Romans 14-16

We finish up another book in the Bible with Romans 14-16.  Paul explains that our faith is very personal.  And, our relationship with Christ is a two-way street.  Christ accepts us and loves us for who we are.  So, we are supposed to love and accept others in the same way.  That is no small task.  We each have our own special relationship with God to help us.  It's the one relationship, as long as we nurture it, that is certain to give us all we need.   We live and die to serve and glorify Him.  He fills us with His blessings when we live for Him.  And even after death, His blessings do not stop.  We have a promised happily ever-after waiting for us in Heaven.  

I will say it again and again and again.  The more we give ourselves to God, the more He is able to do in us, through us, and for us.  

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

Trust=Joy+Peace=Hope

Little things or big, God is all around us.  

He's In the everyday, familiar moments and the new and exciting moments.  He's even in the most unwanted and difficult moments.  

His love, His peace, His joy, His power- all here for each of us in every moment of every day.

Will I be too busy or tired, too distracted or hurried, too selfish and self-sufficient to notice Him?  

Or, will I look for Him and find Him in all His glory?

A prayer for today-

Dear God,

Thank you for Your Holy Spirit that is at work in me.  Forgive me for  so easily falling into the habit of being so self-sufficient that I miss You.  You are everywhere I am.  I pray you will help me focus on the blessings that You pour into my life every single day, no matter what the circumstances.  Fill me, Lord, with your joy and peace and hope.  I trust You.

In the name of Jesus I pray,

Amen

Joy and Peace,

Romans 10-13

Paul gives us more on how to live in our faith as Christians in Romans 10-13.  God brings us to Him through our hearts.  We claim our faith in Jesus, but we do so because of God's call, His work in us.  It's that still, soft voice pulling on our heartstrings.  Anyone, anywhere who claims Jesus as Lord and Savior WILL be saved.  Paul knows, too, we need constant reminders that we are saved by God's grace, not our own mindful doings.  And because God so loves us, the most important thing we can do for Him is love and serve each other with the gifts He gives us.

Paul is talking about God's life changing stuff.  It's Good News for believers.  It's also humbling.

God blesses us with thoughtful, reasoning minds.  It's also my mind that allows me to fall into the trap of thinking I am in control of things.  I get comfortable with my situation, and I think I have things figured out.  I am learning something, though, in my temporary periods of comfort.  God always reminds me that He knows more.  He knows best.   Paul puts it this way,

33 

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[a] knowledge of God!

    How unsearchable his judgments,

    and his paths beyond tracing out!

34 

“Who has known the mind of the Lord?

    Or who has been his counselor?”[b]

35 

“Who has ever given to God,

    that God should repay them?”[c]

Romans 11:33-35

Yes, I am "A Mind-Maker-Upper."  I have made up my mind to live for Him.  I choose God over my own limited understandings.  I trust Him in all situations.  I am deciding to seek Him and find Him in all circumstances.  

I know I am very far from perfect.  I know I mess up all the time.  I know I fall-short often.  I know I completely fail sometimes.

I also know, most importantly, that I have to thank God in all things.  I thank God because, it's by His grace, I am saved from myself for a greater purpose- His purpose.

God powerfully uses all my steps, even my missteps.  That's where His joy comes in and makes it all worth it.  

36 

For from him and through him and for him are all things.

    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:36

I owe it all to Him who blesses me immeasurably more than I could ever imagine.

How about you?   Are you "A Mind-Maker-Upper?"  What does that mean in your life with God?

A prayer for today-

Dear God,

I thank you for your sovereignty in all things, especially my own life.  I thank you for all that I am and all that I have.  Help my mind to stay focused on You in all my circumstances.  What do I need to do for You, God?  I am Your work-in-progress.  Keep me.  Change me.  Use me.  I love you, Lord, with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my strength.  

In the name of Jesus I pray,

Amen

May God's love fill your hearts and minds,

Romans 7-9

Paul is talking about some really heavy stuff in Romans 7-9.  While these chapters have some of my all-time favorite scripture, they do not come without a huge sense of responsibility for me.  Paul is trying to explain that Christ's death means things of this world also die in us when we believe.  Through our faith, we are called to let go of old ways and embrace all the newness we have in our risen Christ.  Thank goodness God knew we couldn't do it on our own.  The Holy Spirit is a crucial GPS system for all of God's children.  

Paul points out that we can't help ourselves.  We mean well, but we mess-up and get tangled in sin all the time.  Even with the Holy Spirit in our lives, we still make mistakes and wrong turns.

19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

Romans 7:19

Jesus is such a necessary gift from God.  How many times do I catch myself doing the very things I said I wouldn't do because I know they are wrong?  It's too many times to count; I can tell you that.

Romans 4-6

I read somewhere that the book of Romans is known as the "theology textbook" for Christian life.  I think I see why.  We are getting a crash course on how Jesus' resurrection changes things for us in Romans 4-6.  Paul reminds us of the faithful example we had before Christ in Abraham (remember the really old guy who left everything he had to follow God).  Then, Paul explains that Jesus is here for eternity so that we have hope and peace, not from our own efforts and works, but through our faith in Him.  He died so we can live.  Jesus offers us a new life, free from our sins.  

What does this new life look like while we are still in the world?  Paul tries to give us a picture… 

Romans 1-3

We hear more from Paul as we begin reading Romans today.  This man really has a way with words, doesn't he?  He writes to the Roman Christians on his way to Spain even though he had never met them.  He's so good at encouraging people in their faith and explaining God's grace through faith.  We can learn so much from Paul.

Paul inspires me.

Getting my Head in the Game

Mom's friends surprised her with an indoor tailgate party....special ladies!

 My nature, sometimes to a fault, is to be an extremely guarded and private person, but I feel like I should share some of the things I am going through lately in hopes that maybe some of what I am experiencing may help someone else. 

In keeping my posts real and honest, I have to admit to you that I am having a difficult time lately focusing on what is right in front of me.  I feel like I am living separate lives, and I am not transitioning well at all from one to the other.  When I am in one place, my brain is still in the other and vice versa.  The result is just a big mess and a lot of worry.  And what good does worry do?  No good.  It certainly cannot fix anything.

I am realizing the problem with letting my mind wander to other places rather than staying right where I am in the moment is that I miss the extraordinary things happening right in front of me.  I say all the time that my faith gets me through life.  And while that is absolutely true, it's hard sometimes to know how to do that.  

It's easy to get lost when we are caught up in the emotion and logistics of our highest of life's highs, our most boring of life's plateaus, or our lowest of life's lows.  So, what does having faith really mean?  How do you live a life of faith?  How do you call on your faith and lean on it when you need it most?

What I am talking about is a loaded question that I ask myself all the time.  I wonder if I am doing things right for the God I love so much.  

As I was driving home from taking care of my mom last week, I realized that I was spending so much time worrying about what was going to happen next and what I needed to do next to take care of things here and there that I was completely overlooking all the ways God is trying to take care of me, and they are RIGHT in front of me, no matter where I am or what time of day it is. 

I have to remind myself that faith is letting go and letting God meet my needs in the moment, not just sometimes, but in every moment of every single day.  

Faith, however, is NOT believing and hoping that God is going to do what I want Him to do.

In fact, what I want may be completely wrong for me, and I have to face those facts.  Faith is loving God and trusting His path for me enough to put His direction ahead of my own best thought out plans.  And I know I fall short of doing that more often than not.  The hardest thing about being a Christian and being faithful, at least for me, is that despite my best intentions and efforts, I am selfish, and I like to think that I can somehow control my circumstances and help them turn out the way I think is best. 

Thank goodness God is smarter and much more powerful than me because I do not know what I am doing.  If it were up to me to fix things, who knows how things would end up, and I'd kill myself getting there. 

If faith means I have to trust God and His path for me, then I have to talk to God in prayer about EVERYTHING.  

At this point, some might wonder how I know I am not talking to air, especially considering all my family is going through right now.  My answer is, give it an honest try for yourself.  I promise that if you make the effort to talk to God and ask him to help you, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit.  

You will feel His presence and peace when you look for it.  That's how good things happen, even in the worst of circumstances.  God will wrap me (and you) in His arms if we look for Him in everything that is around us.  

As Michael Hobbs puts it in his daily devotional A Servant's Song, 

"There is no problem for which God does not have an answer! The secret is to let God give us His answer, not insist that He accept ours."
 
So, as much as I am heartbroken by what is going on in my family right now, I know God is using this brokenness.  He is the ultimate Healer.  I have to trust that what is in front of me each step along the way is orchestrated by God to turn the bad into good.  If I blink, I might miss the hands or face of Christ at work in my life, and I know I don't want to miss something that extraordinary!

"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  -Romans 10:13

*That picture at the top of this page is one example of the many ways God is reaching out to me when I needed reassurance right now.  How is God reaching out to you?

To read more posts on Mom's story, use the links below:

• Redefining Extraordinary
• Continuing the Story
• More to Mom's Story
• What a Difference a Year Makes
• Who's Your Daddy, Cancer?
• Words Sweet to the Soul...