Being Glad

By Cindy Hess Kasper

“This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”—Psalm 118:24

One of my favorite childhood books was Pollyanna, the story of the optimistic young girl who always found something to be glad about—even when bad things happened.

I was reminded recently of that literary friend when my real-life friend fell and broke her arm while riding her bicycle. Marianne told me how thankful she was that she was able to ride all the way back home and how grateful she was that she wouldn’t need to have surgery. It was her left arm (she’s right-handed), she said, so she would still be able to work. And wasn’t it great, she marveled, that she has good bones, so her arm should heal fine! And wasn’t it wonderful that it hadn’t been any worse!

Whew! Marianne is an example of someone who has learned to rejoice in spite of trouble. She has a confidence that God will care for her—no matter what.

Suffering eventually touches us all. And in times of difficulty, thankfulness is usually not our first response. But I think God looks at us with pleasure when we find reasons to be thankful (1 Thess. 5:16-18). As we realistically look for the good despite our bad circumstances, we can be grateful that God is holding us close. It is when we trust in His goodness that we find gladness.

Under His wings, what a refuge in sorrow!
How the heart yearningly turns to His rest!
Often when earth has no balm for my healing,
There I find comfort, and there I am blessed. —Cushing

Thankfulness finds something good in every circumstance.

 

Source: Our Daily Bread Daily Devotionals

Don’t Get Caught Up in the How!

By Kim Brooks

A lot of times, when we’re believing God for a mate, we get caught up in the “How” of it all. You know what I mean, it’s been a while and you’re like, “Lord, I know you’re going to bless me with a mate, but HOW will you do it?”

You can’t quite figure it out so you find yourself sitting in the same area where a certain single brother at church normally sits, or you may even move to another city or change careers because you figure, “There must not be any good men where I am anyway – maybe my mate is in this new city.”

During my morning devotional time with the Lord, I read about the man with an infirmity for 38 years at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-9). Day in and day out, for years and years this man had lain at this pool, and eventually grew deeply discouraged. You see, at a certain time the angels would trouble the waters, and the first person to get in after the waters were troubled got healed. The man figured he would never make it in first because he didn’t have any one to carry him to the pool, so by the time he finally made it down himself someone else already received their healing. Jesus noticed the man and asked him if he would be made whole, and the man proceeded to tell Jesus his sob story about why he would never get healed because he didn’t have anyone to help him down the steps.

He was so focused on the methodology, or the “how” of it all, that he failed to realize that he was talking to the Healer himself! Jesus next told the man to arise, take up his bed and walk – he did and received his healing!

Just like the man at the pool of Bethesda, some of us worry ourselves and grow deeply discouraged while trying to figure out how God is going to send us our mates.

Instead of focusing on the “how,” focus on trusting God while knowing that He will bring all the desires of your heart to pass in due season for your life. 

Hold fast to your profession of faith, allow God to order your steps, remain faithful to Him, and let God hook you up!

Scripture References:

“Delight thyself also in the Lord:  and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”—Psalm 37:4

“Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)”—Hebrews 10:23

“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:  and he delighteth in his way.”—Psalm 37:23

 

Licensed minister, Kim Brooks, is the award-winning author of Black Expressions’ Bestselling novel, He’s Fine…But is He Saved?, its sequel, He’s Saved…But is He For Real?, and, The Little Black Survival Book for Single Saints. Sign up to receive her free monthly eNewsletter for singles entitled, The Single Heart, on www.Kimontheweb.com.

Word of the Week ~ July 6-12, 2009

 “He comes alongside us when we go through hard times,
and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone
else who is going through hard times so that we
can be there for that person just as God
was there for us.”—2 Cor. 1:4 (MSG)

“Ministry happens to and
through broken people.
God is the Comforter.”
—Someone who Loves you.

 
***PRAYER REQUESTS*** 

Phone: (267) 519-1084
E-mail: ILive2PraizHim@yahoo.com
www.needHim.org

 

The Purpose of Life

Grace and Peace to you!

The following excerpts were taken from an interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life and pastor of Saddleback Church in California. The interview is a few years old. But it’s extremely powerful. In it, Warren shares some new insights he has gained about the purpose of life, in light of his wife’s recent bout with cancer and his newly attained wealth from increasing book sales.

I was extremely blessed by this message and I pray that you will be, too. If you are, then please share it with others.

May God richly bless you and yours today!

Firmly In His Grip,

Genikwa

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Pastor Warren said:

“People ask me, ‘What is the purpose of life?’ And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were not made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven. One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body—but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act – the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort; God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer. I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems: If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness, which is my problem, my issues, my pain. But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her- It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.  You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy. It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease. So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit… We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)? When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do. That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.”

Real Love

Hello to everyone out there in the blogosphere! It’s been quite a while since my last post. These last few weeks have been extremely busy.

Would you like to know what I’ve been doing? Basically, I’ve been training as a home health aide. Well, I haven’t undergone any official training, but if rigorous, real-life experience counts for anything, then I’m well-qualified by now.

Seriously, I’ve been pitching in to help take care of my youngest sister, who has been laid up and in excruciating pain for the past month and a half. I won’t go into detail about her medical situation, but it’s been pretty bad. But regardless of the situation, we know it’s in God’s hands and He has blessed her with good doctors and health insurance (smile).

Because of her current condition, the fact that she’s already on dialysis, and her constant need to manage pain, my sister has a veritable drugstore of meds—all of which must be taken at different intervals throughout the day. Some are to be taken three times a day with food; others, three times a day without food. There are once daily pills, those to be taken every 12 hours, and even a weekly injection that I administer. On top of all that, there are meals, wound care, assistance with personal care and hygiene, late-night cries for help, other household chores, a busy six-year-old niece to supervise, and a never-ending stream of laundry.

Needless to say, taking care of my sister requires a lot of work—detailed, around-the-clock attention. And, if you spend that much time with anyone, you’re bound to run into some personality clashes. (And the tension around the house has been as thick as dried mud throughout this whole ordeal.)

All in all, my mom, other sister, and I have been getting some serious hands-on learning in what it really means to be a caregiver…what it really means to love someone.

The Bible tells us in 1 Cor. 13:4-8a: “⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸Love never fails.”

Sometimes we feel like everything is closing in on us and we just can’t handle it anymore. But love is patient.

Sometimes we want to scream at the top of our lungs and lash out at each other because we’re there. But love is kind and it’s not easily angered.

Sometimes we feel like we just can’t take it anymore and want to call it quits. But love always perseveres. It never fails.

Through this whole process, my family has really been learning a lot about what real love really is. We pray that the Lord will be glorified, as we learn and grow, and that we will come to love Him and each other even better.

Wish I could say more, but duty calls! I love my family.

May you richly grow in His grace!

Firmly In His Grip,

Genikwa