Assume

‘Assume‘ is the word prompt we are writing on for 5 minutes today in the #Five Minute Friday community of writers.

We assume all sorts of things in our daily lives, we make judgements, decisions based on our assumptions whether we have evidence or not to base them on.

One thing I do assume though is that I know! I assume I know what is best; what is best for me; what is best for those around me and occasionally even what is best for my country and the world! And when I assume I know what is best I often by-pass God. I know what is best so along I go that road which I think is best; I assume the obstacles along the way are not right and so I try to get rid of them, go round them, even rant at them!

When I assume I know what is best for others I step in, I try to direct, I try to lift burdens, ease situations, with the goal of making someone’s life easier or happier. In my assumptions, in my actions, in my interference I am assuming that I know better than God and that God needs a little helping along to make things right or good or easy.

I assume I know better than God!

I wouldn’t normally admit that, it is audacious thing to say! Yet it is my actions which betray me; my lack of trust which leads me to want to control; my dictating to God which shows a lack of submission to His Sovereign ways and will.

Thankfully God is a gracious God and He leads me back to Himself again and again till I come to a place of acceptance and say ‘not my will, not my way, not my timing, but Yours Lord.’.

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!

A Funeral, A Fire and A Wedding

Life is a strange mix, isn’t it?

This past month of April I feel as if we have had the full range of human emotions – sadness, despair, fear, joy and excitement, all brought through the everyday experience of everyday living.

Firstly there was the sudden and tragic death of a very dear Christian man in our community. He was what is known as a ‘character’, his death, like all deaths was sad, but oh how I heard him chuckle at the number and range of people squashed into the church, hearing the gospel as they attended his funeral. He would have rejoiced to see people there who have never attended church before!.

Joy in the midst of sorrow.

Then last week our community experienced the fear of the power of fire which took hold of the surrounding heathland, it raged day and night threatening our villages. What at first appeared spectacular, became something to be frightened of. The admiration for our firecrews grew as they battled day and night and the relief was palpable when the fire was finally extinguished.

Relief after the fire.

Then at the weekend I attended a wedding, a happy event yes, but for me also tinged with sorrow. I was happy and glad for the groom to have found happiness again in his widowerhood, to have found joy after his sadness. But for me, the best and longest friend of his late wife, it was filled with memories and sadness, her children and her other friends all there reminding me of her and the gap she left.

Sorrow in the midst of joy.

I don’t want it to be a cliché when I quote, “For everything there is a season and a time”, but just like the weather in Scotland when you can experience all 4 seasons in one day, so also it appears that in life you can experience different circumstances all in one short month accompanied with the different range of emotions within each season. Joy in Sorrow; Sorrow in Joy; Awe in Fear; Relief in Tears.

I think it is to allow yourself to experience, to go through the emotions, the grief, the fear, the pain, the joy and the happiness and to remember that for everything – there is a purpose under heaven and to submit to God in each of these times and seasons.

Ecclesiastes 3:

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

Last Word – Thrive

My ”Word” for this past year (2021) has been Thrive, the aim was not just to survive the year, but thrive in and throughout the year.

So in order to do that I set myself monthly reflections and goals to achieve that, things which would help thrive that month, things like books to read, bible studies to complete, relationships to work on, things to pray through, etc.

So as I reflect back, have I thrived? Have I done more than survive?

I think so, to a certain extent anyway! I don’t in anyway want that to sound smug or prideful, but rather it is thanks to God for His sustaining, life-flowing power that the praise is given.

In a year that would have been difficult anyway, it was even more important to keep my conscious contact with God going and to draw up from His life giving source so that I could still flourish and bear fruit. I have survived those difficulties of Lockdowns and restrictions on social life and contacts and in many ways I have thrived and my knowledge and trust in God have increased by His grace and faithful hand on my life.

As I have seen the Sovereignty of God over those world events which have impacted us all, to a greater or lesser extent whether directly or indirectly, I have come to a greater awe of God and realised in a deeper way that really we are mere mortals and have no control over those things. And as I have come to that understanding and have again and again had to hand over those ‘out of my control’ situations over to God, that has deepened my trust and strengthened my faith.

Sometimes God places us in hard circumstance in order to put our roots down deep, so that we will not just survive, but flourish in the year of drought. For many of us that is what this year has been for us, but with our roots down deep we can keep on flourishing, keep on thriving.

They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.

Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

Psalm 1:3

What about you? How well have you survived the year? Have you thrived? Where are you giving thanks for God’s sustaining power?

How

Joining with the #Five Minute Friday group of writers to write on a one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today’s prompt is: How

In my Ladies’ Bible Study we have been studying the Woman at the Well in Samaria and when Jesus offers her living water she is puzzled. How would He get this water, where would it come from? He had no bucket and the well was deep – two obstacles stood in His way, two impossibilities.

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.

”11“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water?

John 4:11

But with God all things are possible! His ways are Higher than our ways, His thoughts Higher than our thoughts! We may not know how He will do something, we may not know where our supply may come from, but we can trust the one who promised that He could and would supply all our needs and that He would be with us.

We may be facing some obstacles, there may be impossibilities in the way BUT God! We may not not the “hows, whys or wherefores,” but we may know the Great I AM, the God who will provide us with living water from Himself, the very source of life.

He will open the way and provide the means, we don’t know how and we don’t know when, but we trust His Word, we trust Him.

Tomorrow

Hello & welcome, today I am joining with the  #FiveMinuteFriday  Group. We gather every week to freewrite for five minutes flat on a single writing prompt. This week’s prompt is: Tomorrow.

Well, in a week that has seen more change with each passing hour it is impossible to predict what tomorrow may bring! At work all week every hour brought e-mails regarding the changing situation, changing plans, changing procedures till now – lock-down!

It is certainly a time of trial, a time to dig deep, a time to really place our trust in the Living Eternal God who changes not and a time to take each day one day at a time.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:34

Tomorrow will have its own problems, its own challenges and sometimes we may worry about those and all the “what-ifs”, we fear whether we will we have the resilience to cope with one more thing on top of all the other things.

But Christ promised strength for TODAY, bread for TODAY. He promised that He would equip us for every good work which was the theme for me for New Year (Equipped).

In what appears to be the last days, facing trials of an unprecedented nature, does our faith fly out the window and we give in to the fear, or are we standing strong, knowing our God has prepared us for such a time as this? We are not exempt from the trials, we don’t sail through unscathed, we are human too, we feel the pain of loss of work, loss of services, loss of life as we have known it and even sadly loss of loved ones. We feel that, we go through that, but we still stand knowing that :

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings,

because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

 perseverance, character;

and character, hope.

 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

We place our hope in God, our hope for tomorrow, our hope for the future, our hope for what is still to come we place in God knowing His love has been poured out into our hearts and that will sustain us in the days and tomorrows ahead.

Risk

Welcome today when I am joining with the #FiveMinuteFriday Group. We gather every week to freewrite for five minutes flat on a single writing prompt. This week’s prompt is: Risk

I am so not a risk taker! I like to play it safe. I like to know what is going to happen, I like to have it all planned out! Yet the path of faith is often not like that and at times it seems as if we are having to take a risk, a ‘leap of faith’ to move out of our comfort zone and trust in God.

When I think of the great Bible Hero’s they all took risks: Abram to leave the land he was in, Moses in leading the people out of Egypt, Esther to go before the king, Ruth to follow her mother-in-law, Daniel not to bow down before the king. Each took a risk, each exercised their faith, each put their trust in God.

And yet, and yet was it really such a risk? Or was it more moving on in assurance? Were they assured of God’s faithfulness, did they know their God and know that He wouldn’t let them down, so that it hardly seemed like a risk at all?

What about me, what about you? Does following, trusting, believing seem like a risk to you or are you just walking out with God your faithful Father, placing your hand in His and trusting where He may lead you?