Tag: Jesus Loves You

A Sweet Friendship Refreshes the Soul

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Proverbs 17:17 A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need.

I spent the morning with friends. We talked, we laughed, we ate, and we shared. We planned trips, we gave advice, and we prayed. Proverbs 27:9 says, “The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.” Friends are amazing. Really a gift from God. I am so blessed with the friends that God has placed in my path today.

I have friends that helped me get through my divorce. I have friends that helped me raise my boys. I have friends that brought me closer to God. I have friends that took me out and showed me how to have fun. Friends should add to your life and should encourage you to be a better person. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.”

I have also had friends that would find someone to dislike and then they would dislike them with all their heart.  I have had friends that pretended to be my friend but only wanted something from me.  I have had friends that were here for me during a season of prosperity but gone when the going got tough. I even had friends that encouraged me to do things I knew were wrong. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Don’t be fooled by those who says such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.”

What kind of friends are in your life today? Are they giving you heartfelt counsel and sharpening you to be a better person?  Or are they corrupting your good character? Proverbs 18:24 says, “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Find that friend. That friend that will stick closer than a brother. Pray for that friend. Pray that God will bring that friend to you. Psalms 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.”

God will help you find good friends because he is an expert! Remember John 15:13…There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.  That is what Jesus did for you. He laid down his life so you can have eternal life with him. So go ahead and ask him for help. He will know what to do.

Lord thank you for my friends. Thank you for laying down your life for me. Help me to be a true friend to those you have put in my life. Amen.

Linger With You

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

Do you have a place you go to talk to God? A place you go to open you heart to hear His heart? I don’t mean a physical place, like your bedroom or the kitchen table (even though having a prayer “closet” is a great thing too). I mean a place you go to in your heart and soul to linger with and talk to God.

I read a book by Eden and Brad Jersak called Rivers from Eden that says, “Your heart is God’s temple or home, a place designed specifically for meeting with him.” I know this may sound crazy but give it a chance and hear me out. God wants a personal relationship with you and in order to get personal you must spend time together and you must communicate back and forth.

If you sent a dozen text messages to your friend each day, you would be communicating with them but unless the communication goes back and forth, you really aren’t growing your relationship with your friend. You need to listen to what your friend has to say too.

It is the same way with God. You can go through your day shooting off comments to God like, “Thank you Jesus for this parking spot” or “Lord please give me wisdom to respond to my child” but unless you make time and create a space to hear what God is saying to you, your relationship will be very one sided.

So, take time to ask God where he wants to meet with you today. I like to close my eyes and allow him to present me with a visual scene. Sometimes it is under a tree on a pink and green blanket in a meadow with wildflowers next to a slow-moving stream, sometimes it is at a farm on a wooden swing under a big shady oak tree, and sometimes it is on a circular couch where we relax and recline to have our talks.

You should try it. Close your eyes and let God take you to a quiet place where you can talk. Then open the eyes and ears of your heart to have a real conversation and deepen your relationship with our living and loving God.

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me and wanting to spend time with me. My heart is full of your glory and I long to linger with you today. Amen.

New Year, New Word

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Matthew 13:16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.”

Each year I ask God for a word to meditate on. It always amazes me how he delivers that word to me. This year I was driving home from dropping off my son at school for basketball practice during Christmas break. The word just popped into my head, and I was like, “Wait, what? Is that even possible to get a word while I’m driving?”

I had always been IN the Word, like reading the Bible, studying a devotion, or praying when I received a word before. So, because of this I doubted the word I was given. I finished driving home and went back to work (since I was working from home that week) and didn’t think about it again until that night. 

I am reading the Bible in 365 days on the YouVersion Bible app.  I actually listen to it each night once I am all snuggled down in bed. That night I prayed, “Lord if that is the word you want me to focus on this year, please give me confirmation through these Bible verses tonight.”  The word I received while I was driving was “complete”. The first Bible verse I listened to that night included Acts 15:25-27.  It says:

“So, we decided, having come to complete agreement, to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm what we have decided concerning your question.”

So, within the first minute of diving into the Word, it said my word, complete, and the word confirm. WOW! I paused the recording and went back to read it myself to make sure I heard it correctly and I had! Is that confirmation or what? But then of course doubt crept in. I thought, “Well maybe the word “complete” is in the Bible a lot and maybe it would be impossible for me to read the Bible and not come upon the word “complete”.”

Wrong! I looked it up. I’m reading the NLT version of the Bible and the word “complete” is only used 55 times in that translation of the Bible. The word “confirm” is only used 13 times. They are only used together 1 time in the same chapter of the whole Bible and that is the chapter I was reading that night.

Coincidence? Nope! That was a God thing. So, what am I going to do with my word? I’m going to study it and all 55 verses that use it in the Bible. I’m going to look for opportunities that Jesus leads me into every day to complete things. I’m going to listen to what God is trying to tell me. It’s going to be an adventure and I’m excited about it!

Have you asked God for your word?

Lord, thank you for speaking to us everyday through your word, your creation, and other people around us. Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear what you are trying to tell us and give us wisdom to use those words to your glory. Amen

Be a Sample of Jesus

1 Corinthians 11:1 “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

I hate shopping. If you know me at all you know that I like to get new things, but I dislike going into a store…especially at Christmas time. The stores are too crowded with people milling about not paying attention to anyone else. It is hard to find what you want when you are wandering, helplessly hoping something you like or want will just jump out at you.

So, I do most my shopping online. Such an amazing invention for people like me. The only part I don’t like about shopping online is that you cannot sample or feel the products before you buy them. Because when you sample something, you know if you like it or not and then you can buy it with confidence.

Today at church, Pastor Ethan said something that really struck me. He said (and I’m paraphrasing now) that we should be samples of Jesus. When people are around us, they should be able to feel what it’s like to live a life with Jesus. I just loved that analogy. It hit so close to home for me.

So, I started to wonder, when I meet people, interact with people, eat or drink with people, are they getting a sample of what it is like to have Jesus in their lives? Gosh, I hope so. But just in case, I am going to make a point of remembering to be a sample this week. How about you? Can you do the same?

Thank you, Lord, for setting an amazing example for me to follow. Help me to be a sample of your great love to everyone I encounter this week.