We live in a dog eat dog kind of world. Every moment is about trying to get ahead in life. We need to be better than everyone else in class or in the office. We need to be the best on the team and the number one in the league. We need to even be better than we were yesterday for crying out loud! Nothing is ever good enough. But ever happened to humility? This week we talked about humbling ourselves versus being humbled by someone else.
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Maybe you’ve never been lost or abandoned. Maybe you’ve never had that moment in your life when you felt like you needed a superhero to swoop in to save you. Maybe you’ve never come face to face with a life or death moment. But we’ve all needed rescued at one point or another. Maybe you were lost as a child and you panicked when you couldn’t find your parents. Perhaps you needed someone to come to your aide when your day threw you so hard for a loop that you couldn’t find which way was up. No matter what the apparent devastation you’ve faced, there’s a deeper hurt and bigger emergency from which we need saving.
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As a parent I’ve figured out that communicating with my children at various stages of development can be at times challenging to say the least. From the time they’re babies, our children are learning how to communicate. Whether it’s teaching your child to sign before they speak, so they can tell you they’re hungry, or teaching them to say their first words, or when to keep their mouths closed – communication is learned over time.
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I was never a science type growing up. I mean I used a magnifying glass from time to time but not to look at molecules and see them up close but to concentrate the heat from the sun and burn leaves and yes even the occasional ant or spider. But this isn’t about burning bugs, today we’re going to look at the way we look at problems in our lives. Do we look at our problems through a magnifying glass or a telescope?
Continue readingAs Paul wraps up his letter to the Colossians, he does so with an emphasis on prayer. He tells them to pray without ceasing – being steadfast in prayer. I don’t know about you but I’m not the greatest example of a steadfast prayer life. But a mentor of mine who was recently called to be with Jesus reminded me how important prayer was. He told me that prayer not only would shape my life but the lives of those around me. This is why I stopped telling people that I’d pray for them. Instead I just offer to pray with them.
But prayer isn’t just so God fixes things. That’s the easy time to pray. We pray when we need something. We pray when we’re stressed. We pray when we want God to do something. Occasionally we’ll pray a little thank you in there somewhere. But the prayers that Paul talks about here are prayers that start before our feet hit the floor in the morning and go until our heads hit the pillow at night. You see prayer isn’t just for God to do something or thank him for what he’s already accomplished.
Prayer fuels the proclamation of the gospel. Share on XPrayer fuels the proclamation of the gospel.
When we read the bible or share it with others. When we enter worship or leave to go home. When we start a conversation with a friend or start a new school year. When we leave our job for the last time or enter the doors of a job for the first time. In every situation God wants us to call on him. He wants us to ask him for power to be his witness right there, wherever we are. It’s that simple. Prayer is the fuel we need share our faith.
Maybe it’s a business trip. Maybe it’s a move to a new place. Maybe it’s just a temporary distance. This song was written by one of the members of For King and Country as they were on tour. He was praying that God would hold his wife while he was away. I’m not sure who you’re away from right now or who you’re praying this song over but take comfort and know that God is doing just that holding her tonight.
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Growing up many of us read the kids’ book The Little Engine That Could. This story is one of encouragement and confidence. The moral of the story is that this little engine believed he could accomplish the massive task in front of him. It was a mountain of a task, pun intended! You see he had to pull a loaded train over a tall mountain and no one was willing to help him. Instead of throwing in the towel and giving up, he dug deep and saw the mountain one revolution of his little wheels at a time. The book is filled with his never ending chorus – I think I can.
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This week we took another chunk of Paul’s letter to the church of the Colossians. Up until this point we’ve seen Paul tell us to follow Christ. He’s been pretty specific about how important it is to follow but pretty abstract about what that looks like in our day to day lives. Here in Colossians 3:18-4:1 he takes time to break this down and applies it to our most critical life relationships.
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I recently stumbled accidentally across a song that has pretty much been on repeat for the last several days. This song isn’t fast. It’s not super loud or even upbeat but wow is it ever powerful! Hillsong has a way of crafting songs that hit the message of the bible perfectly! If you’ve ever wanted to know the story of Jesus but don’t know where to start in the bible, then this song might be a great place to begin.
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In our fast paced, soundbite society it’s easy to appear like we’re listening when we’re actually not! It’s a terrible thing to have someone right in front of you and pretend to listen. But all of us do it! Just about everyone we meet is doing this. We are too! If we’re honest, we’re thinking about a million other things when someone is talking to us. We think about everything from what’s for supper to what are we going to say next. Forming our reply isn’t listening – just in case you didn’t know. So how do we get better at listening?
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