When you think your life is worth more then others, you do not know love. ~Tauriel, The Battle of Five Armies
Jesus expressed his love for us not only by sacrificing his life on the cross but by the sacrifice he showed in his life daily. He could of come down as a grown man, taken up an earthly governmental throne and demanded praise. But he didn’t he came humbly, lived humbly and put others before himself.
Jesus didn’t think his life was too valuable to sacrifice, so how can we?
Sharing God’s love with others is when we put others first, show them honor and respect. Show them they are valuable.
That’s what Jesus did. He put our lives before his own, because we are valuable to Him.
Trusting God when you can’t see the end can be scary. But when you trust His leading you never know what you can accomplish.
In the movie Facing the Giants, the coach challenges a player to do a death crawl to the fifty yard line blindfolded. The player couldn’t see where he was but he trusted his coach’s direction and as he made his way across the field as his coach encouraged him to keep going even though he was tired and couldn’t see and wanted to quit. In the end he ended up going double the distance he was supposed to and ended up in the end zone.
When we trust God even though we may not understand. We can do more than we ever thought we could on on our own and can end up further then we ever thought we could go.
One single day can pull us from the depths of despair.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
I love Anne of Green Gables. One of the expressions Anne uses often is that she’s “in the depths of despair.”
I have to be honest, I’ve always thought she was being over dramatic, until one summer when I struggled with depression. I’m generally an optimistic, joyful, happy person, but I could not shake this funk. I tried talking to God but to be honest I was kind of mad at Him. Until one day when when I choose to forgive Him.
Yes forgive God.
It was not that God had done anything wrong, it was that I didn’t like the answer He had given regarding something I was asking for.
That single act pulled me from my depression, when I choose to let go of my expectations and trust God’s timing.
For many people, myself included. We can be angry or dis-enthralled with God because He doesn’t give us what we want, in the timing we expect it to happen. We do this more than I think any of us would like to admit. But the key to freedom is to let go of the things He asks us to. It doesn’t mean He doesn’t want to bless us with the desires He’s placed in our heart, it means He has something better or maybe we aren’t ready for what that blessing entails.
Not giving our dream over to Jesus is like staying in an old dilapidated house beyond repair because it has memories and nostalgia. When God is saying I have this perfect house over here, and we can build better, happier memories.
That’s the power of forgiveness, it can pull us from the depths of despair in one moment.
What are you holding on to that’s keeping you in the depths of despair?
Trust that God has something better for you, and let go.
Lord of the Rings exemplifies how we all struggle with choosing good or evil and the temptation for shortcuts to what we want in life. The ring represents those shortcuts that we are so often are tempted to take in life; it causes us to compromise who we are to achieve what we’ve been working toward in an instant. But the problem is we will no longer be who we are if we choose to compromise to get the power or control or upper hand that we so desperately think we need.
Gandalf, Galadriel and Aragorn all knew this and refused to compromise who they are in exchange. There may be options or opportunities that we are presented with in life that could skyrocket us to what we want out of life. But at what cost? Is it really worth throwing away the journey you’ve taken so far, be it a day, an hour, a week, or years for the moment or that instant gratification that will sullen who you’ve worked to become.
If any of these characters had taken the short cut to increase their power or position they would have ceased being who they were and become something they never wanted or intended.
We have to realize that the quick fix is never the answer.
God made each and everyone of us and he loves us all. He knows who he made us to be and the journey to become that person is how we become who he made us to be. It’s the journey that makes us who we are.
Sometimes God doesn’t answer our question because he already has we just don’t realize it. Sometimes his answer is in what has done for us more than in words. Knowing the character of God is crucial to our communication with him.
As I mentioned last week we have a had a lot of financial struggles in the last year. But every time I bring it up to God he reminds me of his character. That he is our provider and that he doesn’t worry about it so why should we. Logically we should not have made it through the last year. But God provided over and over again each month I’m astonished at how he provides. But he does because that is who he is. He is all our providers and we have no reason to doubt him because he always provides when we put our trust in him.
What have you been asking God about? Ask him to show you if he’s already provided the answer in just being who he is.
If you’re not sure you know his character read Galatians 5:22-23 and look for his answer in his character.
When we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit we can accomplish things we never would think ourselves capable of. Holy Spirit gives us the confidence, the words and all we need to do what he calls us to.
Esther is a great example of this. She did what God asked of her and saved an entire people through a few dinners.
God calls us to do and be more then we could of ever think possible. In my life God has provided over and over again in ways I never expected. In the last year my husband I moved across the country to plant a house church and in that year we’ve had the most financial instability we have ever faced since we got married nine years ago. But God has provided over and over again from people and places we never expected. Although we are not out of the woods yet. We know that God will continue to provide because he always does.
We all need to trust him to provide what we need to accomplish what he ask of us.
Kindness and seeing people for who they can be, not for who we judge them to be in a moment. Can change both our perspectives for the better.
In the movie the Blind Side the people around Michael see him for who he could be. We all have gifts and talents and many times it just takes that one person to believe in them to help us succeed.
That’s how God looks at us. He sees our full potential to do great things, he created each of us and he knows what we can do and its even more then we can image.
Its his kindness that he sent Jesus and its his kindness that he waits for us to be ready to receive all that he has for us.
Seeing people the way that God sees them changes our perspective of ourselves and of others. Next time you doubt God’s plan for you ask him how he sees you. Trust me you won’t be disappointed.
Trying to change people by nagging pestering and yelling never works. We may get them to do what we want in the moment but it doesn’t change their heart. It doesn’t bring about real change.
Prayer is how we fight. Prayer changes things. Prayer changes our perspective of others and prayer is what can change their hearts. See prayer is simply a conversation with God letting him show us how he sees us and them.
So often we think we can change someone. Or we’ll love them more if we just get them to be who we think they should be. But if we look to change ourselves instead, to love them no matter what, God’s love through us will change them.
Think back to when you gave your heart to Jesus. Did you do it because he was nagging you or because you came to know his love and forgiveness. When we give our heart to God we repent of our past mistakes and we choose to let God change us. We have to do the same with others. Allow God to bring about the change.
Gods love changed us and the expression of that love will change others.
Planting seeds takes a lot of faith. You never know what you’ll get, when they’ll grow or how much the plant will produce, or if it will grow at all. But we still plant seeds.
In the movie Faith Like Potatoes, Angus a farmer finds faith in God and follows the leading of the Holy Spirit to plant potatoes. Planting potatoes takes faith because you cant see what crop you’ve yielded until you’re ready to harvest.
Planting seeds of faith can be like this. We don’t know what will stick and what will not grow but we if we want to see a harvest we still have to plant.
Sow seeds everywhere in everyone, you never know what will produce a harvest.
In the movie I Can Only Imagine Bart Millard pushes away his high school girlfriend Shannon when she tries to help him when she sees he’s hurting. His knee jerk reaction is to push her away.
Our natural reaction when someone tries to help us when we’re hurting is to push back, because it hurts when you poke a wound. But we have to find the root cause of the pain if we want to heal and sometimes that means a painful conversation to find that root.
When the human body is severely burned you have to remove the dead tissue to get to the healthy tissue so that it can grow and heal, which is an extremely painful experience but the end result is healed healthy tissue.
The same is true with our emotional wounds we have to remove the things in our life that are dead in order to allow new growth.
That may mean removing certain people from our life or removing ourselves from circumstances that continue to hurt us.
But it also means we have to let those that are trying to help us heal, to help. Trust the people that have been there and are ahead of you and lean on their experience to guide you through the healing process. And yes sometimes the the severest wounds scar but they don’t hurt anymore. Those scars can then be a testament to how God healed us.
I find so much inspiration through movies. Different scenes and certain lines remind me of what Jesus did for us.
In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Eustace is transformed into a dragon because of his greed, but it leaves him in a precarious situation where he can’t interact with others like he used. In the end Eustace tries to remove the scales to return to being human, but he can’t do it on his own. He needs Aslan todo it for him. To shed his tough outer shell created by the decisions that transformed him in the first place.
We all do this in life. We seek to take care of ourselves and in the process build up an armor to protect us from others. But does it really help us or hinder us from having relationships with others.
We may be protected but we are alone.
Even a dragon with his thick armor can fall prey to attack, but when we allow others in to help us and protect us we aren’t alone anymore. Having a support system is so much better then doing it all on your own.
Jesus like Alsan wants to protect us, but we first have to be willing to let him in, to let him help us shed our old habits that got us where we are in the first place.
Saul is a great example of this he tried to achieve salvation through earning it. He followed ever rule but he was callus and hard, not allowing himself to see the truth of who Jesus was, the savior he had been waiting for his whole life. He was too wrapped up in trying to protect himself and others from who he thought was a false savior to see the truth. Until Jesus revealed himself to him. Paul was then humbled by his experience with Jesus as was Eustace, they both shed their old skin to find the truth in Jesus.
What has it cost you to keep your outer shell of protection? Are you willing to pay the cost or are you ready to let Jesus to pay the cost for you and be your protector? Are you ready to not be alone anymore?
In the movie I Can Only Imagine Bart Millard invites his dad to go to church with him and his dad replies that “he doesn’t belong in church.”
This broke my heart and began to make me think how often this is our reason for not inviting people to church or that we’ve given ourselves.
But this is a misconception. The church is not four walls or an organization, the people are the church. Jesus destroyed the temple and rebuilt it in us. We are the temple. Jesus is inside us.
Saying that we don’t belong in church is true. We don’t deserve to have Jesus live inside us, none of us do. But that is the beauty of his sacrifice we don’t deserve it but he gives us the free gift of having him live inside us, not by earning it but by Jesus sacrifice for us he makes the way for us to be the church.
This means that when we encounter people we are bringing the church to them.
The next time you meet someone and think “I want to bring them to church.” Remember you already have. You’re right there in front of them (you are the church), tell them what Jesus has done for you and ask them if they would like him to do the same for them.
Church is anywhere we are, we don’t have to wait for Sunday or the right service. Jesus is in us all day every day and he wants all his children to know him.
Once you have introduced them to Jesus, then invite them to the gathering of other Christians.
~May all your interactions with others reflect Jesus
Watching the movie Brave the other night reminded me of how important listening is in relationships. If we just talk at each other and never listen, we miss what the other person needs and who they are.
It’s the same with our relationship with God, we can talk at God all day but if we don’t listen for the response we will never know or understand him.
It’s easy to be seduced by getting what you want instantly, instead of waiting for it.
In The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Edmond is drawn in by the witch when she says that she will give him what he wants if he just brings her what she wants.
But if Edmond had waited just a little longer Aslan would have given him everything he had asked for and more.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in what we want and when we want it that we make compromises and sacrifices we never needed to if we would just wait.
Jesus has so much for us, to bless us, lift us up and love us. But it’s his love for us that makes us wait for the things we want sometimes, because he knows when each blessing is best for us.
If we get everything we want right when we want it, we will over indulge or use it all and still want more, like Edmond with the Turkish Delight the witch gave him. He ate it all quickly and wanted more, but later felt sick because he didn’t appreciate the gift.
Jesus knows what we need and when we need it. We just have to wait for his timing.
The enemy will taunt us with our worst fears to discourage us from becoming who God has intended us to be.
The Return of the King movie depicts this when Aragon uses the seeing stone to fight Sauron by claiming his identity as the heir to the throne. Sauron replies by trying to scare him with the death of Arwen.
The enemy’s biggest weapon is fear. Fear of what if, of what might happen. But you can’t put your trust or your faith in what if.
You can put your faith in Jesus and draw your strength from your identity in him.
The enemy can’t have a hold on you, if you don’t let him.
We fight fear with truth. The enemy says you are ugly, God says you are beautiful. The enemy says you are weak, God says he will be your strength.
The truth of who God has made us to be is our strongest weapon, but we have to know it to use it.
When we die to our selfish desires and let Jesus live through us we become like him. Read the scriptures about Jesus, know who he is and what he said and did. Isaiah 61 is one of my favorite passage describing what Jesus came to do and be. Read it and let the Holy Spirit teach you who he made you to be in Jesus.
It’ amazing the difference of negative influences on our lives verse positive influences.
If we let people tell us lies and influence our every decision.
We can be old and almost dead if we let the wrong person speak into our lives. Like Grimmer Wormtongue with King Theoden in Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers.
I’m sure that King Theoden’s demise was slow and over time as he let Grimmer lie to him about his friends and family, slowly till the point where Grimmer was making all his decisions for him.
We can become like this too, if we allow the wrong influences to be the predominate voice in or lives.
Photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash
But that doesn’t have to be true of us.
We can choose who we allow to have influence over us. We have a choice of who we listen too, what we watch and how we let those things affect us.
If we let the Holy Spirit be the predominate influence in our lives. He is always with us and always has something encouraging and uplifting to say. Even moments when he correct us can be encouraging.
A few years ago when my now husband and I ere first dating. I was in a book store and the Holy Spirit corrected me in how I was acting towards my him.
That moment was one of the most loving and intimate moments I have ever had with God. Even His correction is loving.
Trust God.
Listen to the Holy Spirit about the influences in your life and trust that if He asks you to give something up that He has something even better to replace it.
What sacrifices are you willing to make for the gospel? Are you willing to sell all that you own and move half way around the world to share the good news. Thousands of missionaries around the world have done just that. They have uprooted there families and moved to reach people groups that God has laid on their hearts to reach.
Why are so many willing to make this kind of sacrifice. Because the good news changes you. It gives you a second chance and a third and a fourth. The good news is that Jesus came to sacrifice his life for us so that everyone in all of humanity could be forgiven. We sacrifice because he sacrificed, because the he gift he gives is unmatched.
His forgiveness gives us the opportunity to have relationship with him every moment of every day. A line of He Lives by Nicole C. Mullen says “I talked with him this morning” because she did, because I did. Having a relationship with Jesus is accepting his sacrifice and forgiveness. This relationship lets us talk with God every moment of everyday. We just have to listen.
Sometimes he’ll just remind you of the little things in life like to stop and smell the roses, sometimes the big thing in life like asking you to move half way around the word. Whether it’s big or its small you have to talk to him to know. You can’t build a relationship without conversation. The faith to do the big things comes from the days of talking about the little things.
Start the conversation, read your bible and ask him to explain a verse you don’t understand, watch a Christian movie (try “End of the Spear“) and ask him to teach you something through it, take a walk and asks him about his creation, watch your kids play and ask him to teach you something about them.
God was in the gentle whisper. He speaks to us in many ways and one way is through others. Whenever I read this verse it reminds me of the scene in The Nativity Story when one of the ladies in the village where Mary lives tells the village kids this story.
She’s teaching them the different ways God speaks us.
God speaks to us through our surroundings, through nature, through visions and dreams, through others and he speaks directly to us. (more about how God speaks to us)
Often people think that God doesn’t speak to them because they didn’t hear a loud, booming audible voice. But don’t you think we would all be a little freaked out if that was the only way he spoke to us.
God desires a deep intimate relationship with each one of us and to do that he whispers to us, but we have to listen.
The second book of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis is Prince Caspian. I am always asking God to reveal new things to me; especially when I read or watch something for the umpteenth time.
I never realized it before but Prince Caspian is symbolic what happens to us when Jesus lives in us. Caspian is the son of the king and the rightful heir to the throne but he goes about obtaining the throne by seeking to restore peace between all and by not trying to do it all on his own.
He looks to Aslan, who represents Jesus for help and the counsel of others who have served Aslan.
We are the same. We are heirs to the throne of heaven with Jesus, because of his sacrifice. But the only way we can take our place with him is to believe in him and serve him.
When we serve God and others he lifts us up, higher then we could ever be if we tried to lift ourselves up.
In ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ movie, when Aslan lays down his life in place of Edmond, I can hardly watch and it always makes me cry. Because Aslan represents Jesus and Edmond represents humanity. It reminds me of what Jesus did to give us relationship with him.
Jesus laid down His life willingly for us, all of us and He knew it wouldn’t be easy or quick and that some would even rejoice in His unjust suffering but he forgave them even as He was dying, He forgave all of us.
Jesus paid the price for everything we have even done wrong so that He could have a relationship with us, so we could be forgiven and find freedom from guilt and shame.
Thank Jesus today for his sacrifice and find the freedom he paid for.
A movie recently came out about Bart Millard of Mercy Me’s life called I Can Only Imagine. Bart’s dad was horrible to him as he was growing up and he left as soon as he graduated high school, to pursue his career in Christian music but just before his band made it big, he went home to patch things up with his dad and God answered both their prayers. Bart returned home which was his fathers prayer and his father had accepted Jesus and he finally had the dad he always wanted.
God answers our prayers but sometimes the timeline doesn’t always happen when we think it should.
My mom raised me as a christian but I decided to abandon God for 6 years in my early twenties and live life the way I wanted.
This broke my moms heart. She prayed years for me to return to my faith in God. She watched for years as I made stupid, selfish choices all in the name of finding what I thought would make me happy.
But what I found instead was disappointment and a constant longing to feel loved, accepted, valued and wanted.
By worldly standards I had what appeared to be a good life on the outside, a good job with consistent promotions and a long term relationship. But in reality I had a job that pulled me away from friends and family and an emotionally abuse dependent relationship.
I was miserable trying to find happiness on my own.
Eventually I hit rock bottom and decided to give my life back to God.
Keep praying for your family and friends, continue to love and support them and always keep the door open for them. You never know when they will make the decision to change their life.
I had the pleasure of meeting Pastor Henry Convington and his wife Annette of I Am My Brothers Keeper in Detroit, Mi years ago. So I was excited to learn more of their story when I saw the movie Have a Little Faith.
Pastor Covington life was a great example of the complete transformation that Jesus makes in our life. He was a drug dealer and addict until he hit his rock bottom and surrendered his life to Jesus.
Jesus is always there for us and he wants to take care of us but we have a choice. We can choose to live however we want and ignore him or we can choose to follow him and trust him to take care of us.
Pastor Covington hustled for what he thought he wanted and it almost cost him his life. But when he turned his life to Jesus instead of taking from people, God gave him the opportunity to give to others.
Don’t be afraid to do what God has asked of you, trust that he has you taken care of and will never fail you.
The Love Dare is a fantastic book that helps you to put your spouse first before yourself as all good marriages should. But I will be the first to admit that it is easy to put the other first when your feeling good, and things are going well. But it is so much harder when things are hard and your not at your best.
Marriage isn’t about just the good times, it about how you handle the hard times. It’s about sticking together and loving one another even when you don’t feel like it or even want to. Marriage is a commitment for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. That means you don’t bail when things get tough or you don’t care for each other at the moment, because the moment will pass and things will get better.
But that doesn’t happen by accident you have to have God at the center of your marriage. Because if your happiness and well being depends on another person you will never be fulfilled. Only God can do that. Only he can truly make you feel 100% fulfilled.
When you get your identity from God, you draw on him for strength, perseverance and perspective. To see things from the perspective of the other opens the barriers you may have put up as a defense, and when you trust God to guide you, you can drop those barriers to bring reconciliation.
If someone asked you, who you are? What would you say? Would it be your job title? Who you are in relationship to others? Or would it be something else? What if all of it was striped away; your job, your friends, your family, everything. Who would you be? What would define you? Would it be characteristics or attributes? Or would you not know?
If it was just you on an island by yourself alone with nothing to go back to, no home, no friends, no family, just you. What would you cling to? What would make you, you?
For me it’s God. I am his, no matter what. He’s where my identity comes from. I’m his kid and that where I draw strength, confidence, comfort and identity from. Because like Job even if everything was stripped away from me. I’m still his, and no one and nothing can take that from me.
As believers in Jesus that’s what we get, an undeniable sense of identity and assurance of who we are, God’s children.
If we read Ephesians chapters 1 and 2; we can see who we are because of our identity in Jesus.
We are chosen, blessed, belonging, forgiven, loved, adopted, wanted, favored, showered with grace, a gift to God, delighted in, saved, lifted up, given new life, a member of God’s family, a citizen of God’s country.
And if you are not yet a believer you can be. You can have that same assurance in your identity by just believing in Jesus love and sacrifice and allowing him into your heart.
In Prince Caspian, from The Chronicles of Narnia, Price Caspian gives a perfect example of how we as believers in Jesus should feel when we feel outnumbered and surrounded. Confident and unafraid.
Because it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when we focus on what is around us or even just in front of us. But when we remember God is always with us it changes our perspective.
We become like Lucy, a child facing an army with just a dagger, oh and of course the God of the universe to fight for us. We can have complete confidence because He loves us, he fights for us and if we trust Him he will take care of everything. Nothing should phase us, because He is with US!
I always tell people you should learn from someone who you admire their relationship with Jesus. Someone who inspires you to grow your relationship with Jesus. Someone who points you to Jesus for all you need in everything and no one and nothing else, but Jesus.
When we’re hurt by the people that are supposed to love us or ashamed of the scares they left, it leaves us afraid to be loved by anyone else. Because to us, love hurts. But that’s not love.
Just because people in our lives who were supposed to love us, didn’t, doesn’t mean that is what love is.
Love is patience and kind, its not rude or self seeking, its not easily angered and does not keep a record of wrongs.
God is love.
And He would never hurt us, neglect us, abandon us or stop loving us.
He is always there, always wanting and waiting to be with us, to love us and take care of us, if we let Him in.
Give God a chance to show you His love, I promise you won’t regret it.
If you already know God’s love share it with a kid who needs it. Check out Royal Family Kids
Is chasing your dream worth the sacrifices you have to make to achieve your goal? What compromises will you make to get there? Who will you when you achieve your goal? Will your goal make you who you want to be? Or will chasing your goal change who you are?
When we chase our own goals, we often make compromises or sacrifice integrity to take shortcuts to achieve it. Many times when we achieve that goal we may lose who we wanted to be by achieving that very goal.
When we let go of our goals and trust God He surprises us with something beyond what we thought possible.
Every time I have tried to make my own goals or success it has not turned out as I have planned. The result of my goal has been less satisfactory then I had hoped for or I compromised who I was to achieve that goal. Nevertheless it has never left me feeling satisfied.
But when I follow God’s leading and look to the interest of others, I have never been disappointed.
It’s easy to get caught up in ourselves but so much more rewarding to serve and achieve the goals that God has laid on our hearts.
Temptation is attractive, that’s the reason it’s tempting. Just because something is fun or enjoyable for a moment doesn’t make it a good choice. Especially if we feel guilty or worse after. Temptation leads us slowly to make compromise after compromise to fulfill a growing need that is never really satisfied so we go deeper and make sacrifices, push aside responsibilities, neglect family and friends to try to fill our need. But never find satisfaction. Because we are trying to fill our lack up with the counterfeit.
Like Edmund in “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.” He craved being important which is why being a king appealed to him. Which is who Aslan made him to be. But he listened to the beautiful witch who temps him to sacrifice even his own family to achieve his selfish desires. When if he’d only waited he would of realized that the need would be fulfilled when Aslan makes him king the right way without compromise or guilt.
God created us and He is the one that fills our needs, wants and desires without guilt, regret or shame. If we would only look to Him to fulfill the desires He has placed in us, instead of the counterfeit quick fixes. We would find fulfillment in Jesus. What He has for us is always so much better then anything we could think or dream of, and its always more then we deserve.
The movie War Room is about the power of prayer. But what is prayer? And how do you do it? There are so many that think it has to be perfectly worded, like it was a magic spell or something.
But prayer is simply a conversation between you and God. It doesn’t have to be scary or intimidating, just a simple conversation.
So what is that conversation about or for? Prayer is to develop our relationship with God as any conversation does. We can talk to Him about anything and everything. Prayer helps us to know God better so that we can see things through His perspective, so we can choose to let Him change us to be more like Him.
Prayer should be a constant in our lives just as we stay in communication with our closest loved ones, God wants to stay in constant communication with us, but we don’t need a device to do it.
You can pray in the line at the grocery store or at your desk at work or even while changing your kids diaper. The point is, you can have a conversation anywhere, anytime, while doing anything. He is always there, always wanting to talk, all you have to do is allow Him in. And don’t forget to listen!
Star Wars is a great example of the battle of good and evil we all face.
Selfish choices, even if they are for someone else, they change who we are for the worse are not worth it. We devalue the person we are trying to protect because we compromise ourselves to do it.
Anakin changed the selfless path he was on, to save Padmé but his decision to compromise actually ended up being what harmed her.
Even in what seems to be the worst circumstances we need to trust God to lead us out of it.
God knows us and knows what best for us, His plans is not to harm us but to give us a hope and a future.
I can’t even count the number of times God has brought me through valleys.
Losing our faith in Him is what got us into the valley and it will never help us move forward.
We have all done something wrong in our lives and none of us is without blemish. None of us could cast the first stone at the other for their mistakes because none of us are without them. But that’s the beauty of why Jesus came to redeem us.
He came to do what we could not, to live a life without blame.
That’s why second chances and believing in the others is so important because we all were given a second chance from God so how could we not do the same for others.
I watched a movie the other night about a basketball coach who saw potential in his players to not only do well as athletes but he saw beyond that, that they could exceed the expectations of others around them in their education too.
That’s how God is with us. He sees way more potential in us then we or others see in ourselves. That’s why he never gives up on us and he is always our biggest cheerleader because he made us and he knows that we are capable of far greater then we can think or imagine. If we will just trust him to guide us to it.
We can’t change other people but we can choose how we treat and react to other people.
I recently watched a great movie on Pureflix called ‘How to train your puppy husband‘ I thought it would be funny as we currently have two puppies I am training and I would never train my husband. But it reminded me of an important lesson.
We can’t change other people, but we can choose how we treat and react to other people. When you’re training a puppy you are actually modifying how you treat and react to what your puppy does.
You should never try to train or change your spouse. But you can change how you treat them and react to them. We are to love God and love others as ourselves. So think about how you would like to treated and treat your spouse that way. If you want to be loved and respected, love and respect them. You can’t get what you don’t give. When has demanding, berating and manipulating ever really resulted in exactly what you wanted.
Forced behavior is never really what we want, what we want is for others to do things for us because they want to, so we must do that for others. If we want others to care for our needs and wants, we need to put the other person first and care for their needs and desires.
I love watching movies and having God teach me something through them. The Lion King has so many moments that are teachable. Simbas overall life lesson is what caught my attention this time.
He tried to run from his problems, only to find out later that he didn’t even do what caused him to run. Many of us do this especially when we are kids, we run and hide thinking the consequences will be worse then they actually are or that our parents couldn’t possible forgive us. But things always go so much better when we own up to our actions and deal with the consequences.
We often do this with God, we run and hide from Him. Thinking that He could never forgive us or that He doesn’t love us or want us, because we messed up.
But nothing could be further from the truth. He loves us no matter what, He knows that we will make mistakes and He has already forgiven us.
Once we realize this, we can find freedom and become who He made us to be and come in our inheritance like Simba because we are God’s kids and He has so much He wants to bless us with.
God gives us our identity before we are even born, we are sons and daughter of him, because of Jesus sacrifice he made us co-heirs with him.
But when we face problems in life, it’s often easier to run away from our problems and believe what others says about us, instead of staying and fighting for what is ours.
Like in The Lion King, when Simba lets Scar take his birth right of ruling Pride Rock because he believe the lies of who Scar says he is and goes and lives with Timon and Pumba while it is fun for a while, he isn’t fulfilling his true purpose.
We are the same we can try to find our identity in our work, our friends, our family. But we will never really feel truly fulfilled until we find our identity in Jesus because he designed us to only be fulfilled by him.
“Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn’t mean their lost forever” (Professor X, X-Men: Days of Future Past)
While cooking lunch I heard this quote from the movie my husband was watching.
Reminding me that God never sees us as permanently lost.
We have all stumbled in our lives or we wouldn’t have needed forgiveness.
But we must remember that when we look at others they may be stumbling and lost now but they don’t have to stay that way.
We must never give up on each other.
We all have friends or family that we ache for them to find freedom.
But having been that person for several years I know both sides of it.
What helped me the most was not people pointing out what I was doing wrong (I knew it was wrong, I didn’t care) but it was the people that were there for me when I was ready to make a change.
It was that support system that helped me to stay committed to the changes I had chosen too make.
We must remember we can’t force anyone to change but we can encourage and uplift them in their decisions to change.
Warnings are there for a reason. They keep us away from danger and help us to go the right direction.
In ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ Aslan warns Mr. Tumnus that he is going the wrong direction by following the orders of The White Witch. Mr. Tumnus had never meet a human before and didn’t know what they were like or if they were safe. But he did know the source of the request to kidnap Lucy.
When we are completely unaware about something we need to look at the source for the answer.
Mr. Tumnus knew the witch was not good and he knew that Aslan was nothing but good, even though he had not meet him yet. Mr. Tumnus knew that Aslan was good.
When we are unsure of things in life, we must look to the source for guidance. The Holy Spirit is that for us. He knows what is good for us and what is not. He keeps us safe from harm and looks to do nothing other than bring us closer to God.
In this world where new things arise everyday. Trust the Holy Spirit’s guidance and he will lead you to the feet of Jesus.
We teach our children that they have nothing to fear, there is no monster under the bed or in the closet and that God is with them. But do we use the same reasoning with ourselves?
God is always with us and that should make us fearless, but often we let our imaginations get the best of us.
In the those moment we need to change our focus to the reality of our situation instead of our fear of the possibilities.
The reality is that God is with us and that he does and will provide everything we need in every situation if we just look to him first.
‘Just because someone stumbles and loses their way doesn’t mean their lost forever’ (Charles Xavier X-Men Days of Future Past 2014)
I was that person that stumbled and lost their way. But I had friends and family that we’re there ready and waiting to help me find my way back when I was ready. But it had to be my decision, my choice.
We can’t force people to change; because if we try and even if they seem like they are changing, its not really change. Because its not their choice. I know its hard to watch others make bad choices, but we can’t force them. Forced change is always worse; because they are still going to be opposing you on the inside or resenting you.
But if we present options and support. When they are ready, they may make a change and they will know who to turn to.
Praying for them is also a big part but our prayers should not be God please change them or make them see that I am right. But God help me to see them as you see them, help me to love them as you love them.
Most of the time in order for someone to change we need to change too. None of us are perfect and we all make mistakes even with the best of intentions.
Our Pastor when we lived in Tennessee used to say ‘come as you are and let Jesus mess you up.’ Isn’t that what we all did? We came to Jesus with our junk and mess and let Him change us. So why don’t we encourage others to do the same?
In the movie Prince Caspian, as Peter, Lucy, Edmond and Susan are making their way through the much changed land of Narnia they become lost because they are trying to rely on what they knew.
Instead of calling on Aslan to help even to the point of ignoring Lucy when she sees him.
We can become like this too, when we’ve done something for a long time or feel we know what we are doing we forget about Jesus and asking Him for His guidance, help or even just His companionship. But in taking Him for granted we can veer off the path He intended us to take.
But if we have faith like Lucy and look for His guidance He will show us new things and new ways to accomplish what we are doing even if we have done it time and time again.
Is a great song and movie that inspire putting others before yourself.
In this season of gift exchange, look for opportunities to bless others. Pray and ask God what each person needs. He knows each one of us and the desires of our hearts. Trust him to provide for what he asks you to give, even if you don’t know how.
Give to a stranger or someone you barely know, it could make all the difference in the world to them. Like the Christmas shoes. Even if we don’t understand why. Simple bless others because Jesus blessed others.
The Christmas Candle is a timeless movie. It illustrates how God wants to and will bless us, just that it may not be how or when we want it.
But if we put our trust in God and look for him in everything we can see past our expectations and find what he wants to bless us with.
It may not be what we thought it would be or happen how we thought it should. But how, when and with what he does bless us will be more and better then if we had tried to do it or get it on our own.
He is always there for us and he wants to bless us with the desires of our hearts. We may just not understand what he’s doing at the moment.
Christmas is a time of hope and tradition but it also has discouragement and loss. Its a time when we hope for the things we desire, be it a gift, relationship restoration or a new relationship formed, and traditions that we hold dear to our hearts. But we can be come discouraged when things don’t go as planned or we don’t get what we had hoped for. That’s when we ask him for his perspective and let him change our view of what may seem like hopelessness, but in truth his blessing is right around the corner.
We need to see people like Cindy-Lou Who from ‘The Grinch.’ She saw potential in the Grinch for good and brought it out. Someone who everyone else had written off, she saw hope for change and growth.
God is the same with us. He doesn’t look at us and say we are beyond hope, so why would we ever do that to someone else.
We need to see people the way God does with the potential for grace and growth.
During the Christmas season I focus on Jesus, but have some holiday classics I like to enjoy too. I love all the claymation Christmas movies and ‘The Year without a Santa Clause’ (1974) was running through my head this morning.
In the story two brothers are quarreling too much to be generous enough to help Mrs. Claus, so she turns to their mother ‘mother nature,’ and the two brothers decide to compromise and help Mrs. Clause.
Its easy to get caught up in our own stuff and the business of the season and let that influence us to spat with our family when things don’t go according to our plan.
But we can look to our heavenly father and ask him to help us to bring peace to our family instead of strife. Ask him to help you see life through his eyes and to fill you with his all surpassing peace.
We never know the impact our prayers may have. In Facing the Giants a faithful man prays over the lockers at the local school for years and doesn’t see the impact till revival hit the students. Another story is from the book Children and the Supernatural when prayers in the US impcat the life of missionaries on foreign soil.
Prayer makes an impact, whether we see the results immediately or never.
My friends and family prayed for me for years during the time in my life where I rejected God, but their prayers made an impact. There were key moments during that time when I know their prayers made an impact.
When I was in Uganda, speaking at a women’s conference, at the end myself and the others speakers prayed for many of the women there for healing and many other things. We each had a translator that gave us a quick snap shot of their requests for prayer. But there was still a language barrier. As I prayed, I prayed in English and in tongues.
I didn’t understand everything the ladies were saying to me and they didn’t understand what I was saying, but God understood it all; lady after lady came up and they were either healed or their prayer was answered. It wasn’t about the words, but about our hearts and the openness to allow the Holy Spirit to work through me and in them.
Prayer is a conversation with God and we may not always like or understand the answers, or we may be completely astounded and overwhelmed by the answers.
But the one thing I hold true, is that prayer is not something to be afraid.
Pray for those you love and pray for those you don’t, you never know the impact.
In the Silver Chair from the Chronicles of Narnia series Prince Rillian in pursuit of trying to heal from the lose of his mother, allows himself to be seduced by the queen of the underworld. He gets so caught up trying to escape his pain that he lets her twist his perspective on the world and feed him lies about who he is.
We can do the same in our lives, if we look for the quick easy fixes to cover up, ignore, or push away our pain instead of dealing with it we can be so caught up in the lies of others or even the lies we tell ourselves, that we can allow our whole environment to change right around us, till we begin believe they are the lies are truth.
We as human will do almost anything to escape pain.
But no matter where we are or what we’ve allowed ourselves to get into. Jesus is always there. You can always call on his name and he will be there for us. He will send others to help guide us out of the darkness and into the light.
We can find hope in some of the worst circumstances, if we look for it.
Jesus is that hope. He can do anything, no matter how impossible we think a situation is.
Bart Millard of Mercy Me shares his story in the the movie I Can Only Imagine. His inspiration for the song that inspired the movie was his dad. Bart never believed his dad could change. But to his surprise, when he was at a low point, when his band looked like they had lost their chance at success, Bart went home to repair his relationship with his dad and found a changed man when he arrived. The one person he thought could never changed and had come to believe in Jesus and become the father he had always hoped for.
God is always full of surprises and when we place our hope in him he does more then we can ever hope or imagine, even in the bleakest circumstances.
