Slowed down by thoughts

I went out for a run this morning and didn’t take my music with me, I thought it would be fine I would have a nice time of contemplation.  But before I knew it I had slowed to a walk, so I started running again and again I realised I had slowed to a walk! How did that happen?  Was it because my thoughts were negative, grumbling ones whereas you need upbeat ones to keep running?

Instead of bouying me along my thoughts were actually slowing me down! I was focussing on negative things, my eyes down instead of ahead.  So easy isn’t it to get caught in a spiral of negative thinking, to start listening to the devil and the insidious doubts and thoughts he puts in your mind and before you know it he has twisted situations so that you are seeing them from a negative point of view and you start walking the path of self-pity?

How could I change the pace of my thinking? How could I change my thoughts to see me through to the end of the run?

Only praise and thanksgiving can lift my eyes off myself and on to God.  Only praise and thanksgiving up my pace and keep me going.  So today I am thankful for our beautiful sunny weather, I am thankful for the sweet yellow gorse in bloom , I am thankful for the delicate bluebells gracing the woodlands, I am thankful for the mountains which surround me.  I am thankful for my family and that God holds them in His hands.  I am thankful that God’s love reaches down to me, thankful for His grace to stop me in my tracks and gets me going again.

Today I choose to up my pace.   Today I choose to look ahead to Jesus.  Today I choose to be thankful.

 

What do we pray for each other?

I have been challenged this week about what we pray for each other.  If I ask you what would you like me to pray for you this week, what is your reply ? Perhaps you can’t think of anything specific or perhaps you have lots of “things” in your life which you are unsatisfied with, which are causing you grief and which you want removed, or dealt with or lessened.

I am challenged every time I hear this song by Laura Story:- Blessings

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

 

So what do you want me to pray for you this week?

For God to remove your burdens/your trials or for you to know God in the midst of the trials?  For God to take away the things that cause us to doubt or that we would be strong enough to hold on and believe that God has higher purposes for us?

This is what the apostle Paul prayed for the Christians in Thessalonica, who were facing severe hardships :- that their faith would flourish, that their love would grow, that they would know God’s grace (His unmerited favour) in their lives, and for peace, and for strength for them to complete all the good things they are prompted to do through their faith.

This is what I pray for you this week my friend.

And for me – I ask that you would pray that my faith would flourish, that my love would grow and that I would have the strength to obey the promptings of the Spirit within my heart.

Faith, Hope and Love

When you hear “faith, hope and love”, what do you think of? What kind of  picture does it conjure up ?  You probably think of either a wedding ceremony where the passage from 1 Corinthians 13 is read or you think on that discourse of Paul’s on love.  But actually in studying 1 Thessalonans I realise that it means so much more.

Yes, it is a recurring theme throughout this first letter of Paul’s to the Thessalonians.  Here, they seem to be pillars of our trust in God.

FAITH:- in our Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for us in dying for our sins.  Trusting that He is in control, that He loves us and one day will come back for us to take us to Himself.

HOPE:-  grounds for feeling hopeful about the future.  Optimistic, expectant, confident in the promises God has made to us and that He will bring them to fruition.  A hope  founded on the death and resurrection of Jesus and His coming again, a hope for a better tomorrow because ultimately this world is not our home.

LOVE:- is not defined by my love for others, but by His love for me.  His love which went to the depths for me.  Love vast as the ocean reaching out to me.

Faith, Hope and Love are not mere sentimental words, but practical issues to grapple with, experience and put into practice in the nitty gritty of every day life.  It is about living them out.

Holding on to FAITH in the midst of the trials, remaining HOPEful as we wait patiently for the Lord’s promises to be fulfilled and LOVing others as Christ loved us.

In what situations today do you need to put Faith, Hope and love into practice?

 

“As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds and the enduring hope you have because of the Lord Jesus Christ.”            (1 Thessalonians 1:3)