What are you willing to do for God? Many of us would be quick to say we would do anything. We would serve the hungry, help build homes for the homeless and perhaps even travel to the ends of the earth. But how much are we truly willing to give up?

Abraham was a man who loved God with all his heart and was given the promise that he would father many nations. Abraham was faithful throughout his life, but still had to wait 100 years for the promise of a son to be fulfilled. We can only guess at Abraham’s elation and joy at the birth of his son. The love and pride he felt must have made him want to burst, and I imagine he immediately began making plans for who he hoped his son would become. As Isaac grew Abraham soon learned that his time of trusting was not over.

Then God said, `Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. The he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.                                                                Genesis 22:2,9-10 NIV

God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son – to give up the fulfillment of his promise in order to prove his love for the Lord. I can’t count the number of times I’ve asked myself why God would ask something so unthinkable of a man who was so faithful to Him.  It is often difficult to understand why the Lord requires from us things that we don’t understand, even things that seem downright cruel.

But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”  “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.                                       Genesis 22:11-12 NIV

Abraham and Isaac’s story has a happy ending. God provided a ram for the sacrifice, and Isaac lived to tell of God’s provision.

As I read the story of Abraham and Isaac I am compelled to ask myself, “What is the Lord requiring me to sacrifice?”

Is it my independence?

My pride?

Is it the desire for my dream job?

To grow old with a Godly man who loves me almost as much as he loves the Lord?

What is He asking you to lay down for Him?

No matter what God calls us to sacrifice, we must be willing to give it up; to lay it down on the altar in front of my Lord and slay it…proclaiming that even our most precious possessions on earth or our strongest desire is not stronger than our love for God and the choice to obey Him regardless of the cost.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.                                                                              Psalm 37:4 NIV

This promise came generations after Abraham’s faithfulness, but I believe is still true for us today. When we delight ourselves in Him our desires will align with God’s and we will be blessed by them. We may find our desires remain the same as they have been for years or they may change. But we can cling to God’s promises and know that our faithfulness and sacrifice will be rewarded. No matter what the outcome we must focus on God and our faithfulness to Him, not on the reward waiting for us some day.

This promise gives me peace in the puzzle of life. I hope you find that peace today as well.

blessings and peace to you…

Paula

This Monday morning on my drive to work my mind was all over the place. I wondered where the school bus was that’s usually in front of me, anticipated what was in store for me at work and questioned whether or not I could finish mowing the lawn when I got home. Somewhat distracted, I rounded a curve and gasped in awe!

Suspended above me was a hot air balloon, gracefully gliding in the sky.  Turning my head to the left I was awe-struck again by two more balloons, one on its way down. I was thrilled! As I glanced to my right, two more balloons appeared! I could hardly believe my eyes.

What a wonderful beginning to my morning! The thoughts in my head changed from the worries and cares of the day ahead to rejoicing and thanking God for this special “lift” on a Monday morning. I began to concentrate on praising the Lord for my blessings and praying for friends, family and even strangers and what they were facing in life. Truly a weight was lifted and my heart began to float like the balloons I left behind.

As my car began its ascent into the hills where I work I was suddenly filled with wonder. Over the weekend God had used His paintbrush on the trees all around me.

 

As the sun danced on the leaves I was at a loss for words. I attempted to cry out to God in thanks for the beauty around me, but was truly awestruck at the wonder of His glorious creation and the fact that He put it all there for ME!

I was reminded of the Psalmist’s reflection on the awe and wonder of the Lord:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.              – Psalm 19:1-4 NIV

On days like Monday it is easy to worship God. But some days it’s not. Some days I’m hurried, harried, or just going through the motions of life. I see no awe or wonder when life feels monotonous and I’m struggling to get through the day, physically, mentally or emotionally. 

It’s not that the awe and wonder aren’t there.

It’s just that I’m too self-centered to look around me and see it.

In his book “Crazy Love” Francis Chan gives a similar perspective:

“It may sound ‘un-Christian’ to say that on some mornings I don’t feel like loving God, or I just forget to. But I do. In our world, where hundreds of things distract us from God, we have to intentionally and consistently remind ourselves of Him.”

I agree with Francis that this is the key. I am committing to swim against the tide of apathy and ordinary and wake up to the wonder around me.  I have promised God that I will be more intentional in looking for areas of awe and wonder.

Every day is filled with awe…we just need to allow ourselves to see it.

Wonder is all around us. I wonder why we so often miss it.

Peace in my life’s puzzle includes finding awe and wonder in each day, and remembering to give credit to the God who created it. I wonder if you’ll look closer too.

Blessings and peace to you…

Paula

Winnie The Pooh once asked, “Did you ever stop to think and forget to start again?” I don’t seem to have that problem. I seem to think constantly and sometimes it’s overwhelming. Occasionally I even wake myself up in the night thinking. I weigh options and mull things over, not wanting to settle for something less than the best. I’m not often spontaneous, I’m much more of a “routine” person. I will admit that at times this has more cons than pros, but that’s the way I’m programmed.

I was mowing lawn today and surprise! I got to thinking. The lawn mower is an ideal thinking spot as there isn’t much else to do whilst riding along making beautiful rows of freshly mown grass. Anyway as I was thinking I began wishing there was a device that would record what I was thinking it while I was thinking it so I wouldn’t lose my deliberations after hours on the mower.

As I was dreaming about my special thought capturing device it hit me. What if this device captured every thought I was thinking…all the time? If I couldn’t turn my thought snatcher off and on, how would I feel about what it captured? How often are my thoughts unkind, unruly and un-Christlike? And what if others could access the thoughts on my device? Would I be embarrassed by what they encountered?

Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 to

“demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the

 knowledge of God, and take captive every thought

to make it obedient to Christ.”

This challenge is posed to every believer. What we think really does matter. We may not have a machine that records our thoughts, but we do have a Father and Creator who sees our hearts and hears our thoughts. Whether or not they are Godly matters to Him and it should matter to us. Our thoughts about strangers matter just as much to Him as thoughts about our friends and family. When we take our thoughts captive we make them matter to us as well. Deciding if they are pleasing to God and making the choice to stop thinking those that are not is a discipline that we learn by drawing closer to God through scripture, prayer and examining the life of Christ. Becoming more like Him inside and out is the ultimate joy in life and brings everlasting peace.

So as I thought some more about my thought snatching device I realized that I have some work to do before I want all of my thoughts captured…at least externally. I will have to keep working on taking my thoughts captive.

And for now I’ll stick to paper and pencil!

blessings and peace to you!

Paula

As September dawns and summer is quickly fading I am tempted to look back with longing and want to go back. I love summer with it’s warmth and carefree atmosphere. The days are filled with the lightheartedness of kids who are out of school and ready for adventure, the look and smell of freshly cut grass, beautiful flowers all around, and the sense of togetherness as families seek to spend more time together vacationing, camping, or just enjoying time tossing a ball around in the back yard. The thought of it fading into fall (which only leads to winter) gives me a melancholy feeling, and I will admit that this morning one of my first thoughts was, “I want a DO-OVER!!”

I was soon convicted however, that life should not be lived in a rearview mirror.

I’m not suggesting that we should not look back and remember or even evaluate the past. God equipped us with memories and He wants us to use them. He doesn’t want us to learn or experience something just to cast it aside with no more regard for what benefit we gained from it.

But at the same time, God does not want us to live life in a rearview mirror. Each day we are given is a gift from God, an opportunity to learn more and to touch the lives of others with the words we say or the things we do. God has a plan for each of us, and in order to fulfill that plan we need to keep going, focusing ahead of us and not living in the past.

In Philippians 3:12-14 Paul gives us an example to follow:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Whether the past has been filled with positive or negative things in your life, I encourage you to leave them in the past and look ahead to what is still coming. Seasons change, but God does not. God’s plans aren’t affected by the seasons of the earth, they are dependent on how much we focus on Him and look for Him in each day…pressing on to find the gift that is a part of today.

May you find the peace that is waiting for you today, and know that a glance in your rearview mirror is good, but to find where you are going you need to look ahead.

blessings to you on this first day of September!

Paula

One of the most wonderful things about God’s creation is the diversity. The contrast of the cool green grass against the warm blue sky, dotted with the fluffy white clouds and at times a warm colorful rainbow shows us His diversity of color in creation. 

In the midst of any group of people we see another beautiful palette in our skin colors – dark, light, and all shades in between. As we look into each pair of eyes we see not only the greens, blues, browns and hazels looking back at us, but if we look carefully we also see through the eyes to get a glimpse of the soul. The changing eyes of humans show our happiness, love, grief, anger and so many more emotions that are given us by our Creator.

God also knew with all that is to be done for His Kingdom we couldn’t have the same skills and passions, so within each of us He planted seeds waiting to sprout, then blossom into a ministry for Him. Some are speakers, some writers. He gifted some of us with a passion for missions, some as pastors, children or youth ministers and others as musicians and worship leaders. God also remembered that we need people behind the scenes to make everything run smoothly.

Our diversity is very important for God’s work to be accomplished. But looking out the window at a rose bush I was reminded of the “catch” to diversity in God’s creation.

One color of blossom on a rose bush is beautiful, but this bush was uniquely created. It was designed to highlight not just one, but three bloom colors. Without all three colors it would not be all that it is meant to be.

1 Corinthians 12 reminds us of God’s desire for His body. He loves each of us as individuals and created each of us with a great deal of beauty. But combined with the other colors in His palette we become the complete picture of His creation. One part is not more important and no one’s importance is lesser. Just as we don’t look at the parts of our own bodies and say that the foot isn’t as important as the eye, etc. we should not look at each part of the body of Christ to figure out which is the most important.

If the peace in your puzzle is off kilter, look at your part in the body of Christ. Do you see yourself as lesser important in the midst of others? Or do you see yourself as better than the other parts? Either view can rob us of our peace and the beauty of God’s creation suffers.

I encourage you today to become acquainted with 1 Corinthians 12 and pray about your part in the body of Christ. Find the positive qualities of those around you, and of yourself. And remind yourself of the balance. God loves you! He created you as a beautiful piece of His puzzle. 

May you find your peace in Him today.                                                                                                  Paula

Some days the grace and goodness of God seem to rush over me like a waterfall. Life seems so full of good times and the promise of a rich and blessed future.

Other days are hard. Life seems to press in on me and the blessings are hard to see. The waterfall seems to have slowed to a trickle.

On those days I find comfort in knowing that Jesus had times like that too. Throughout the gospels we see times when Jesus was overwheled by crowds and pressed in by those who wanted something from Him.

What did Jesus do during those times? He found an opportunity, withdrew to a “lonely place” and prayed (Luke 5:16). These were His times of recharging and refreshing. He drew closer to His Father to be fed and to rest in His strength. Those times gave Jesus what He needed to continue on in His own ministry.

We need those times of refreshing as well. When we retreat to a place where God can fill us and strengthen us…even for a few minutes we will also be ready to continnue our ministries…at home, at work, at church, wherever God has placed us. In His strength we will have all we need, even when we don’t feel the rush we might be hoping for.

God promises to supply all our needs, and He is faithful to keep His promises. It may still feel like just a trickle, but we will find that trickle is just enough.

The other evening the movie Peter Pan was on in the waiting room of the clinic where I work. In that movie there is a scene where Peter’s best friend Tinkerbell is dying and Peter is trying to save her. He calls on all the children who might be able to hear him to clap their hands and say, “I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies.” Tink was saved and she could go off with Peter to rescue Wendy.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we believe in fairies, but I do see a parallel here to our lives as Christians. Tinkerbel was Peters best friend and was by his side to help him. All he had to do was believe. As Christians we are blessed we are blessed with a much more powerful Spirit – the Spirit of God.

Romans 8:26-27 tells us:

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. (NIV)

The thing is, just as Peter and the children of Neverland had to believe in fairies to keep Tinkerbell from dying, we must believe in the power of the Spirit of God in order to be assisted by Him in our own lives. In the midst of a struggle or sorrow it can be very difficult to believe that we will come out on the other side seeing something good, either in our life of the lives of others. But God makes that promise to us in His word, and God is never slow in keeping His promises!

Romans 8 goes on to say:

 ²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (NIV)

All we have to do is believe…God will do the rest!