None of us is perfect. We all make mistakes. God knows that we cannot be perfect. He doesn’t expect it. He forgives our mistakes. Mistakes are fine as long as we learn from them. Hopefully we won’t make the same mistakes more than once.
Category: learn
Please God
Psalm 19:7-9 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
This is a remarkable passage. It tells us what we will be like if we please God. If we follow God’s law our soul will be revived. We will be filled with joy when we please God. Following his commandments lights us up. Fearing God is being like glass…transparent with nothing to make us cloudy.
We can be beautiful inside and out. We only have to please God. It is possible….just look carefully at the life of Jesus Christ and try to follow Him each day.
Repeat until you are calm
When times are frustrating for me and things throw me off my path this is the quote that immediately comes to mind. It is something that I can say over and over again as a mantra. It will move me into a place of calm. If you have a favorite scripture verse or other piece that you can use in this way try it. Just the repetition will take you to a different place.
Just talk!
Psalm 94:2-3
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;
give to the proud what they deserve!
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
how long shall the wicked exult?
How much we would love for God to take out the people who hurt us. Just come with fire and wind and wipe them out. But no matter how much we want that it’s not what God is about.
However, we can learn something from the psalmist. God is not someone that we can’t talk to. He already knows all our secrets. He knows how much we want to have bad people get what they deserve. Tell Him that!
He know that we are angry because someone we love is in pain. Tell Him that. Ask Him why things are not fair. Tell Him how afraid you are of what is going to happen tomorrow. I promise you He can take it! God wants us to speak our minds. He is listening. He feels our pain and wants to dry our tears. Just talk to Him!
Question and grow
If someone wants to learn more about God, he(Jesus) implies, it will involve more than believing someone else’s answers. It will involve thinking deeply about the questions you are asking and why. Then it will involve acting on the answers you come up with in order to discover what is true. Barbara Brown Taylor in “Holy Envy.”
We must continue to question and grow in our faith. To sit and think we have all the answers is a mistake. We never have all the answers. Only God does.
Simple things
Find joy in the simple things. That’s all love needs to thrive on. From the TV series Call the Midwife
Our society has brainwashed us to think that happiness comes from things. The things we can buy. The truth is that happiness comes from inside us. It is almost as if it is hidden away to make us uncover its secret. Most joy comes from things we can’t buy. Love, the smell of a flower, the stars on a beautiful night, the sound of the ocean. These are the things that fill our soul and turn us toward true joy.
Prayer: Help us to see the things that are real.
Do each daily task for God
It is in the ordinary duties and labors of life that the Christian can and should develop his spiritual union with God.”
Thomas Merton
There is a wonderful little book called Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence did ordinary, everyday tasks such as washing dishes and planting vegetables. Yet everything he did was dedicated to God. Each task was done for the glory of God. He made each task holy. How different life would be if we could all do this.
Prayer: Glorious God, help us to understand that the simplest task is done for you. Remind us that everything we do each day is holy. Amen
What can I give them?
“There is one thing more I wish I could give to them (my family) , and that is the Christian religion. If they had that and I had not given them one cent, they would be rich. If they have not that, and I had given them the world, they would be poor.” Patrick Henry
What do we want to leave as a legacy for our children. Most of us immediately think about our possessions. We want to have some money or property to leave them. Since I am now in my golden years I realize that possessions matter little if I haven’t taught them to love God. If they have no faith to support them when things don’t go well then I have given them nothing.
Prayer: God of love, help us to put teaching about you at the top of our priority list. Help us to set aside other demands and bring our families to church. Amen
Forgiveness frees
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness. William Blake
Sometimes it is so much easier to hold on to our anger than to forgive. We may be using the anger to give us energy. It seems that the whole world is about finding someone to blame. We feel empowered by our anger. We feed on it. The truth is that anger drains us, uses up our energy and makes us ill. This is not what Christ said. He told us to forgive our enemies. The church tells us before we come to communion to turn loose of our grievances with others. We must forgive. Forgiveness heals.
Prayer: Forgive us as sins as we forgive the sins of others.
Don’t create God
You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image, when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” Anne Lamott
We have to be careful about how we imagine God. We can’t expect God to think exactly what we think. After all, God is God. Jesus spent a lot of time telling us about God and the Kingdom of God. We need to spend more time reading the Bible.
Prayer: Patient God, you know that we keep trying to create you in our own image. Remind us that it is the other way around. Amen
Hear God in Other Voices 