April 2011 – Paula Davis

Yesterday over 2 billion people watched as Katherine Middleton married Prince William, her prince charming. As little girls many of us dream of walking down the aisle with a prince of our own & becoming a princess. I remember dressing up in long dresses and wearing a toy tiara, believing someday I might actually be a princess. My dream continued for years with my fairytale life including many children and a house with a white picket fence. That dream never became a reality for me and my prince never proposed. And honestly, my dream has now changed, and I want to challenge you today.

How much time do you spend concerned about what God may have chosen for your future and wishing God would hurry up and give you what you want? Whether we’re hoping for a spouse, a career or something else, do we spend more time thinking about that then about what God would have us do today; the people He would have us minister to and the lives He would have us touch? Being overly concerned about what may or may not be in the future is a sin. It is a slap in the face to God, somehow indicating to Him that we know better than He does what is best in our lives. We should spend each day concerned with His affairs and learn to embrace them as our own. Our loving Heavenly Father is waiting to pour out blessings into our lives…more blessings than we can ever imagine. But we must live today, and allow ourselves to see the blessings…each smile from a friend, or a stranger, each flower along the path. As we begin to see these blessings moment-by-moment and day-by-day, we realize that we could never want for more than what He has for us right now.

Lord, teach us how to live each day as a treasure from You. Thank You for each blessing in life yesterday, and for the victories each of us will have today. Remind us when we’re restless for what lies ahead to stop and spend more time with You, so that you can reveal the riches that are right in front of us. Show us how we can bless others today with the blessings you have given…with a smile, a helping hand, or a silent prayer. Help us to remember that while You want us to dream those dreams should not take the place of what we have been already given. May we not miss what you have for us today because we are too busy looking toward tomorrow.

How has your day been blessed? What dreams have you seen come true today?

Blaise Pascal is attributed with saying “there is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man.” His actual quote is much more eloquent and can be found in the footnote below,¹ but the concept strikes a chord with me, like a puzzle that is missing a piece. There are countless things that we humans try to plug into our vacuum. For some it is food, for others exercise, the constant hum of the television, or social functions that keep us too busy to notice the void. Some people even marry to avoid being alone.

I spent many years of my life trying to find the man who would be the missing piece to my puzzle. I struggled, complained and asked God “WHY?” for many years, feeling that there was something wrong with me because He didn’t bless me with a husband. But during that struggle I discovered that there is not another person on earth or any other earthly thing that can complete the puzzle of my life. Food, television, work, books…none of them hold the missing piece. Whether we are single or married, the ideal weight or need to work on that – whatever our issues, we have desires that God wants to fulfill in us, and a lover and Savior who longs to have us draw near to Him so that He can wrap us in His never failing Love, filling the void in each of us that cannot be filled by anyone here on earth and giving us a peace that passes all understanding.

I believe if we allow God to fill the vacuum in our hearts we will be blessed to overflowing. If we ignore Him and follow the world’s view of completeness the void will never be filled. We’ll always have a missing piece (peace).

¹What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself. [Pascal, Pensees #425]

When you feel that void rising up inside of you, with what do you try to fill it?

Month: April 2011

>Dreaming of Prince Charming

>The "Peace" to the Puzzle