If Life's a Bowl of Cherries...

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:33-34

Cherries are one of my favorite foods, especially when they are fresh from the tree. Perhaps the bowl of fresh cherries on the kitchen counter made me think about the book If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits by the late humorist/author Erma Bombeck. The book takes a humorous look at the trials and tribulations of this thing we call life. I think the title of the book is a good analogy for the two possible perspectives we can have as we go about the business of being humans on this planet. 

“The pits” might as well represent the perspective the world seems to think we should have. This worldly perspective is filled with worry, fear, anger, disrespect and the devaluing of humanity. Don’t misunderstand me there are real problems in this world that need to be dealt with - missing girls in Nigeria, water borne diseases in third world countries, hunger and violence used as a problem solving tool everywhere. It seems to me that the world wants us to be hopeless, to think there is nothing we can do about the state of humanity and our planet.

“The bowl of cherries” represents a completely different perspective. This perspective, alluded to in this week’s passage acknowledges all of the short comings of life on this planet and still tells us not to worry. It implies that we don’t need to be fear filled, or overwhelmed by anger. We can be respectful of one another, place a high value on our own humanness and the humanness of others. This is the heavenly kingdom perspective. His kingdom perspective wants us to be hope filled, understanding that when we seek Him first above everything else He will not only provide us with what we need to live day to day, He will also grant us the wisdom and give us the resources we need to make real changes to the state of humanity and our planet.

What will it be this week - life in the pits or an abundant life with a bowl full of cherries? It’s your choice. You will find me in the bowl of cherries.

A Prayer
Father - thank you for knowing exactly what we need and standing ready to provide those things for us. Help us each day to seek You and Your kingdom first, so that we can live the abundant life, free from worry that You have planned for us. Help us to have a kingdom perspective of our lives, the lives of those around us and our planet. In the name of Jesus - Amen.

Camping at the River

“Your love, O LORD. Reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life: in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright heart. May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.”
Psalm 36:5-11

Twelve women met at a nearby river for a weekend camping trip. This group of ladies of various ages, from different backgrounds, different churches and each carrying their own burdens came together to enjoy the beauty of creation and the fellowship of friendship and sisterhood. Together, they laughed and played, rested and walked in the cool river water, they ate and shared life together. 

Come Sunday morning I had been asked to lead a short devotional time. I had been thinking about what I would say for a couple of week and spent some of my time at the river, praying and studying. You see with twelve women, each dealing with their own stuff we probably could have spent all day pouring through the Scriptures to find something to encourage each individual. As I studied - this week’s passage kept coming up and so I shared what I gleaned from the passage.

God’s love is - unfailing. His love is loyal, devoted and kind. His love is priceless, it is a rare and precious gift that He freely gives. He loves us no matter what we are facing or how we react to our circumstances.

God’s faithfulness is - steady and trustworthy. He will be faithful to keep His promises even if our faith feels like it is failing, His never will.

God’s righteousness is - strong, sure and as solid as the majestic mountains. His standards will never fail and He stands ready to help us live up to them.

God’s justice is perfect and yet a mystery to us because it does not match our understanding of justice. His justice is always right and will protect us from those people or situations that threaten to trip us up. We just need to remember He welds his justice in His own time.

God will lead us to the river, when we are parched and dry, so we can be refreshed and restored to the thriving and abundant life He intends for us. 

The bottom line in all of this is that David understood that no matter what he faced, no matter what we face - we are never alone. God, whose love reaches to the heavens, can reach our hearts just as easily, no matter where we are. He will protect us and provide for us everything that we need for an abundant life, just like the fertile land that lies beside the rivers of the world.

What about it? Do you need to campout at the river of God’s love - soaking up His faithfulness, righteousness, justice and the abundant life He has for you? 

A Prayer
Father - thank you for making such beautiful world for us to live in and learn about your from. Where rivers flow life thrives in abundance. Our lives can get dried out by circumstances of life, draw us to the river of your delight so we can campout and be refreshed, restored and encouraged by your love and faithfulness. In the name of Jesus - Amen

Building Your Core

“For who is God beside the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.” 

2 Samuel 22:32-34

 

Fitness experts everywhere tells us we need to build up our cores. This means working to have strong abdominal, lower back and oblique muscles. The idea is that a strong core will help the rest of our body perform better and be healthier. So we do hundreds of crunches using all sorts of torturous variations. We do planks; pushups and any other exercises that are suppose to give us flat stomachs, tapered waists and strong backs. The results are worth it to be sure, as we find ourselves stronger overall and less prone to injury. But there is another core; we need to be building as well - a spiritual one. We need to build our spiritual core to keep our faith strong especially in difficult times. How do we do that?

1. Stand firmly on the promises of God our Rock. Like the promise God made to Joshua “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5b). Or the promise Paul shares with the Philippians “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). And what about “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
2. Worship God because He is God. This core builder really works best when we exercise it in the midst of the storms we face - in the “even if not” moments of life.
3. Pray always and in every situation. Paul tells the Philippians “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6) The Colossians heard from Paul and he told them to “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2). Prayer is our line of communication with the Master of our core.
4. Walk by faith. Easy to say but much harder to do in our “I can do it” world. When we practice walking by faith, following after the One who knows the way - our spiritual core will get stronger and stronger.

When we build our spiritual cores not only are we better able to deal with the hard stuff of life, but we are better able to reflect God’s grace, mercy and love to those around us. I don’t know what you are facing right now but I know whatever it is - good or bad - now is the perfect time to work on building your core. What condition is your spiritual core in? 

 

A Prayer

Father - thank you for being the Master of our core. Thank you for showing us what we can do to strengthen our core, so we can stand firm no matter what we face. Help us to stand on Your promises, to worship you - especially in the hard times. Thank you for hearing our prayers when we need extra instruction and care for our cores. May we truly walk by faith. In the name of Jesus - Amen.

Artificial Strength

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalm 73:26

“Keep a stiff upper lip.” “Smile though your heart is breaking.” “Never let them see you sweat.” “The show must go on.” Big boys don’t cry.” “Pull yourself together.” “Pull yourself up by your boot straps.” “Get over it.” “Keep your chin up.” “Put on a brave face.” 

How many of these - you have to be strong phrases have you heard? Can you add some to the list? What do you tell yourself, when you feel like you must hold it together and be strong? How is it that stuffing our emotions make us strong? I think when we do that we are creating an illusion of strength - and artificial strength if you will. 

Let me say right up front that there are probably some life circumstances when this sort of artificial strength can serve temporarily as a form of protection so we can deal with whatever we need to deal with. The key here is it should only be used temporarily. The long term effects of stuffing real and raw emotion will lead to more problems in the long run. We need to cry, we need to feel anger, to sit for a time with the pain of betrayal, it’s healthy - it’s truly human and it is a means to healing. 

The Psalmist who wrote this week’s passage had been openly sharing with God the struggles he has been dealing with and comes to the conclusion that real strength comes not from stuffing emotion or giving into temptation but from an authentic relationship with God, where God provided the strength to carry on.

Paul talks about the very real strength that is available from God. After basically telling the Philippians that the secret to being content under even the worst of circumstances is through “Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) he goes on to say that it is also good to share the good and the bad with those around you. In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul tells them that he pleaded with the Lord to remove something painful from his life only to have the Lord tell him “My grace is sufficient - My power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). That’s kind of a hard pill, but Paul had by experience; found it to be true in his life and it will prove to be true in ours as well.

This week we can either stuff our emotions, slap a fake smile on our face and try to get by on artificial strength or like the Psalmist and Paul we can admit that we are being made weak by life on this planet and we need the real strength available from the One who is made even stronger in our weakness. What will it be? 

A Prayer
Father - thank you for being the source of real strength, a strength that brings contentment and healing. Help us not to bottle up the painful emotions we often experience in this world. Thank you also for the people in our lives that allow us to be real with them and are willing to stand by us when life gets messy. In the name of Jesus our strength - Amen.