Happy Monday, Child of God!

If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Romans 8:31 (NLT)

Welcome to Monday morning!  Sometimes that thought isn't always so inviting. Right? But think about it. If the God of the universe, the God that controls everything, the God that is involved in our intimate details is for you, is there anything at all that can stand against you?

Maybe part of the problem is we don't really believe that he loves us that much. We look at ourselves in the mirror and think "He can't possibly be for me, look at my life." What we forget is that we are looking at the wrong reflection.

What we should be looking at is Jesus. How can we look at his death on the cross and believe that God is not for us? How can we look at the decision he made to take it all the way through his suffering to his death and not know that it was for each of us individually that he died?

When those voices in your head tell you that you are a failure, look at Jesus.
When the voices say that there is too much in your past for you to be a child of God, look at cross.
When you feel like you just don't measure up, look at the One who said "Whosoever believes in me will not perish."
You are a Whosoever.
You are the one he died for.

Happy Monday, Child of God!  You are loved!

Revenge Is Not Mine

For God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment. 1 Peter 2:19 (NLT)

Many years ago, our extended family was on a vacation together. During that vacation we found out that someone else in the family had done something really wrong to one of our parents. It caused a lot of chaos on that trip and needless to say, that was probably the worst vacation I've ever been on.

During the uproar one of the family members said, "I would like to get revenge on them. I would really like to hurt them." They looked at me as if to say "What do you think?" Now, I am not the calmest person in the world and Lord knows I often say things I probably shouldn't but for some reason that day these words came out "The Bible says revenge is the Lord's." The person looked at me and said "Yea, but that will take too long."

For some reason this has stuck in my head all these years. She was right. God's timing is often more elongated than ours. We want results now. And, I totally understand the revenge thing. It's not in our human nature to overlook something. We want to retaliate and retaliate quickly. But, we are not called to live according to our human nature. We are called to live according to Christ's nature. Once we accept him as Savior and Lord, our thinking needs to change. We need to be changed from the inside out.

Today's Bible verse reminded me of the vacation story and it reminded me as to why we as Christians should not seek revenge. Always, foremost in our thinking should be the question "What does God want?" If I retaliate against the person who hurt me, if I seek revenge, hold a grudge or say all the things that have popped into my head, how will I represent Jesus? Will I bring glory and honor and a true representation of Jesus if I behave as myself?

I think the key in 1 Peter 2:19 is the words "conscious of his will." Always, no matter what is going on in our lives, we always need to be conscious of his will.

What Day of the Week Are You?

........a time to laugh. Ecclesiastes 3:4 (NLT)

I think Monday gets a bum rap. Everyone complains that Monday is coming and everyone laments that it is here. What if we looked forward to Monday the same way we look forward to Friday? What a great day it would be! No matter what happened, it'd be OK because it's Monday!

Probably not going to happen, I know but thinking about this made me think about Christians. Are we living our lives as "Monday Christians" or "Friday Christians"? When people talk to us, do they walk away with the feeling of "Oh Man, it's Monday. Life is awful and I wish I could go back to bed." or "It's Friday! It's Friday! Life is amazing and I can't wait for tomorrow!"

True, there are times when things are not laughable and we do need to address those. Ecclesiastes 3 talks about there being a time for everything. But that's not what we are talking about here. What we are talking about is the general way in which you live your life.

Which day of the week do you reflect to those around you?  Are you a Monday or a Friday personality? Whatever day of the week - laugh. God created you to laugh and he tells us to do it. Most importantly, as you do it changes you and reflects the joy of the one who created - who created you to laugh.

He will once again fill your mouth with laughter
    and your lips with shouts of joy.
Job 8:21 (NLT)