10.15.13

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.

My Thoughts

God does this, without a doubt, God comforts and and strengthens us in every good thing we say and so.  Think about it... when we are going about having a good day, being helpful to others.  When our words are kind and sweet and helpful,  we get to the end of our day with ease...we wonder where the day went so fast... we marvel at all we have accomplished. 

Then there are days when we grumble and complain.  We are so busy noticing the bad in life, in people that we end up exhausted and anxious.  The day drags... we wonder if we will ever get home.  We say things like, "This day has been ten days long."  Why? Because there is no comfort and hope in grumbling and complaining, in ignoring the needs of others.  

When we are kind in our actions and in our words, it is like a sunny day... we can actually see the rays of God shinning down on us. But when we are grumbling and complaining, ignoring the needs of others or speaking unkindly... it is like a rainy day the thick dark clouds get in the way of God's blessings on our lives. 

We have a choice, we can choose to act in love no matter how we feel... When we act in love then God sends down His blessings like the rays of the sun...and our feelings follow!

10.13.13

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy.  Encourage  those who are timid.  Take tender care of those who are weak.  Be patient with everyone.

See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.

My Thoughts

I was struck by verse 14... then I kept wanting to write about verse 15.... something (I think the Holy Spirit) would not let me separate the two.   Since I could not separate the two I went back to read them and see how I needed to connect them.  And not matter how I tried I could not get away from the "warn people who are lazy" and always do good to each other."  The more that I thought about it the convinced I became that warning people who are lazy is being good to them.  I think that it is no coincidence that  "take care of those who are weak" was in the same chapter as "warn those who are lazy."  We don't do a lazy person any justice by taking care of them... we are being good to them by gently pointing out all they have to lose by being lazy. 

We are not being good to somebody when we don't warn them about their laziness. Just like we are not being good to our children when we do everything for them and don't teach them how to do for themselves.  Verse 14 also tells us to be patient with everyone... including the lazy...  we are to warn them gently and not be frustrated when they don't "get it" at first.  We need to keep after it being gentle and teaching them how the value of work.  They may have never learned. 

I am reminded of a story my mom told, she was a teacher.  One day she was asking the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up, one little boy said, "I want to be on welfare." This child's parents were on welfare, he wanted to grow up to be like his dad.  He needed someone to patiently teach him what he could have and could not have by learning not to be lazy.  He sure didn't need someone to preach to him.. he needed someone to teach him. 

We need to teach people... just like we don't need to leave this world not having taught our children to take care of themselves...we don't need to teach people to be dependent on the government.  One day the government may not be there to take care of all the people they have taught to be dependent on them.  We are not being cruel, we are being kind.  It is the difference in giving a man a fish and teaching him to fish.  If we always give him a fish and then go away one day, he will starve. If we teach him to fish we can go away and he can survive without us.  Teaching him to fish is acting in love.  Loving one another is what God called us to do, even when it is hard.

10.19.13

1 Thessalonians 2:2 You know how badly were had been treated in Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered.  Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spire of great opposition.

My Thoughts

I love this... it says to me... "No matter what happened to you in the past, God is with you Jeannie. God will give you the courage to do what He ask you to do."  It does not matter who I was. It does not matter how shy I may have been in the past.  It does not matter if I have never done something before.  If God ask me to, he will make me able.  Sometimes God ask us and then makes us able.  Sometimes God makes us able because He is about to ask us.  

Dear God,

I am ready to do what you ask me to do, your words tells me that YOU will make me able.  I do not have to depend on me, I should never look to me and my abilities...I should always look to you, you who can make us able to do anything! Thank you God for caring about me.

In Jesus precious name,

Amen

10.12.12

1 Thessalonians 4:14-23
¹⁴ Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.

¹⁵ See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.

¹⁶ Always be joyful. ¹⁷ Never stop praying. ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

¹⁹ Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. ²⁰ Do not scoff at prophecies, ²¹ but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. ²² Stay away from every kind of evil.

My Thoughts
Words to memorize!!

12.15.11

1 Thessalonians 5:18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

My Thoughts

I admit this one was hard for me to get at first. Sometimes I have those moments or days were I just didn't know how to be thankful.  I remember thinking what is there in this moment to be thankful for??  The more I know God the more I know how to be thankful! In bad moments I can be thankful for what I am going to learn and how I am going to grow. I can be thankful that God is with me and I know that it could be so much worse without God by my side. I can be thankful that God will give me double for my trouble when I act with grace, compassion and mercy...when I pray for the people that feel like my enemies.  I can be thankful that God gives me new days to start over.  What I am learning about being thankful in all circumstances is that when I stop to be thankful the weight of what is happening at the moment decreases.... the good begins to feel bigger and the bad smaller.  When I am thankful on the bad days and in the bad moments I am more aware that God is with me and that with God all things are possible. When I find things to be thankful for it gets my mind off my troubles and back on God. There is always, ALWAYS something to be thankful for! When I am thankful it draws God near... so even if the problem I am having is bigger than me... it is never bigger than God.

I see it like this in my mind...when I am drowning in a problem... it can feel like I am being swallowed up by the sea...but when I call out to God and tell him thank you, He parts the water...makes the land dry beneath my feet.... and I am able to handle anything with His grace.  Then I am thankful that God loves me so much that he would part the waters and not let me drown in my problems.

12.10.11

Proverbs 29:20 There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking.

My Thoughts

Wow!... We all go about just talking, talking, talking.  Most people just have a need to be heard.  I know I do...sometimes worse than others. This verse got me to thinking about how we are suppose to seek God in all that we do. That includes opening our mouths.  What if every time we started to say something we sent up a quick prayer that our words would be right, what if we asked God to keep our mouth closed if we shouldn't say what we were about to say? I bet a lot of our mouths would be closed, a lot more often. What if we said a quick prayer that our words would be good words, kind words... what if we asked when the phone rang for our ears to listen more than our mouth speaks? I know I think often that I should pray before I answer the phone... but I have been answering the phone all my life without doing that. So I just react without prayer first.  That act in itself is pretty foolish. 

Romans 12:12 tells us to be in constant prayer.... 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to be in uninterrupted, constant prayer.... that means that we need to pray before speaking. This is for sure something that I need to work on!!

10.12.11

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong to  Christ Jesus.

My Thoughts

We have all heard that saying "Happiness is a choice." Here in Thessalonians it is actually a command. Always be joyful.  To be joyful we have to be mindful of all the good around us.  We have to make a conscious effort to think on the good... to see the good in others... to love others, to give to others. Not just money or material gifts.. but give our attention, our time... our smiles our acceptance. When we hand out joy it echos back into our lives more times than it is handed out.  If you shout to the mountains " You are beautiful" you hear it back 3 or 4 times for your one shout.  So to be able to feel such joy we must first give it...then it will be echoed back into our lives. Joy is a choice...we are commanded to be joyful always.  That means in the morning... in the lull of the day...and at night when the day has been long.  There is always something to be joyful about, always. We just have to make the effort to look for it...sometime, often we have to be the joy we want to see. We have to fix our hearts on joy!

We are also commanded to be in constant prayer... that means that we are always talking to God...about anything and everything. Taking, talking, talking to God.  If we are constantly praying.. if we never stop..we fill up the cracks of empty space where the devil likes to get.  We keep God with us every moment when we stay in constant prayer.  In those prayers we need to be mindful to be thankful always, always!! 

I often wondered how to be thankful when something bad was going on... it is doable.. and it will change the bad much more quickly than dwelling on the bad... blowing the bad up in our heads so it is so much bigger than it actually is.  We have to make God bigger than our problem... God is bigger than any problem we have.  So when the moment or the day is not going good we can thank God... for good yesterdays... for new days... new beginnings... we can thank God for any lessons we are suppose to be learning.  When we get busy thanking God in all circumstances it draws God near... we remember to invite God in to take over... we can thank God that he is bigger than any bad day we have...and we will see the changes. Sometimes the changes come in the things around us...sometime it comes in our own hearts...and our ability to deal with a difficult situation...but when we invite God in there is always a change.

God give us free will to be joyful. God give us free will to be prayerful God give us free will to be thankful. In all of these areas we have the choice.  The amazing things is that God gives us the answers... God tells us here is the right answers, we need to choose them so our life can be abundant!! 

What will your echo be today?

10.10.11

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for your overflows. May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen.

My Thoughts

Love is what makes us blameless...this is what I get from this verse. We must love one another with our whole hearts. Each person we come in contact each day we must love. We must be love. This will make our hearts strong!!

Today's world tells us all that time to think about ME!! ME!! ME!! ... God tells us to think about others.. to love others. Over my lifetime I have seen many people that love themselves... that are worried, all the time if people love them, what people are going to do for them. They are the people that I have seen give up on love... because they were so busy worried about being loved that they were unable to love in return. When I look back at my own life.. the times I felt least loved were the times I was most worried about me being loved by others... the times I have felt most loved is when I was loving towards others.

When we make it our goal to love others... when we do what God ask of us and we love others, we fix our minds on love... God takes care of the rest. If God knows we need to love others, God also knows that we need others to love us!

A good example of this is those people that you love to see coming! You know the ones..they light up a room when they walk in... you can feel their love so much that you love to see them from across the room... they make it their mission to love others and it shows... we have all know that kind of person! Well think about it... they walk into a room...your heart feels so happy because they are there that your own face lights up!... the room didn't just brighten because the were bright...the room brightened because you were bright too. They were showing love...and in return God made sure they felt loved.

It is like God set it up for us to feel what we send out. Like an echo... you shout out to the mountains I love you...and you hear I love you back... you shout out to the mountains I love me... you hear I love me back.... God wants us to echo love, acceptance, kindness... God wants us to give .... then God takes care of the echo....

Today, each day before we speak, before we act we need to stop and think ... "Do I want want I am giving out?" Each time before we act we need so say to ourselves "Would I want somebody to act this way toward me?" ... even our body language should be what we would want in return. We need to be mindful to fix our thoughts on what is good. Philippians 4:8 tells us "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things" ... we do what we think about... we get back what we give.

If your day is going right today... or if your day is going wrong... stop and ask yourself "Is that my echo?".... we need to be constantly aware of what we shout out to the mountains.We need to actually plan our echos... to fix our mind on what our echo will be!! What will your echo be today?

10.9.11

1 Thessalonians 2:4 For we speak as messangers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

My Thoughts

Our purpose is to please God, not people.  I am a people pleaser.... I always have been.  I don't just want people to like me .... I want everybody to LOVE me!! I have done many things wrong in my life to have somebody like me. I have often had such trouble making decisions because I was having to weight who, what I did, would please. It was exhausting.... the more I got to truly know God and what he wants from me the more my world changed in this area. 

First, as sweet as I could be I got even sweeter.  I am sweet to people now because I want them to feel loved, not so they love me.... but so they will feel loved.  So they will know that God loves them.  Even when I feel my worse and I am out in the world I make a conscious effort to be sweet and kind and loving.  I don't want anybody that I come across to in any way feel unloved.  Now if they don't accept my kindness I go about me day... and my day is not changed in any way.... I myself feel loved by God...I feel God's approval in my life.  Before if I had tried my best and got shot down it would hurt my feelings so much.  Now I am trying for God.  If the person on the other end of my smile, my kind words does not respond... it is sad for them, I think... but I am okay because I know that God knows I was doing what He called me to do, love others.

Another way this has changed my world is it reduced the choices I have when I have to make a decision.  So if I have 6 options... I can narrow it down in a hurry to about three by asking which of these choices would please God.  If somebody ask me to do something....I think would this be something that would please God...if the answer is no... I can now say no without any guilt or worry.  I then go the next step and ask myself if I say yes to this, will I wish I hadn't later and be resentful in my heart while I am preforming this task... if it is going to give me a negative heart I decline the task. My to do list has been cut in half! When God gives me something to do now that I am not sure I will like or be successful at.... I get to work praying each day that I will be good at the task at hand...I ask God to give me a heart for what He has give me.  When I ask, God answers.

As I get to know God more, and more, and more the choices I make each day change more and more... as they change my life changes. And each time that God changes my life it gets better.  I have seen so much change in my life since I begin to take time to know God, truly know God. I can get so excited about the changes in my future, just by looking at the changes in my past.  The thing is God can take something the devil means for bad and turn it into a blessing.  There is nothing that God ask of us that is not good for us and for others. When we choose to please God and not man we will be making the right choices.  Even if man gets upset with our choices, God is still the one in control of our lives. God can fix anything that man messes up. Today I want to make God pleased with me, I want to make God like me, I want to make God smile... in the process I have found that more people like me, more people LOVE me! God cares about the desires of my heart!!  When I do what God ask, God always takes care of the rest.

10.12.10

1 Thessalonians 5:14-15 Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy.  Encourage those who are timid.  Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone.  See that no one pays back evil for evil, but always try to do good to each other and to all people.

My Thoughts

Would not the world be a better place if we just all stopped and did this.... what if we could get everybody, every single person to do these things for just one week... that one week could change the world.. what we can do is be there person that other people see these qualities in and maybe, just maybe we could change the people around us!

10.11.10

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.  Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.

My Thoughts

I love this... have you ever noticed when your hands are busy you can't worry.... when you are thinking about what your hands are doing... you can't worry about what other people are doing or about what you think you should worry about.... I think this is why God gives us things to be good at.... after we are finished earning a living for the day... we can be busy in a way that relaxes our minds and our hearts in a way that keeps us from worry and stress... we can keep busy being productive instead of keeping busy being busybodies.... and if we do what the Bible tells us to do and we stay busy with our hands we stay out of trouble... I have two things that I just love to do with my hands, making cards, and knitting... when I am busy doing those thing I don't have a worry in the world... I don't take time to try and fix other people....and when I stay busy doing those things, even when I have to do something else, I have a card in my head... or I am busy in my head trying to think of a neat way to make another scarf or hat....and I don't worry about anything.... and on top of that I can use the things I have been busy doing to bless other people... God knows how to make us happy, how to bring us joy, how to get us the respect of others... God knows...and God is never wrong.... if we would just take his wonderful book of instructions for our life and use it... we would have peace, joy, happiness, we would prosper ourselves... God said if we would follow him we would have life and have it more abundantly... that means abundant peace, abundant joy, abundant everything... if we do what God ask us to do he will take care of all of our needs, spiritually, emotionally, physically... I am off to keep my hands busy...I hope that you have a wonderful day!

10.9.10

1 Thessalonians 2:4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News.  Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

My Thoughts

People are always thinking they know the intentions of another person and judging them for what they think that person's intentions are.... and so, so often they are wrong... God always know the intentions of our hearts, no matter what they are.  If we are always trying to do what God ask of us, trying to please God in all that we say and do, God will know... God won't be guessing and God will not get it wrong. This is really exciting if we think about it... how many times have we tried to please a person, just to have them mad at us because they took what we were doing all wrong?  It happens all the time.. if we spend our time trying to please God, we will be being kind to others and doing what is right and if somebody takes it wrong we can know that God knows our heart.  Even if all is not right with the person we were being nice to all will be right with God.... you know if we go about pleasing God it really can make our life easier by reducing the decisions we make.... if you first question is "What would God want me to do in this situation?"  So often this would narrow down our decision to just one option... or maybe two.... we can never go wrong pleasing God.