All We Need Is Love

If you ask most christians today, "what is the one thing you would like more of in your life?" you would get such a wide variety of answers. Some spiritual and some not. However, I fear that the thing you wouldn't hear overwhelmingly is "love". Yet, when we read the bible we find this being the primary thing that is to be within our lives. Jesus summed up the whole law with this one word; LOVE...first towards God then towards our neighbors. Why is it that we desire so many other things instead of love? Ie. God using us in some aspect of ministry, having the gifts of the Spirit operating through us, or a number of other good things. But none of this means anything without love. Not the love that we can muster up within ourselves but the unconditional love that comes from God. This is the most important thing that can be within any child of God's life. It doesn't matter how much you know or how much you do, but how much you love. Oh, if we could just love more the body of Christ would be transformed.

Nothing Left to Trust In.

It's amazing to think that when I started serving the Lord, about 25 years ago, I thought I fully trusted in Him. Now to some degree that was true, but 25 years later I feel like I am just learning what trust in Him really is. And I readily admit that I have a long way to go.
It is easy to say, "God, I trust in You", and to the most part we believe it. But, it is a totally different thing to walk down a path that seems to leave you with nothing else to lean on except God. One by one, God seems to remove these things until we are in a place that we feel so vulnerable and alone.
The children of Israel faced the same thing, after God had miraculously delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians, God led them in a very strange route right to the Red Sea. He basically took away everything that could have been some benefit to their escape when the Egyptians came after them. However, this is the exact thing that sets the stage for God to step in.
I believe the biggest step is allowing God to take us to this place. We don't have to go; we can choose another path; one that is easier, but definately won't produce the same results.
I think when the children of Israel were crossing the Red Sea that they were terrified. Just think about, a wall of water on the right and a wall of water on the left. And everything within them was telling them that they shouldn't be there; Any minute we could drown; Problems are all around us. However, their feet were on dry ground.
You may be surrounded right now by circumstances and problems that are telling you the same things; Any minute you will be overwhelmed; You shouldn't be here; You will be defeated. Howver, by God's grace, you are still standing. You are alive! You have made it one more day! All you have to do is get your eyes off the wall of problems to your right and to your left and set you eyes on Jesus because He is going to see you through. One step at a time, a little by little. God didn't just pick up the children of Israel and put them on the other side. He made them walk through a place that they had no business being. Surrounded by their problems and just a second away from death, God led them step by step until they came out on the other side.
Your going to make it! Just trust that God is there and He will walk you through everything that shouts your demise. And on the other side you will have a song that has been born out of anguish and hardship but will be the sweetest praise you have ever known.

Momentary Relief

Have you ever had a time when God seems to pull back the veil that seems to be hanging over you and give you just a glimpse of something that makes everything your going through seem to vanish? I have had so many of these moments in the past year that I honestly can not count them all. I assume that we have these moments more often when we are walking through the valley. It is amazing what we can "get use to" at times. Sometimes trials and sufferings become such a norm that we forget what it is like to rise, even for a moment, out of these. I know God's children all over this world are experiencing these things on a level like I have never seen in my life time. God is preparing His church and His people to be a true representation of His Glory. We are learing to trust in Him, lean on Him, and become completely surrendered to His will. These are all things that I thought I knew all about and have been doing for some time. However, I feel now that I am only beginning to learn. In the midst of this though, God will lift me up in a moment and give me a view, that is so refreshing, that He is in control and all is well. I know that I need these times and they usually come when I am not expecting it.
I pray that God will lift your veil, if just for a moment, and give you a glimpse of Him. That's all it takes. Just one glimpse of something we didn't see and our spirit's are lifted and our soul is rejuvenated.

Precious in the Sight of the Lord

Psalm 116:15 tells us "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." I don't think we can even begin to comprehend the beauty of this verse. We see loss, heartache, hurt, and death, but God sees victory, union, perfection, and life eternal. Maybe it's because we are so surrounded with the material and only occasionaly see with spiritual eyes that facing the loss of someone in the family of God is so tough.
But I find comfort in this: Anything good that I have received from someone in the Lord, was not something from them but Christ within them. Though they may be gone, Jesus is still here; within me and others. So, the true life is not gone but still here to bring life on an ever increasing level!