All in Obedience
Life’s difficult circumstances sometimes turns peace to panic. Our survival may depend on living through complicated medical treatments, making difficult decisions about our children, struggling with financial hardships, caregiving, coping with unhealthy habits... and on and on. But seemingly hopeless situations are the perfect ground for God to show us his glory, as he did continually to Moses and the Israelites.
Have you ever watched a potter work, as Jeremiah did in today’s passage? It is amazing to see something lovely begin to take shape from a lump of clay. In this passage God was showing the prophet that the nation of Israel—as well as every person from the beginning of time—was to be shaped by His hand. We are all lumps of human clay waiting for the touch of the master Potter.
I could not believe my eyes and ears! On a popular cooking show contestants competed for a top chef prize. Their cooking determined who got to continue preparing dishes on the show or who went home empty handed.
Have you ever hidden something and forgotten where you put it? Not only did you conceal it from others, but also yourself. How frustrating! Not so with God’s word. When memorizing and cherishing his word in our hearts, accessing it effortlessly brings quite the opposite. It brings victory and peace.
My friend was having trouble getting her 7-year-old daughter up and ready for school in the mornings. After repeatedly asking her daughter to do her morning routine, she decided she had enough. She asked her daughter to come to the bathroom to brush and style her hair, but she didn’t keep asking. Her daughter hadn’t come in to get her hair styled by the time my friend was finished in the bathroom. When the girl wanted her hair brushed, the mom calmly told her that she had missed her chance. She didn’t follow her mom’s instructions, so she would have to go to school with her hair as it was. Hair au naturel – the natural consequence.
Normally I would not get excited about flying. I must admit that anxiety usually kicks in at the very thought of getting on an airplane. This time was different though. I had an agenda.
A deadline was quickly approaching, so I set aside today to complete the task. A couple of more pressing circumstances intervened taking center stage. My muscles tightened and my countenance fell as my stress level rose. How am I going to finish now? I wondered.
“Just Do It” is a phrase Nike coined in 1988. It’s a slogan to inspire athletes to out run, out train, and out move. The apostle James used similar words to inspire Christians hundreds of years earlier.
Mean words. Potty-talk. Critical comments. It was the beginning of a long summer, and I purposed to tackle the issue of the ugly mouth I heard coming from my children. For that summer, my children and I focused on the verse above. We memorized it. We talked about it. We defined words and explained concepts within it. We looked for it lived out in others. We noticed the opposite qualities lived out in others. And most importantly, we asked God to help us walk out this verse in our family relationships. That was hard for a big sister with a huge vocabulary that could slice and dice, and a little brother who had strong, fast arms, fists and feet!
Living in a new area, I was excited when a lady from a church we had visited calledand asked me to attend an event there that night. At first I had some excuses why I should not go, but then I thought, why not, and off I went.
“Excuse me. May I ask you guys a question? I noticed you praying before your meal.”
My husband was meeting with a friend over lunch at a local restaurant when the young man interrupted them. The man and his wife had recently moved and were looking for a church home. My husband and his friend had a nice conversation with the man, inviting him and his wife to church and welcoming them to town.
A much younger friend works out with me to help me improve my health. She regularly reminds me that I “pace myself” when I’m doing any given physical challenge. While she would like for me to exert myself fully throughout, instead I start slowly and gradually increase my effort. She says I hold back.
I’d patched it twice—a dab of spackling and a dollop of paint. I noticed it again while dusting the mantle. That small crack in the wall had returned. As I poked around, I discovered additional soft spots surrounding the crack. This could not be good! Bob-the-handy-man agreed. It could be water damage, dry rot or, even worse, termite damage.
Have you noticed the ads on social media for t-shirts expressing thoughts about kindness? The shirts may have pictures or other words on them, but they all end up saying, “Choose Kind”.
Normally I keep my Bible right by my bed. I know it does not have magical power, but I like having it near. Having it right there certainly does make it easier to grab and jump right in to reading the wisdom filling it.
It was one of those days. You know what I mean. Nothing seemed to be going right. I was irritated that certain situations weren’t progressing as fast as I wanted. How long is this going to take?
Last year was one of the most difficult years of my life while enduring ongoing and worsening health issues surrounding my beloved husband and brother. Several months before the medical journeys began, God led me to a Bible study on spiritual warfare. I tried to wiggle my way out of it, but my Savior knew I was on the threshold of experiencing new types of brokenness and vulnerability—new enemy territory.
In 1961 the Broadway show Carnival opened, its theme song, Love Makes the World go ’Round by Bob Merrill, an immediate hit. Such legends of my day as Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, Bing Crosby, and Johnny Mathis included it in their repertoires. Of course it was about romantic love: “a silver song, making the earth whirl softly”.
I still remember that sweltering sunny day. As a child, picking strawberries was one of my favorite summer outings. I loved walking the aisles, eyeing the perfect berry and plucking it off the bush. As we began, I distinctly remember my mother’s instructions.No tasting the berries before we pay. That’s stealing.
Mean words. Potty-talk. Critical comments. It was the beginning of a long summer, and I purposed to tackle the issue of the ugly mouth I heard coming from my children. For that summer, my children and I focused on the verse above. We memorized it. We talked about it. We defined words and explained concepts within it. We looked for it lived out in others. We noticed the opposite qualities lived out in others. And most importantly, we asked God to help us walk out this verse in our family relationships.
