FINISHING

How are your projects coming along? Are they each in a stage of incompleteness? Are your quilts still waiting to be put together? Are your woodworking projects still in pieces? How about that scarf you began to knit? Or the basement you were finishing? Are there books half read, lost under the bed? We have so many good intentions but somehow, we find ourselves stopping mid-course, not finishing what we started to do.

How about your spiritual life? Are some of the areas God has been revealing to you incomplete and unfinished?

How about loving others? Is it intact or in shambles? What specifically is He directing you to do to finish your projects well?

Joy - is it overflowing in your own heart and to others consistently? Yes, sometimes we are sad in this world, but is there a deep joy because you are getting to know God better and better and because He knows you?

Is peace within you and surrounding you like a warmly knit cloak? What do you need to do to finish that project well and wrap yourself in it every day?

Patience - I think we can all work on that project! One irritation at a time.

Kindness - oh, that one needs work especially in the small corners of our lives.

Goodness - through and through. Not just when others are looking.

Gentleness - not just for babies but for all mankind.

Self control - that one needs stitched up and hammered down into place consistently.

It takes effort to complete any project, especially projects of the soul.

Let's look at some of the soul projects which God has been nudging you to perfect in obedience to Him. Let's finish well.

So dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Doing this you will never stumble or fall away. And God will open wide the gates of heaven for you to enter into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I Peter 1:10 & 11

Heavenly Father, please help me to finish all things well which You have given me to do. In Jesus' name. Amen.

WISDOM BUILDS

We’ve all seen it. The perfect job . . . or so it seems. Salary plus bonuses, a company car, retirement benefits, life, health and dental insurance are offered. On top of all that, it is a job we know we would really enjoy doing.

Then we begin to count the cost: long days away from home, evening meetings, weekend seminars. A tremendous amount of time and energy . . . all in pursuit of what?

At home there would be less time for the family gathered around the dinner table each night. There would be less time to be still before the Lord in prayer and reading and in song. Less time to keep the house a home.

Is the perfect- sounding job worth the trade-offs or is it a lure into another place?

Only as the Lord directs should we make changes in what He has already given us to do.

Carefully...prayerfully....

Wisdom builds her house.... Proverbs 14:1

Heavenly Father, please show me clearly, day by day, how to wisely build my house to Your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

BEING IN LOVE OR ACTING IN LOVE

Everywhere we go we see it - a young man and young woman teasing one another, flirting with one another, enjoying each other's company. They find great joy in being together and what they feel when they are together. They find that it is fun, that it is exciting, all the world looks rosy. They declare they are 'in love'. That may be true. Yet are they ACTING in love for one another?

Are they talking with one another, listening to one another, really caring about what the other is thinking, concerned about the other's well-being? It seems easy to be 'in love' because being 'in love' feels good. Yet it takes a maturity and conscious deliberate effort to ACT in love - you know, the deep abiding kind of love which can last a lifetime.

What about our relationship with God? Are we 'in love' with God - are we thankful for and do we enjoy His Presence in our lives? Is there a sense of adventure as we walk together? Do we look forward to getting to know Him better every day . . . every minute?

Does our being 'in love' with God progress to the next stage - ACTING in love toward Him and toward those He sends our way? Are we drawing close enough to hear His Word which are His words to us? Do we desire to listen to His thoughts and intentions for us? Do we conform our life to His preferences for us since He has our best interests at heart?

Read what God says about acting in love:

Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends . . . . I Corinthians 13:4-8

Heavenly Father, in Your love please draw me close to You. Please teach me how to love You in a more mature way - like a child. Then please help me love those You send my way with Your pure love. In Jesus' name, Amen.

PREPARING THE SOIL

All summer, my daughter's task on a nearby friend's farm was to keep a certain field tilled - the soil loosened and ready for planting in the autumn. Nothing would be planted in the field until late August, but the field had to be kept in readiness.

Saturday after Saturday from March through August, my daughter could be seen for hours, driving the tractor back and forth with the disc attached, keeping the soil soft, preventing the weeds from taking root. By the time August arrived, winter wheat seeds were finally placed in the ground. Within days, healthy green shoots appeared. Eventually a harvest would yield wheat for consumption.

Our hearts, likewise, daily need to be kept softened by God's Word and by obedience to that Word. By reading His Word every day, our hearts will hear, heed and stay on the correct path He has chosen for us until we safely reach Home.

And other seeds fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold. Matthew 4:8

Heavenly Father, please prompt me daily to come to hear Your Word to me. Please keep my heart softened and obedient to what You tell me. I want my life to yield a harvest which is pleasing in Your sight. In Jesus' name. Amen.

WISDOM IN CHOICES

*** PLEASE NOTE: This begins the second year of Reflections being offered. Beginning this week, you will now be be receiving one Reflection per week instead of one daily. Please take time to read your weekly Reflection prayerfully and let it 'last' for the week. Let's put the principles we read into action.

WISDOM IN CHOICES

What choices will we make each day? At home, how will we choose to act in love toward those with whom we live? At work, how diligently and carefully will we choose to do that project? At our place of worship, how will we choose to serve and honor others?

C.S. Lewis, the explorer of Narnia, had this to say about choices: " . . . every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all of your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning the central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature; either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven; that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means . . . eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other." I couldn't have said it better . . . .

Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grown in wisdom. Psalm 90:12

Heavenly Father, please empower me by Your Holy Spirit to choose those things which please You and draw me closer to You day by day until my days are filled with those things which bring glory to Your Holy Name. In Jesus' Name. Amen.