to be served. Take the words of this song to heart.
(it didn’t want to pull the video today.use link)
The Servant Song
Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too
We are pilgrims on the journey
We are travellers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load
We are travellers on the road
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load
I will hold the Christ light for you
In the night time of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you
Speak the the peace you long to hear.
In the night time of your fear
I will hold my hand out to you
Speak the the peace you long to hear.
I will weep when you are weeping
When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we’ve seen this journey through
When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we’ve seen this journey through
Will you let me be your servant
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too
Let me be as Christ to you
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant too
Songwriters: David Haas
Take it to God
When something goes wrong in our lives we often either feel guilty if we see ourselves as responsible or we blame someone else. Neither position helps us. The only things that helps is to take the problem to God. If we are truly responsible then God will forgive us. If we hold anger or resentment God will help us to see that love is more important. No matter what…take it to God
I am not perfect
In our lives we are not perfect. Like Paul I do things I don’t want to do and don’t do some things I should. Forgiving others and asking forgiveness are two things that can set us free. Both are important. Remember it!
Look to yourself
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
Too often we are quick to find fault with others. It is so easy for us to see the sins of others and not look to our own first. Sometimes the thing we see in someone else is actually something we are guilty of ourselves. We are not called to judge others but to love them and share with them the message of Christ.
God chooses
Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.
I have always love this image. The idea of God choosing to create a world is…I can’t find a word wonderful enough. The Spirit of moving. Notice that in this version Spirit is capitalized. The Spirit is a facet of God. God is not one thing but many things. A God way beyond our understanding. Know that this is God. Infinite and unknowable until He chooses to become a man.
You are still needed
Chronic illness, whether mental or physical, is so draining. It can be a struggle to get through each day. It takes the knowledge that God’s love is with us no matter what. Even if life is difficult it is still important and you have something to share with the world. When I visited sick and shut-ins as a parish nurse they always felt they could do nothing to help anyone. I reminded them that prayers are needed and possible even though ill. There is always something we can do to help heal the world.
Hear God in Other Voices 