God's GPS

Sometimes, perhaps, we are allowed to get lost that we may find the right person to ask directions of.  ~Robert Brault 

 

Have you used a GPS lately.  Sometimes Betty can be pretty irritating.  Betty's the name I give the woman in the GPS.  I know I can't be the only person who ignored what the GPS said because I thought I knew better than she did where I was going.  She told me to turn right at the next light and so I look at the picture on the GPS and it shows a road where there is none.  So you pass the road you were supposed to take and then she starts recaculating.  Who came up with the stuff they use on the GPS anyway.  Why didn't they just say "You shoulda turned" or "you missed the turn bozo" or how about just "I'm suprised they let you drive".   I'm thinking some sarcastic comments might make the drive more fun.  

The most important GPS you will ever have was given to us by God and it is called the Bible.  It gives us all kinds of helpful directions.  But have you noticed how we have a tendency to ignore it too.  We start wanting to be in control so we decide to ignore what God tells us to do and do it our way.  Have you also figured out that some of the everyday common people in your life are another form of GPS?  If you look closely you might find they are better than Betty at giving you direction and they don't recalculate.

If you are directionally challenged, ask God to show you the way. He might just send someone you never expected. 

Prayer for the Day:  Heavenly Father, I have lived a life of wanting to be in control.  The thing is I never have been in control, I just delude myself into thinking I am.  I praise You for showing me grace when I try to go my own way.  Draw me back to You.      

Scripture:  not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.   But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.   Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea. Numbers 14:23-25

The Pursuit of Happiness

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.  ~Frederick Keonig 

Do you ever think that happiness is just around the corner if you could only obtain one more thing?  It might be the new car, a new home, more money, a new wardrobe.....  Too often we don't realize that happiness is not just around the corner, most likely it is already there we just don't recognize it when we see it.  Happiness is not something you can buy, or strive for, or pay for.  Happiness comes from the inside not externally.  

The sad part about happiness is most of us pursue it relentlessly and when it doesn't come we try that much harder to create it in our life.  I was watching the news and it was amazing how many stars on TV have more money than they could spend in a lifetime, yet they can't buy happiness.  

The irony is the more you have the less happiness will come your way if your heart is not in the right place.    

Prayer for the Day:  Heavenly Father, I too have searched for happiness in all the wrong places.  I pray that you will open my eyes to the happiness I already have in You.  Help me to stop searching for what can only come from inside.     

Scripture:  Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.  For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory.  Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.  Psalm 149:3-5

The Hidden Blessing

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere.  ~Frank A. Clark

 

I was thinking about the obstacles we each face every day in our life journey.  We sometimes complain or moan because something in our life has created an obstacle in our path.  The key to understanding obstacles is that they have purpose.  They are there for a reason and the reason is not for us to drive around them, walk by them or run the other way.  Obstacles are meant to teach us about life and to build character in us.  

God really does know what He is doing.  For thousands of years he has been placing obstacles intentially in our path to mold and shape us to be more like Him.  Without the obstacles we could not learn from cancer that we can survive.  We would not understand that after the loss of a loved one we can survive and be an even bigger influence on those around us struggling with their own obstacles.  

This is the piece of the puzzle that is missing if you have never struggled through tragedy in your life.  It is how we choose to handle the tragedy or loss that will shape us into what God intended us to be.  So, the next time you think about complaining about a circumstance in your life, turn it around.  Praise God for allowing you the opportunity to grow through it.  You will not regret it.   

Prayer for the Day:  Heavenly Father, I am guilty of complaining when obstacles cross my path.  I praise you and thank you for the challenges you place before me that will make me stronger in the end.  You know me so well and will never give me more than I can handle.  Thank you Father for the blessing of obstacles.   

Scripture:  ^"When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you! The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away.  But whoever takes refuge in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.” Isaiah 57:13-15

Curiosity Landed

Man is the animal that intends to shoot himself out into interplanetary space, after having given up on the problem of an efficient way to get himself five miles to work and back each day.  ~Bill Vaughan

 

I watched the news this week when the Curiosity landed on Mars.  Of course it started me thinking which is sometimes a dangerous thing.  The United States spent something like 2.5 billion to land a small car sized vehicle on Mars to determine if there was ever life on the planet.  It is nuclear-powered and packed with expensive equipment.  This was not our first try at this either.  We have several other pieces of the same type of equipment on Mars but they bounced instead of softly landing and when you are talking about something that weighs almost a ton and is traveling at 21,000km/h the potential for a crash is pretty good.  

I applaud the scientists and engineers who were able to make this happen because it took knowledge and creativity and many things that God blessed humans with on earth.  But I have a question.  We spend billions of dollars trying to determine if there ever was life on another planet.  Why are we constantly searching for life somewhere else?  We want to know is there other life on other planets or will we be able to travel to those other planets and live on a space station created by man. 

I don't know about you but I don't put as much faith in man as I do God.  I think God has a perfect plan and my personal opinion, for what it is worth, is that at the rate our world is going right now, I think God's patience with us is wearing thin.  I also believe that God is coming again and it won't matter whether we are living here or on Mars.  I want to spend every moment I can here on earth focused on where I plan to spend eternity, not looking for another place to live.   

Prayer for the Day:  Father, you give each of us talents in this world.  I want to use whatever talents you gave me to bring others to heaven so that they can meet you face to face.  I pray that you will give me the opportunity to do that and I pray that the resources you provide will be used for that purpose.   

Scripture:  Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures.  Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.  If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.  I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life.  Psalm 119:89-93

The Spider's Web

Sin can catch us in its web.

Growing up in the country gave us plenty of opportunity to see nature up close and personal.  We had twenty acres of land behind our house that we explored on weekends and during the summer.  One of the things I loved to do was to saddle up one of our horses and ride on the trails through the woods.  While riding on the trails we would often come across giant spider webs strung across the trail from one side to the other.  We had what they call wood spiders.  Now if you have never seen a wood spider I will try to describe one for you.

These spiders were about the size of a small saucer with big bodies and long legs.  They didn’t bite or at least I don't think they did, because there were times I almost fell off the horse trying to get away from them.  I think I was more of a danger to myself than the spider. As soon as I got caught in the web, fear took over.  Arms were flailing while you’re searching for the spider whose home you just wrecked.  I hate spiders so you can imagine what it was like to be riding along enjoying the scenery, and all of a sudden you are in the middle of the web and the spider is there too and my first thought was always is he on my head or in my hair.  Growing up in the country had its benefits but this wasn't one of them.   

Isn’t that what happens when we allow Satan into our lives.  He snares us up in his web of lies and deceit and we struggle to get out.  And he sits there like the spider waiting to devour us.  Our only hope is to stand firm in faith.  Satan is constantly on the lookout for more victims.  The problem is it is so easy to get into the web but so much harder to get out. Take the time to get to know God and he will free you from Satan’s web that ensnares you.

Prayer for the Day:  Father, my life is sometimes like the spider and the web.  It is so easy for me to get caught up in but much harder to get out and Satan lies in wait for me to fail.  Please surround me with your presence and give me strength to fight the evil around me. 

Scripture:  Be self- controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering. 1 Peter 5:8-9 

Worry

If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.  Calvin Coolidge

Have you seen the commercial with the dog that has a bone but he worries someone will steal it.  So he takes it and buries it in the back yard.  He goes to sleep that night and worries about the bone so much that he digs it up, and then they show him running up the steps of a bank and placing it in a safety deposit box.  He goes back home and as he is lying in his bed a comment bubble pops up over his head that his bone is not safe.  So back to the bank he goes and gets it out of the safe deposit box and brings it home where he places it in his dog bowl and since he purchased the insurance they are selling he is able to sleep soundly.  

This commercial is about insurance but there is a certain similarity in how we live our lives to the story played out in this commercial.  We worry if we will become ill, we worry about paying the bills, we worry about our children, our finances, our circumstances and taking chances.

Worry comes from a determination to get our own way.  Jesus never worried because he was not out to realize his own desires; he was out to realize God’s.  So many times we think that our problems are too big for God, when in reality our God is bigger than our problems. 

Some of your hurts you have cured,

And the sharpest you still have survived,

But what torments of grief you endured

From the devil which never arrived.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Prayer for the Day:  Father, I am a worrier.  I struggle every day with this disease and I know that it is not what you have in mind for my life.,  I want to follow your word in Matthew 6:34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."  Help me to see only today and to place it all at your feet.

Scripture:  Therefor I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you wil eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than the clothes?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?  Mathew 6:25, 27

Rent to Own

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved.  It is God's finger on man's shoulder.  ~Charles Morgan

I saw a sign while driving home from work today.   It said "Tires and Wheels for Rent."   I have a long drive home so I have plenty of thinking time and a lot of my thinking time is spent thinking about God.  So I started thinking about why you would rent tires and wheels.  What would have happened if God had decided to just rent us but didn't really want us long term so instead of paying off our debt, he decided to leave us in this sinful world forever?  That scares me. 

What if Jesus had decided to listen to Peter when he told Jesus it would never happen to him that he would die on a cross and be raised from the dead.  If you look at it from that perspective, we really dodged a bullet. 

God's love for us was so great that he would give his son to die on the cross in human form only to be raised from the dead.  All of this so that we sinners could be saved and live forever in heaven with Him.  We see the ugliness daily in this world we live in, but my joy lies in knowing that one day I will see His face and rejoice. 
  

Prayer for the Day:  Father, I often take it for granted that you gave your only son to die on the cross for my sins without deserving it.  Thank you for loving me enough to not forsake me.   

Scripture:  From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”