Choose

I am joining with the #Five Minute Friday group of writers to write for 5 minutes on the one word prompt: Choose.

We choose all the time. We choose what to have for breakfast, what to wear that day. We choose our friends, our clubs and activities (though sometimes we may feel that they choose us!)

However, that is not where my thoughts are going this morning!

My Lent Bible Reading was from John 15: 18-25 about the ‘world hating us’ and I have been pondering that. We don’t like to be hated, we like to be liked! Yet, does friendship with the world mean enmity with God and if so, who do I choose?

I am reminded too that:

God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

God loved the world, but the world hated Him.

God loved the world and sent His son, but the world crucified Him.

God loved the world and sent His disciples to show and share the love and the world persecuted them.

So who do I choose the God who loves or the world who hates?

The God who loves every time.

Every single time.

And so what do I choose – to continue to love the world as Jesus does, even though it hates?

That is perhaps a harder choice to make.

Many

I’m joining with the #Five Minute Friday group of writers today to write for 5 minutes on the word prompt: Many.

Today I have many hundreds of scattered thoughts, they are all over the place, mainly to do with all the things I have to do and that panics me; disturbs me and scatters me all the more as I wonder where to start.

So I choose to sit for a moment and breathe. I choose to be still, to center myself in God. Before running head-long into the many tasks and jobs to do. I stop; I pause; I lift my hands and I acknowledge that He is God and that He has all these matters in hand.

I pause and pray. I pause and breath. I pause and praise:

1LORD, my heart is not proud;

my eyes are not haughty.

I don’t concern myself with matters too great

or too awesome for me to grasp.

2Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,

like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.

Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Psalm 131

Ignore

This post is written to link with Five Minute Friday: write for five minutes on a one-word prompt. The prompt today is “Ignore”.

When I see a word prompt I think, I reflect, I question what does this mean, what does it mean for me? So today the prompt makes me ask, what do I ignore and what do I give my attention to?

When there is an unwelcome task needing done it is easy to procrastinate, to ignore it, to distract and give my attention elsewhere.

What about God? Is it easy to ignore Him, to turn our attention elsewhere? Yes, often it is! I can fill my time with reading; watching TV, distractions anything but actually get before Him. Sometimes I don’t do this intentionally, it is just part of life and just happens when life creeps in and God gets pushed out.

But yes, sometimes it can be willful (sadly)! This happened to the Israelites too, they often willfully turned away from God, they willfully served and worshipped other gods including themselves:

Remember what it says:

“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as Israel did when they rebelled.”

Hebrews 3:15

About 7 years ago I was reading through the book of Hebrews and the above verse was really impressed upon me TODAY when you hear my voice. So a day came when I found a new on-line community bible study; I thought mmh that sounds good, wonder if any of my friends would like to do this with me, but doubts and insecurities crept in and I was about to ignore that voice when I remembered the verse: “Today when you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts“

So I put it out there and was overwhelmed by the response, seven years later we are still going strong, meeting together on-line over the Word. We have been enriched by the daily study of the word; we have grown stronger in our faith by the support and fellowship from one another, we have been blessed, so blessed and I could have so easily ignored God’s voice and we would have missed out on so much.

What are you ignoring today? Where are you focusing your attention? Are you missing out on a blessing because you are ignoring God’s voice?

Doubt

I’m joining with the #Five Minute Friday community of writers today, to write on the one word prompt; which today is: DOUBT.

Doubt.

Friend or foe?

Doubt hangs about me as if he was my friend; he is always there when I am reflecting and thinking things through. He is always there when I have questions on my mind and even in the wee small hours of the night he seems to be there.

So is he my friend? Does he actually help me? Is he a positive influence on my life?

No, he is not!

So why do I still court him?

Why do I still allow him access to my inner most thoughts?

We are always told nowadays to get rid of those ‘toxic friendships’ which are harmful to us.

So I need to get rid of this Mr Doubt fellow! I need to cut him off from my life.

I guess the fear is if I don’t have him to cling to then who or what do I cling to; who will be my new friend?

The song comes to mind, ‘What a friend we have in Jesus’

What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer!

2 Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer!

3 Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge–
take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he’ll take and shield you;
you will find a solace there.

So I need to court Jesus as my friend! I need to seek Him out.

Jesus is a good friend; His friendship is healing; His friendship is wholesome; His friendship is peaceful; His friendship is freeing.

I need to go to Him for advice when reflecting and questioning and it is Him I need to find in the wee small hours of the night and Him I need to go to for my solace.

So today I say goodbye to Doubt and welcome my friend Jesus.

Receive

Delighted to be joining #FiveMinuteFriday group for the first word of the new year! And the word prompt we are writing on today is: Receive.

So after a short ponder to see where my thoughts would take me on this word and concept of receiving I thought of this verse from John where Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman at a well and he says this to her:

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to,

you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

John 4:10

If you knew.

If you knew the gift God has for you.

And who you are speaking to.

Your would ask me

And I would give you ..

So is our asking too small, are our prayers to small, is our God too small?

If we really knew God to be the Majestic, powerful God, creator of the universe that He is, then we would not be limited in what we ask Him for!

Do we really believe that He is able to do ALL things, that nothing is impossible to Him?

Then we would ask and we would receive.

Much to ponder about this today!

Witness

Today, and for the last group of the year, I am joining in with the #Five Minute Friday community of writers, where we are writing and sharing our thoughts on the word Witness.

This is an appropriate word for us at the end of a year for we are called to bear witness to Him, our Lord and our God. Yes we are to be witnesses to Him, for our salvation, but I think also in our daily lives we are to bear witness to Him with the way we live our lives, our attitudes, our demeanour , our walk as well as our talk.

So have we ‘walked the talk’ this year? Have our lives borne witness to the fact that we are a redeemed people, that we follow Jesus, that we have a hope which is beyond anything in this world?

How have we dealt with hardships or sadnesses? Do people see that we rely on Jesus to be our help and strength in our hard times; that we are not in total despair because we trust in the sovereignty of God?

Have we shown kindness, compassion and empathy to those not only in need and struggling, but also with those who are different to us?

Have we moaned and groaned at the state of affairs in our country or have our lives been marked by thankfulness?

As one year soon draws in and a new one opens out what lessons can we learn from the past year and going forward how can we be witnesses to Jesus in our everyday lives, following and emulating Him, bearing witness to His grace and goodness to us?

Generous

The Word-prompt for today in the #Five Minute Friday group of writers is: Generous.

When I first took my first faltering pen to begin writing I listened to a week of Conference talks by Christian writers and I was blown away by how generous they all were of one another and their works. There was no jealousy, no grabbing of the limelight for themselves, no holding onto their own writing tips, rather they shared, they shared their journey, their fears, their tips, the things they had learned along the way, they encouraged.

I found kindred spirits at the conference and immediately thought, ‘I want to be like this, I want to encourage, I want to have this same generous spirit’. Where did this generosity come from? I believe it came from their walk with God, they had humble, teachable spirits and walked with a generous God.

So, then my walk with God should reflect in my life. If I am walking, talking, emulating my generous God, then that should flow on out of my own life, where I am then generous towards others with my possessions, my time, my praise, my encouragement.

We only have to look at creation to see how generous God is, the way He abundantly blesses the creation, it is not just functional, it is beautiful.

O Lord my God, how great you are!
    You are robed with honor and majesty.
²     You are dressed in a robe of light.
You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;
³     you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds.
You make the clouds your chariot;
    you ride upon the wings of the wind.
⁴ The winds are your messengers;
    flames of fire are your servants.

⁵ You placed the world on its foundation
    so it would never be moved.
⁶ You clothed the earth with floods of water,
    water that covered even the mountains.

Psalm 104

He is generous in His forgiveness of our waywardness,

Let the wicked change their ways
    and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.
    Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.

Isaiah 55:7

He is generous in His salvation.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

When we know the generosity of God then who are we to hold back, we should freely give of all that the Lord has given us.

Show

The word prompt today for the #FiveMinuteFriday group of writers is: Show.

The first thing you are told in any writing course is “show, don’t tell” but that can be hard to do, it is easier to just tell.

However, in relation to the stories in our Bibles they have captured that knack of ‘showing’ God’s goodness, faithfulness and patience with us rather than just telling of it.

Take for example the Patriarchs in Genesis they had such dysfunctional families! They lied, they deceived, they had favourite children, they had broken, messy relationships. At times we may wonder why their stories are even in the Bible, yet, yet they SHOW us God’s patience, they show His mercy, they show His grace.

And where best does God SHOW His love to us but at Calvary, on that cross of Jesus.

How do I know God loves me and has mercy on me, but in His Word, in my Bible. Again and again there are examples of God showing His love to mankind and also in my own life again and again.

View

I’m joining the #fiveminutefriday group of writers today to write on the word prompt – view.

This picture may not strictly be a “view” , but it is what I woke up to on Tuesday morning!

Such joy!

It has brought a smile to everyone’s faces.

A surprise at this late time of year.

After the sorrow of the previous week comes new life, new joy, new hope.

Surprised by joy.

“weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning”

Forget

This post is written in conjunction with the #Five Minute Friday community of writers, who write for 5 minutes on a one-word prompt. Today’s word is: Forget.

So although this is the prompt for this week, events have taken place here in our small, isolated, rural community which we will never forget.

We thought we were safe, we thought we were secure, we thought we could escape violence, darkness and evil, but they came to us this week. They came and they devastated, they caught us unaware, horrified they have shattered families and our communities. We will not forget.

The mist hangs low over us this morning, reflecting the heaviness of our moods and emotions. As the rest of the country basks in sunshine we are enveloped in the sorrow and misery of the mist. In being isolated, from what often seems the rest of the world, we are also insolated in our grief, in our sorrow.

Fragile.

Broken.

Sad.

YET let us not forget our God and all His benefits to us. Even here, even now, even in this hard our God speaks:

Do not fear, for I am with you.

Do not be afraid, for I am your God.

I will give you strength, and for sure I will help you.

Yes, I will hold you up with My right hand that is right and good (Isaiah 41:10)