Excess

By Cynthia Ruchti –

“Whatever you don’t need, just leave it here.” That’s what I told him.

My husband was leaving for a fishing trip early in the morning. He knew better than to wake me, just so we could have one more kiss.

Leaving before dawn meant he had to go to bed the night before way earlier than my night-owl self could imagine. With my husband contentedly snoozing and dreaming of smallmouth bass and walleyes, I closed up the house for the night and made him the lunch I knew he’d need for the trip. But how large a lunch? Did he plan to stop on the way? How long was it going to take him to get to his destination? I should have asked before he fell asleep.

To make sure he had enough, I made him an abundant sack lunch and left a note. In addition to, “I love you. Have a great time,” the note also said, “Oh, the lunch? Whatever you don’t need, just leave here.”

When I got up the next morning, I saw the note with his own scribbled “Thanks! Love you, too!” added to the bottom. Several of the elements of the lunch I’d prepared rested in the fridge, waiting for someone else to need them.

Hmm. Made me think. I wonder if that isn’t a message the Lord communicates to His children. “I’ve prepared more than enough for you, given more than enough. Whatever you don’t need, just leave here for someone else.”

I think the Lord also says, “You’re carrying a load of things that aren’t helping. They’re weighing you down and making the trip more cumbersome than it has to be. If you don’t need them—and trust Me, you don’t—leave them here. With Me”

Who would argue? “But, Lord, I need that worry, that anxiety, that stress. I need that remorse, this extra bag of guilt for things You’ve already forgiven. Don’t I?”

A popular praise song reminds us that none of us has time for the upkeep of maintaining or hauling around cares and regrets that the Lord has already covered with His Love.

PRAYER: Father God, it’s the weight of a deadline that’s creating unnecessary baggage today. Thinking about it is making it worse than it actually is. I don’t need to haul that around when I’m trying to be nimble. Lord, help me leave it with You. And tomorrow’s care? I’ll need Your help with that, too.

“Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for You” (1 Peter 5:7 KJV).

 

Next Time, Call for Help

By Robin J. Steinweg –

A boy and his little sister chased down a purse-snatcher at Daytona Beach. The thief, a young woman of twenty, nabbed their mother’s purse and took off with the children in hot pursuit. The ten-year-old girl followed the snatcher into a bathroom and ended up with the purse, while the pilferer ended up in police custody shortly thereafter.

It sounds like a movie script, doesn’t it? I can almost hear kids everywhere cheering and mothers groaning in horror, imagining what might have happened. The children’s own mother said she was proud of them, but told them, “Next time, you call for help!”

Indeed. I wonder if, in the privacy of home, their parents grounded them forever. Still, I can identify with these little heroes. They saw, they conquered. They did it themselves, though everything was stacked against them.

The desire “to do it ourselves” is steeped in us pretty deeply. We assert our independence at a young age. I remember my sons demanding to dress themselves, and coming out in a cacophony of color and patterns, putting everybody’s eyes at peril. We admire the millionaire who started with nothing, the athlete who overcame physical handicaps, and marvel at the log cabin that served as the birthplace for a future president.

We like to do things for ourselves.

What is it that makes me determined to do it on my own?  It might be stubbornness. More likely, it’s simply my old companion, Pride, and his brother Foolishness. “I don’t need to pray about this—I can do it myself.” “Pray? It’s not that bad yet!” “I’m not going to bother God with it; He’s too busy with more important things.” “God helps those who help themselves.”

Pride nudges me and says, “It’ll look great on your resume if you do it alone.”

Foolishness forgets that a God who creates things out of nothing—with just a word— is hardly going to be hindered by time. Busy? Ha!

Wisdom is more likely to say, “God help those who try to help themselves!”

PRAYER: Lord, forgive my stubborn pride and protect me when I go chasing after life without coming to You first. I choose from here on out to chase hard after You instead. You’re with me always, and You know what’s best for me.

” The Lord is near to all who call on Him… He hears their cry and saves them” (Psalm 145:18 – 19 NIV).

 

Dominated

By Jennifer Slattery –

Some days I feel like I’m tottering on a fraying rope being pulled in two directions. It’s an emotional tug-of-war and only I can determine the winner. Will I give in to my sinful nature that seeks comfort, pleasure, self-gratification, and the path of least resistance or will I lay it all on the alter in continual surrender.

According to Romans 8:5-8 (NIV), there’s no middle ground. Either I’m sold out 100% for Christ, offering my body as a living sacrifice, or I’m living to please myself.

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.  So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.  For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. 

If I’m not controlled by the Spirit, I’m dominated by my sinful nature and although this sinful nature may appear pleasurable at first, it leads to death—death of relationships, death of ministries, death of marriages. The moment I give into my sinful nature, I wage war on the things of God.

My sinful nature leads to spiritual slavery, deception, and self-destruction, whereas surrender leads to freedom. So why would I ever choose my will over God’s? Perhaps because I deceive myself into believing I can’t do better. Do I not understand the power of Him who lives within me? When Christ died on the cross, He broke the power of sin. When I accepted Him into my life, He came to live inside me. This means I have the strength and power of the victorious, risen Savior living within. Sin—selfishness, greed, irritability, judgmental attitudes, fear, anxiety—has no power over me, unless I allow it to.

Each day I have a choice. Will I allow sin to dominate my thinking or will I surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit. And each day, I will reap the consequences of my choice.

Too Much Information

By Jane Thornton –

Publicly, I don’t like to admit the possession of the baser bodily functions.

A howl of protest and laughter echoes across the miles as my family reads that claim, but remember I said publicly. Although I take some pride in being open and frank, contrarily, I also enjoy the ability to maintain the feminine facade of a southern lady.

Perhaps this inclination derives from the many stories of our close family friend, Aunt Susie. At a party one evening, she had consumed three glasses of Pepsi. A man watched in fascination and exclaimed, “How does your bladder handle that?”

Straight-faced and batting her blue eyes, Aunt Susie drawled in her best Scarlett O’Hara voice, “In the South, we don’t have those.”

My desire for privacy and knack for denial was recently challenged in the classroom. On a day-to-day basis, I easily fit my restroom requirements into the stringent schedule of a high school teacher. However, my aging digestive tract has grown a bit temperamental of late, demanding attention at the oddest times.

After only fifteen minutes of a fifty-minute class, in the middle of a very interactive lesson, a cramp struck. As any experienced teacher can do, I carried on without a hitch, thrusting the pain to the back of my mind.

Nature would not be ignored. A sense of urgency shortened my breath. No way could I last till the end of the period. The new goal became to finish the activity and set my students to work independently. Twelve vocabulary words to go.

I perched on the edge of a student desk. I circumspectly practiced Lamaze breathing. Could the nearby students hear my noisy intestines? Sitting wasn’t helping.

I hopped to my feet. Six more words to go. I began to pace. A cold sweat—um, I mean glow—broke out on my brow. I swung my arms. Definitions spewed forth. I stopped giving examples. Forget about student interaction; I gave them answers.

I dashed for the door. The lock pulled me up short. Fumbling, I made it out and sprinted. “Write some sentences!” My vague instructions floated over my shoulder.

Business finished, I returned sheepishly to class. As I entered, a precious teenager, who obviously does not share my inhibitions, called out, “Miss, did you have to go bo-bo?”

“Let’s talk about research.” Class resumed.

At such moments, I tend to question God’s plan. Creative, omnipotent . . . He could have designed our bodies with a waste disposal system that was pleasant, or better yet, no waste at all. This episode set me pondering His purpose. Why are parts of life so messy?

Sometimes I think our bodies remind us that we are all equal. “Rich and poor have this in common:    The LORD is the Maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2 NIV). That’s not all we have in common!

When humiliation reverberates through my system, I think perhaps He designed such a system to keep us in our place. “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” (Romans 9:20-21 NIV).

Comment Prompt:  Share an embarrassing moment – even better, one that taught you a lesson.

Praying with Grandma

By Carin LeRoy –

The story is told of two little boys who were praying with their Grandma one night before bed. The older boy prayed first about his day and all the things he had done. Then the younger brother started to pray in a loud voice.

“God,” he said, “I really need a bike, some new toys….”

He continued praying through his list of all the things he wanted. When he finished, his older brother said, “Why did you pray so loudly? God isn’t deaf.”

“Yea,” he said, “but Grandma is.”

This little boy had already decided how he thought his prayer should be answered, and by whom.  How many times do we do the same thing? We pray, but rather than wait on God’s answer and timing, we try to implement our own answers. Rather than trusting God, we seek out answers by other means.

One example of this in the Bible is Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 16. God promised that He would give them an heir, yet for years God did not fulfill that promise. Instead, Sarah decides to give Abraham her servant-girl to bear his child. Rather than refuse, Abraham agrees, and Hagar becomes pregnant. Strife then develops with Sarah, and years of anger, pain and resentment result. Instead of waiting on God’s timing for His promised child, they created their own answer. Thousands of years later, we still see tension between the descendents of Ishmael and Isaac.

In 1 Samuel, we read the story of Hannah, who also was barren. Fervently she prayed for God to give her a child. She waited for God’s answer and eventually gave birth to a baby. When he was weaned, she dedicated him to the Lord. He served with the high priest Eli, became a prophet and judge, anointing the first two kings of ancient Israel. He became a great man of God and leader of his nation.

Waiting on God’s answer for your prayers is worth the wait.

PRAYER: Lord, give me patience to wait for answers to my prayers. Keep me mindful that You know what is best and that Your timing is always perfect.

QUOTE: “God teaches us that an answer to prayer is conditional upon the amount of faith that goes into the petition. To test this, He delays the answer. The superficial pray-er sinks into silence when the answer is delayed. But the man of prayer hangs on and on. The Lord recognizes and honors his faith and gives him a rich, abundant answer to his faith-evidencing, persistent prayer.” E.M. Bounds

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