Patchwork

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.   Proverbs 3:5-6

The Patchwork of Life

Life is a journey we travel

filled with surprises, challenges, joys and sorrows.

Some of these are welcome experiences,

others we would rather avoid completely.

But each experience holds its own treasure

which, when seen together, in the end,

forms a patchwork, the patchwork of our life.

If we can embrace each experience, its joy or its pain,

and hold it up to God; if we can say,

 “Lord, give me grace to walk this part of the journey.

Help me to feel the love, the joy, the pain,

the emptiness, or the loneliness, and grow through it.

Give me the wisdom to make right choices along the way,

and ears to hear your voice when I walk, or even stray -

To hear you say, “This is the way”,

and to alter my course accordingly”.

Then, as we complete each section of our journey,

we will have learned well

the lessons life has brought to us, and be enriched.

As we hold them before the Lord with thankfulness,

we will be ready to share with others

the wisdom we’ve gained

 to help them complete their journey

through the patchwork of life

    then nothing will be wasted.    

Jackie Simmons

PRAYER:  Lord God, thank you for my life experiences this far.  May I value them for what they have brought into my life and how they have shaped me into who I am today.  May I submit my course to you and entrust myself to you on this journey of life.  Amen

Failure

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. John 21:7

How do you cope with failure? Do you beat yourself up, get depressed or do you look at it and try to learn from your mistake?  I confess that I have been in both camps.  The 'beat yourself up and get depressed' camp is a miserable one for sure. It achieves absolutely nothing.....even worse, it has a negative effect on you and those around you.  However, if we can learn from our failures it can help us to go on to do better and even great things.

Here in John 21 we find Peter and 6 others just hanging out.  It's a time of transition between Jesus' crucifixion and his ascension to heaven.  Peter, the confident one, part of Jesus' inner circle, had experienced the most terrible failure of denying his friend,with oaths,  (Mark 14:71), only a few days before.  On that night he had left the scene weeping. in shame and agony. I'm guessing he found a hidey hole and beat himself up with recriminations...."How could I deny my Lord? I can't believe I could be so cowardly. What a whimp. I told him I would never deny him even if everyone else did, and I did just what I said I wouldn't. How can I ever face the others.  They didn't deny him. They'll reject me. He'll reject me.  What a useless wretch I turned out to be!"

We don't know if that's how it was for Peter, but we know that somehow he managed to push past his failure and get back into fellowship with the others because he was with them on the resurrection morning when the women came with the news that Jesus had risen from the dead.  The message they brought was "tell the disciples....and Peter, that Jesus is risen" (Mark 16:7).  God knew that Peter needed to know he was still part of the team.  All was not lost.  Peter had a choice; he could have remain mortified, ashamed and depressed and kept himself apart from the company of the others but he chose instead to get up and 'get back on the horse' as it were.

In John 21 Jesus is waiting for them on the beach after they had had an unfruitful night of fishing.  In a moment he calls out instructions and they haul in a huge catch.  When Peter realises it is the Lord, he didn't cower in a corner, he jumped overboard and headed to shore to greet his Saviour.  he obviously wasn't afraid of recriminations or judgment.  He ran quickly to a place of reconciliation and restoration.  He became the preacher at pentecost.  He preached with such an anointing of power and conviction that 3,000 people came to faith that day!  What an opportunity he would have missed if he had stayed in a place of failure and unrepentance. 

Don't let failure keep you down and depressed.  Confess, receive forgiveness AND forgive yourself.  That is often the most difficult thing to do; but we must do it if we are going to move on to better things.  Jesus still forgives and encourages us to go from strength to strength.  Only those who have known failure know how to encourage those who fail.  Let God redeem your failures for the benefit of others.

Prayer:  Jesus,  thank you for including Peter's failure and restoration in the scriptures for our encouragement.  Help me to remember to come quickly to seek your forgiveness when I fail, knowing that your death paid the price for my sin.  Amen

His Love

For God SO LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

Love took the lashing, the mocking, the blows

Love looked sad as the rooster crowed.

Love knew that flesh was weak within

Yet could stand strong and through prayer could win.

Love bore the crown of thorns, the pain

Love saw the end and bore the stain

Of sins not owned by His pure life

But sins of ours, and all our strife.

Love stood tall and strong that day

When all of His followers ran away.

Love took the nails, the pain of the cross

Love never failed, but died for the lost.

Love felt forsaken and cried out His woe

Yet honoured His mother standing below.

Love spoke to His friend, gave instruction to care

Love joined them as family their pain to bear.

Love never failed in its mission

         Love triumphed in death.

                   Hell could not hold Love!

Faithfulness

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:21

It seems that faithfulness and respect have almost become obsolete in our ever changing world.  Marriages fail, friendships flounder, bosses misuse employees and employees are unreliable, careless and some  even seem ungrateful to have the privilege of employment.  So why does this bother me?  Because where there is a lack of faithfulness things go wrong and people get hurt.

God's desire for his people is that they become like Him, whose very nature is faithfulness. The Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God... (Deuteronomy 7:9) The word 'faithful' appears more than 80 times in the New Testament.  Many of those times it refers to faithful people, or the need to be faithful.  

Faithfulness is a great character trait.  When I began to write here, I wrote that "we should" aim to become faithful people.  There is nothing wrong with that thought except for the words "we should".  It is too easy for us to strive to be the best we can for God but that puts us into a "works mode". We start trying to be something which often leads to disappointment and frustration.  Doesn't scripture say "For it is God who works in us both do will and to do his good pleasure"? Philippians 2:13. Does a child mean to grow up to be like their parent (for good or bad)?  Not usually, it just happens, because of DNA and association.

When we become 'alive to God' we receive his DNA.  Then as we start "associating" with Him by reading His word, getting to know how He thinks, praying and spending time with Him we will naturally become like Him.  In John 15:4 Jesus talks about the vine and the branches.  He states categorically that it is impossible to bear (spiritual) fruit unless we remain or abide in Him (the vine). In verse 5 he says again, "apart from me you can do nothing."   That takes the heat of us, right?

We know that an apple is the natural product of being part of an apple tree, just as the grapes are natural fruit of the vine.  All that is needed is for the sap to flow into the branch and, in due course, fruit happens.  The timing is in God's hands as we yield ourselves to Him to work in us but we can aim to be faithful in abiding in Him and seeking to please Him in how we live.  If we are not becoming more like Him there is probably a need for more abiding, not striving!

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, help me to understand what it means to remain in you so that faithfulness becomes a part of who I am and through that I can bring glory and pleasure to you.  Amen

Stuff Happens

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 ESV

Three weeks ago life changed!  My sister, Jenny (pictured) and I were planning a lovely time away at a women's retreat.  However, it didn't quite happen as we planned it because a couple of days before we were to leave Jenny broke her ankle quite badly and ended up in hospital for a week.  I am so thankful that I was nearby and could run to keep her company and call an ambulance (a new experience for me).  As she lay on the floor I prayed, "God, your word says that you can cause all things to work together for the good of those who love you and and have been called according to your purpose. Would you please bring something good out of this."

I'm sure there will be things that God will do through this event, going forward, that I won't know about, but already I have seen that God is using this in a good way for another family member.  Also we have had the pleasure of being able to care for Jenny in our home in her time of recovery.  She is such a great patient.....for which I am VERY thankful!!  I am sure God is teaching me too!  I haven't had to be in a caring role before.

A major benefit for those who love and walk with God, is that we can always know that he is with us  and is able to bring good out of something that seems to be a disaster.  That is a great and comforting thought to have in any difficult situation.  We can look up and say "Okay God, what are you up to in this?"  That is called "trust".  

Do you have a situation in your life right now that you could pray that scripture verse for?  It is not necessary for the negative events in our life to remain just negative events.  If we bring God into them they can become growing and learning situations, bring us into contact with others whom we can influence for Christ by encouraging them and sharing our faith, or any number of other things.  Why not ask God what is wants to do in your situation and you will more than likely have something to praise him for.

Prayer:  Dear Father,  please help me to include you in my difficulties so that I can allow you to bring about your good purposes and give me opportunity to praise you for your goodness. Amen

Complaints

........ the burden is too heavy for me.  Numbers 11:14

Do you ever feel like shouting at whoever might listen...."I can't do this any more.  It's just too much for me."?  You won't be alone in your complaint.  There have been many times in my life when I have felt like this and guess what?  I've lived to tell the story!

However, I have never had the load at Moses had to carry......he had hundreds of thousands of complaining people to cope with.  Under instructions from God, who had pity of the Israelites when they cried out for mercy when they were slaves in Egypt. He had brought them out on a journey to the land that God had promised to give to them.

One day their complaining just got too much for Moses. He voiced his complaint to God in no uncertain manner. "How can I carry them to the land you swore to give their ancestors?  Where am I supposed to get meat for all these people? They keep whining to me, saying, ‘Give us meat to eat!’  I can’t carry all these people by myself! The load is far too heavy!  If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!” Numbers 11:11-14 (NLT).

Moses was not afraid to be real with God and God didn't strike him with lightning!  But God had a solution for him.  You see Moses wasn't meant to carry the load alone.  It was meant to be shared.  I can't count the number of times in my life where I have fallen into the trap of not asking for help.  Sometimes we don't realise until we come to breaking point like Moses did...."just kill me Lord!"
Moses did the right thing, he went straight to God for a solution. Moses was meant to be doing what he was doing, he just wasn't meant to be doing it alone.  

Perhaps you find yourself in the similar position today.  The work or ministry you have been doing has become too much for you and you are weary and discouraged; or perhaps it just doesn't seem to 'fit' anymore.  Go to God with an open heart and ask Him what you should do.  Perhaps it is a new season for you and you have 'outgrown' the ministry you have been doing for some time and God wants to grow you in a different way.  When it's time for change God has a way of 'stirring our nest', making us uncomfortable and moving us into the new season.  Don't be afraid.  God will show you what to do and when to do it if you keep your antennae tuned in to Him.

Prayer:  Father God thank you for your faithfulness and love, thank you for your ear which is always open to my cry.  Help me to stay in tune and in step with your Spirit and cast all my cares and burdens on you.  Amen

Headlines

Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.  Proverbs 18:13 (NLT)

Have you been guilty of doing this?  I know I have.  Why do we do that?  We do it because we all have, like the font on my computer,  a 'default' position or mindset.  This can, of course, be affected by our upbringing, experience, religion, politics....in fact it can be affected by so many things.  Does that mean that our default position is correct?  Definitely not!  It can be very damaging, dangerous or just plain ridiculous to have a mind closed to possibilities.  

For example, I am amazed to find that there is actually still a "Flat Earth Society" on the internet that flies in the face of not only scientific fact, but photographic evidence, to the contrary.  This proves that people will believe what they want to believe.  Down through the ages people have been persecuted, prosecuted and even killed for telling the truth.  Jesus is but one example of this.

In this age of shocking or sensational headlines truth doesn't seem to matter.  There was a women's magazine that I used to buy and enjoy decades ago that now prints such rubbish and lies I am ashamed for them.  In my naivety I didn't realise that journalists/magazines could just make up their own stories if they were short on material!  

We live in an age where we must look for facts behind shock headlines.  How many times have you been pulled in by some headline appearing with news items online only to find that the article bears little relation to the headline and is just a hook to draw you into reading advertising for a product you are totally not interested in?  What a time-waster.  

Proverbs 18:13 warns us against 'spouting off' - or, I would say, even making a decision about something - before we have checked out the facts.  Great damage can be done.  It only takes a spark to get a fire going and we have to be watchful and make sure we are not inflamed by headlines that do not tell the whole truth.  Remember that "your great enemy, the devil, roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour"  (1 Peter 5:8). It's not only people that the devil is after, it's also nations. Jesus referred to Satan as "the prince of this world" and so he is.  His aim is destruction, he's called 'the destroyer' (Revelation 9:11) and prophetically in Jeremiah 4:7 it says "A lion stalks from its den, a destroyer of nations."  Nations can be destroyed by lies, wars have been started by lies and people's lives and reputations have been destroyed by lies, and even some protest marches formed or joined by people who are not always fully informed or who have ulterior motives.  

In 1839 Edward Bulwer-Lytton coined a phrase, "the pen is mightier than the sword" in his historical play Cardinal Richelieu. How true this is and how careful we must be. I believe that the media is more powerful today than at any other time in history.  Let's not be too lazy  or too prejudiced to look behind the headlines and seek out the truth.  Or if we don't want to do that we should at least hold our tongues and not repeat as truth what may later be proven to be lies or at best half truths.  Ask yourself who is generally the power behind the media and what is his motive.  "A lying tongue hates its victims:" (Proverbs 26:28).  Don't be guilty of adding fuel to what may be the destroyer's fire.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please give me wisdom both to discern truth from lies, and to hold my judgement and my tongue when things are not clear.  Help me to hold fast to your truth and to heed your warnings about speaking only truth.  Amen