God doesn’t seem to be listening to me.  He isn’t answering my persistent prayers.  

Is something wrong with my prayer?  Is there some special sin in my life that prevents His answer?  Or is God just capricious? Is He sitting on His big white throne passing judgements on who gets help and who doesn’t? 

We all have prayed for a special answer and there is no answer!

There are seasons in our lives when we are confronted with silence.

Does that mean that God is ignoring us?  Why do we do go through times when we feel like God has placed us in a season of isolation? This is not abandonment.  It is not punishment. 

                                              It’s a divine process. 

David was a shepherd in the wilderness with only his sheep.  He was alone.  Joseph was betrayed and sold into slavery.  He spent years in prison. Even Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness alone. 

These moments of isolation are not times of despair, but sacred seasons in which God refines, teaches and prepares us for a greater purpose.

When we experience dark days of the soul, somehow God uses these times… this opportunity for us to trust God and know He is orchestrating something better for us.  God refines our heart, chisels away our pride and builds perseverance for the journey ahead.

The quiet often brings clarity and loneliness brings dependence. The waiting cultivates our trust.  As we learn to trust God in the darkness we gain a deeper knowledge of Him.

“Now all discipline seems painful at this moment and not joyful.  But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Heb 12:11)

May we all crave the peaceful fruit of His righteousness as we walk through the valley.  

                                  Trust God in His Stillness

Our country is founded on basic principles of justice for all.  All people are equal under the laws of our Constitution.  We pride ourselves on freedom of the individual.  No one is above the law or beneath it. We have abolished human slavery.  All for the betterment of mankind.

                                                But wait! 

                  Slavery is not simply old news.  In fact, we are all slaves.

The Bible says it. And Bob Dylan sang it years ago.  “It might be the Devil or it might the Lord. But you gotta serve somebody.”

Chances are we don’t like that idea, in fact, human experience continually proves that we find this idea offensive and intrusive. 

But Dylan was right, our choice is a  binary one:  The Devil or the Lord, life or death. 

Our way through this is lit by a paradox: it is by serving as a slave of God that we find our deepest freedom!!  Various Christian philosophers have commented that the path of slavery is the road to freedom.  How can this be?

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Paul writes.” The fact is, you don’t belong to yourselves, for you were bought at a price. So, use your bodies to glorify God.” 

Notice, Paul is not calling us to be servants of God.  Servants receive a wage.  He calls us to become slaves of God, because we were bought with a price. 

When God calls us to Himself, He calls us to live as His slaves.

Being called slaves rankles our contemporary sensibilities, it tweaks the sin principle living in us.  But Yeshua told us that the only choice we have is to whom we will be enslaved: “Yes, indeed: I tell you that everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin, so if the Son frees you, you will really be free.”
(John 8: 34,36)

 Jesus sets us free to become slaves of God.  We are now free to become the real person that God intends for us, but only if we become His slave!  We long to do His will in our lives. 

If we would know the freedom to which God calls us, we must remember we are not hired, we are owned.  We have been bought by the kindest of Masters with the most precious of prices…….. the blood of His Only Begotten Son. 

                                  So, who are you gonna serve?

“It might be the Devil, and it might be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody.”

Adam’s responsibilities in the Garden included: reflect God’s image, take care of and protect the garden, name the animals, rule over all creatures, refrain from eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and dominate the earth.

Initially, Adam was alone. Even with Eve’s help, these jobs are “mundane” compared to what we typically think of as noble and lofty tasks.

We may find that our own garden is full of thorns and thistles, not productive.  We are often discouraged that our small patch of earth isn’t worth much, but God has shown us, that it doesn’t take a Garden of Eden for us to be productive. 

We each have our own “gardens” to take care of and protect; we have our homes, workplaces, families, friends, communities, and countries. Only humans that were created in God’s image can connect the physical with the spiritual. There is glory to be shared in everything we say and do, even the most mundane of tasks.

Care for your spiritual garden.  It is God’s gift to you.  How can you do this? 

Be in touch with Him.  Study to show yourself approved, as Paul writes to Timothy.  (2 Timothy 2:15)

Your Garden will bloom and bear fruit.  Your good works will be your gift to our Creator. 

                        Yes, you can be God’s Gardener!

You found a bargain.  It’s just what you have been searching for and there it was.  A big sale.  You grabbed one.  Yeah!!  That’s Joy. 

But unfortunately, that joy only lasts for a short while and then it’s something else that we need, wanted, desire, crave…..etc etc. 

Joy can be a smile from someone in the grocery store; a letter from a distant friend; a Happy Meal for the grandkids; everyone loves your spaghetti! That first cup in the morning.

However, these bring temporary joy.  Real joy is found only in the realization that God is our Father and loves us.

He also gives joy in simple everyday living. Things we often take for granted.  The birds singing their song; the little squirrel on the fence unafraid of being with us. 

As I write this, I look out my window and see a blanket of snow on everything.  I know that spring is coming.  God planned it that way.  We have seasons, we have times, we have blessings.

 Despite the pain in my left knee; the aching back; the often-sleepless nights.  I know that there is more than this life.     

 Be filled with a sense of awe.  Joy can be found in kindness, honesty and in the acceptance that you are a special creation.  You are unique!

Everyone reading this has problems in life.  You have yours, I have mine. But take heart.  God knows.  It will work out.  Perhaps not in the ways you expect.  Joy comes in knowing that He is able. 

                                     Just perhaps you are looking for joy.

                                                Real Joy will find you!!

                               “Thou shalt not Steal;” Genesis 20:15

                                                              That’s It?

God didn’t elaborate on just what He meant.  Just what is stealing anyway?  You would say. “Taking something that doesn’t belong to you.”  Sounds so simple.   Could there be a deeper meaning that we are missing?  No wonder the rabbis spend a lifetime contemplating this command. 

I certainly haven’t spent much time thinking about this commandment.   We all feel safe.  We have never stolen anything.  We aren’t thieves.  We didn’t rob houses.  We never took a shirt from Walmart!

God might just have something else in mind when he told Moses to write this down.

Perhaps God meant not taking from Him.  How can we take anything from God?  He is the Giver, and we receive. 

Every good and perfect gift is from Him.  But we also could be stealing from Him. 

We steal time!  We take the time he has allotted to us and spend our minutes/ hours doing for ourselves.  Time stealing is a major problem for all of us.

Stealing is an active verb.  Stealing involves action.   Stealing time from God can be subtle but still active.    We spend wasted time on caring for ourselves.  Not all bad.  We do need our down time. However, time is a precious commodity.

 Just perhaps we are stealing time from God.  Doing good works, helping others,  study, worship.  These are good uses of our precious time.  These are active uses our time. 

Could you give up that TV show for worship?  Could you stay an extra hour helping and listening to a friend who needs you?  Could you visit the sick friend in a hospital.  Just being there. 

We show our love to God by how we care for the time given us. 

                                                Let us not steal from God. 

                                                 We can be reformed thieves!

      Why am I here?    What am I doing anyway!  What should be my goals in life?  Does my life have meaning? 

We all have goals in life, whether you recognize them or not.  Perhaps it is the acquisition of money in the bank. Acquiring a new skill. More intellectual knowledge. Getting ourselves “right” with God! When we purpose with sincerity and honesty, we will seek to find God’s purpose for us. 

Sometimes the very thing we think is our purpose isn’t what God intended. 

God doesn’t wake me up in the middle of the night with a message about my purpose.  Wish He did.  Things might be easier that way.  He lets me muddle through at times and finally with a little push, a door will  open. 

I never intended on getting old.    That was just for others.  Then suddenly, I was one of the them!!

Since I am on the short side of life, my purpose has changed.  I am not raising children, making lots of cookies, or being in a carpool. 

            So, what’s my purpose now?  I can’t really have long term goals. 

Each day might present a new purpose.  I do know that He wants me to be a disciple.  That means making myself open to sharing my faith.  It might mean just giving an encouraging smile to the waiter. Saying hello to a complete stranger. Helping at a local soup kitchen. Laying aside money for a meaningful cause. 

One good friend works at the local prison.  Helping the prisoners to help themselves when they return to the world.  He asks them, “If your life now isn’t working for you, how will you change it?”  Their old purpose didn’t work, now they need a new purpose! 

Having a sense of purpose is what we all need, not just those prisoners.  It need not be something spectacular but should be meaningful. 

                                    Having a purpose will put you to work.    

                                           Have you found your purpose? 

When I was a kid one of my favorite activities was to connect dots.  I would take my pencil and go to each number given.  In the end after all the dots were connected there was a picture!  I then could color the picture and had a work of art!

There was a story I read about a little girl in Bible school.  The teacher asked them all to draw angels or perhaps a picture of baby Jesus in the manager.  One little girl was drawing furiously.  The teacher asked her, “Mary what are you drawing?”  She replied…”. I’m drawing a picture of God. “To which the teacher replied……”No one knows what God looks like.”

  Mary told her……..”They will in a minute!”

We too might like a picture of God.  We like visuals.  We see shapes in clouds, and rainbows make us happy. All Moses saw was a burning bush!

We can’t quite connect all the dots in our life.   How is God using this problem for my good?  I can’t see where this is going.  The big picture just isn’t there for me. I wish I had Mary’s faith.  She was able to “see” God.  In her childlike faith she connected the dots! 

But then again………. When I look backward from where I am now, suddenly those dots connect.   I can see what God was doing after all. 

                                    That’s why faith is so important. 

      We often cannot connect the dots from where we stand now

But wait!

                                          God is connecting the dots. 

                                                   Every Day Wonders

If you are anything like me, we all crave order and certainty. Predictability offers safety.

However, we take our everyday life for granted.  We need to fall in love with life anew.  Only when fearing we might lose that life, do we become more mindful of our blessings. 

                                 How can we become more enchanted with life?

First, we need to think how a child reacts to a cute bunny, a dandelion to blow, or a rainbow after a rain. 

Even as adults we can be filled with wonder.  When we travel to a new place we find wonder in the landscape, architecture, art, and creativity of the people. 

So why don’t we feel such awe every day?  Do we see our lives as ordinary, dull and boring? 

As we become familiar with own space we turn off our curiosity and lose the ability to see things as unique. 

There’s nothing wrong with the mind’s powerful tendency to turn the miraculous into ordinary, unless you’d like to feel enchanted by life again!! 

Here are a few suggestions we might try to bring back the joy of renewal.

Try seeing things with a “beginners” mind……as if seeing things for the first time.  See people you know with fresh eyes and wonder.  Each person is unique. 

When walking around your house notice things that you already own. Let them bring back memories.   I still have a few wedding gifts.  Each one brings me back to our marriage and the person who gave me that gift.   They are a bit of magic in my life.

When you go outside, really see a tree.  See the spaces between the branches.
Find a shape in a cloud. See that cute squirrel doing his tricks.  And that bird.    He’s serenading you.

When you message someone or see some new wonder of AI just imagine how your grandparents would have been awestruck by such magic.

                            Practice becoming enchanted with the ordinary. 

Practice experiencing things as if for the first time.  Taste your food as if it were the first time you’d ever tasted anything so delicious.  Can you fall in love with life and recapture a sense of magic and wonder? Can you feel a sense of the enchanted all around you?

                                It’s  all there, waiting for you to see it.
                                            God’s gifts to you 

  Who cares about hair?  Well, perhaps you do.    All those ads about shampoos appeal to us.  We want thicker, fuller, beautiful locks.  Both women and men.  Did you know that God cares about your hair? 

I read a sign in front of one of our churches.  “God is watching you.”  That’s rather scary isn’t it.  Nothing we do is in secret.    Yes, I know He is all knowing, all seeing and all wise.  But does that include everything about me and you? 

 “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin?  Not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”  (Matt 10:29-31)  

It all seems rather humorous if you think about it.  Of course, Jesus was just telling us that God not only cares about sparrows falling but included us and our hair!

When the Lord spoke these words to those early Believers they brought comfort to them.  They believed He truly was the Messiah of Israel as well as the Savior of the world.  He was God’s anointed One.  He was the only one able to keep the commandments perfectly, since humankind is unable. 

Jesus wanted to reassure His followers, that God knew them personally, even to the hairs on their head.  Many of them would be sacrificed in the Roman arenas or crucified on crosses. Once they believed who Jesus was, they could no longer worship the Emperor or the Roman pantheon of gods.  That would have been so easy to do.  Just accept this Jesus as one of the gods and save your life! 

However, persecution only seemed to attract more disciples to this Jewish man who could heal the sick, cause the dumb to speak and open the eyes of the blind.

If knowing that God counts your hairs, does that bring comfort to you?  Do you really want Him seeing all you do, where you go and what you watch on TV. 

If God knows sparrows and hairs, He also knows your heart!

I enjoy reading the exploits of King David. He was chosen by God while still a shepherd to be future king of Israel.   He was the youngest of his clan.  He had limited leadership instruction, and yet God chose him for a special job.  Being a king demands obedience but with attributes of fairness, discernment, decisiveness, and loyalty of one’s subjects.  

David is securing his hold on the throne of Israel.  He appoints   men to carry out important jobs for him.  He looks for men of character who also demonstrated loyalty to him.  David’s kingship was always in jeopardy throughout his reign.  Even from his own sons! 

As King, David, gave assigned tasks to his most trusted men.  When reading
 1 Chronicles 27: 25-31, we read of David’s assignments.   The writer lists13 to 14 different men who are assigned various tasks.  I was amazed when reading the list.  Some are appointed to oversee royal store houses; some in charge of the field workers; some to watch over the king’s vineyard.  But reading further on, I find Shitrai who oversaw the herds grazing the fields; Obil, in charge of the camels; Jehdeiah in charge of the donkeys! 

                                                      Donkeys??

  Now why would a donkey watcher be listed in Scripture? Isn’t there really more important scriptural information that we need to know?  So, what do camel herders and donkey watchers have to do with us here and now anyway? 

Why is it important for us to know them?  In fact, I daresay, that most of us skip those verses entirely. But wait.  Here’s a message for us.  God has appointed each of us a task at any one particular time.  Whether we are washing dishes, cleaning our bathrooms, mopping the messy kitchen floor. 

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.”

Paul knew the stories of the overseers.  He knew about the storehouses, the vineyard keepers; he knew about the donkey keepers. 

No task is unworthy or too menial, if we do all for glory of God it will be pleasing to Him.  Just perhaps this is what Paul means when he mentions prayer without ceasing. Our prayers and our work, however menial, can all be done with a grateful heart. 

No job is unimportant!  No work is too small, no work is forgotten.  We are not preachers, or teachers or bible scholars.

                                     But camel herders and donkey watchers do count!