Hope your day is one of knowing you are loved. I plan to do food prep and later we are having friends over for pie and prayer. The pie I made from wild blueberries picked in Alaska! 

It’s good to be able to face our own weaknesses or we won’t be known for who we really are. If we don’t deal with our woundedness we will transmit our pain to others around us. The enemy of course lies to us and tells us we can’t trust God and we can do a better job of providing our own needs. He may even tell us that no one can love us after certain things we have done. The truth is God loves us in our brokenness and wants to make us whole. If we were raised in homes where we never felt loved and secure, we will have a harder time being vulnerable and believe that God could love us in our woundedness and sinfulness.  We all have hurts of things done to us or wounds of absence where love and security has not been given. But things don’t have to remain that way for the Lord can bring healing and even rewire our neural pathways. We can change the way we think and feel as we open ourselves up to healing from the Lord.

Maybe as you are reading this you feel unloved and homeless but it can be the very bridge that becomes a secure attachment to the Lord. Or perhaps you have been harmed by others and your needs not met, but those things can put you in the place of reaching out for healing by God and others. If you feel hopeless and like a victim it is an invitation to surrender yourself to God’s power and love.

The Lord doesn’t leave us alone and forsaken but helps us focus on what is true and to find healing in Him… even to the point of rewiring neural pathways where we think differently and come to rest in His love.

The servant was faithful and traveled far as he prayed that God would show him the right woman to bring back for Isaac. He came to a well where a young beautiful woman carried a jar on her shoulder to get water. Not exactly exciting work, but she was faithfully doing her work with God’s eye upon her. The servant asked her for water and must have been dusty and thirsty after his long journey. Rebecca responded quickly and kindly to the stranger. When she had given him a drink she said she would water his camels too. That was no small chore for he had 10 camels and could each drink up to 30 gallons of water which could have been as much as 300 gallons of water. She came from a privileged family but was humble and did more than asked. It was exactly as the servant had prayed that he would recognize Gods choice if the woman would not only give him a drink but offer to water his camels too. Rebecca did not know this but she was rewarded and received a blessing that changed her life.

The servant asked her questions about her family and went home with her where her father and brother heard the story of his mission and granted permission for Rebecca to go. Quite a shock for her to leave her home and family to go with the servant to become the wife of Isaac whom she had never met. She must have thought God was at work in all of it, for her heart was open and she was willing to ride a camel for 450 miles to marry Isaac. What if she had said no and missed Gods best for her life.

Our journey is different that of selfless Rebecca’s but are we willing to forsake our plans to choose God’s will above our own will. Let us keep our eyes on the Bride Groom and prepare ourselves for the day He will welcome us into our heavenly home.

Dying to self is not easy and it means surrender and obedience to the Lord. Why do we fight so hard for our own will, only to find that it leaves us worrisome, frustrated and lacking in peace. One night some time ago, I had a hard time sleeping as there was concern in my heart for someone who I dearly care for whose life was hanging in the balances. Would they surrender to the Lord or keep going on in their own crooked way that was choking the joy out of their life and their family? I didn’t know but I continued to pray and then had to surrender it all up to the Lord. “Lord, you know and although I want to save them from suffering and pain, I put it all in your hands.” The bottom line is that in order to save our life we have to lose it, but when we lose our life for Him and the gospel, we save it.

Any one of us who follow our own path will live with regret, for we will lack deep joy and peace that only comes from the Lord. Of course, even after we surrender, we will sometimes fall in our spiritual walk and it is humbling, but we must get up and begin again. Let us not waste another moment relying on ourselves, trying to solve things on our own, but surrender and give it all to the One who is full of mercy and grace.

Perhaps it is like us as well, for we have seasons in our lives when we are not as active and seemingly not as productive. But maybe we are being prepared for what God has for us next. It is a time to be patient and put deep trust in the Lord because He is at work, even though we are not sure what He is up to. We might call it our preparation time and we must humbly wait on the Lord, trust His timing and know He has purpose.

God knows what we need in the future and will put us in places and situations to prepare us. In Al’s pastoral ministry, we went from having large churches to smaller ones to get us prepared for the retreat ministry for pastors at Canaan’s Rest. Al had to give up the big deal, and we learned the problems that pastors were having in not only the big churches but the smaller country churches. Although we didn’t know at the time, as we look back we see how God was intentionally getting us ready for pastors and wives who came from all kinds of church situations.

Maybe right now you feel like work is rather frustrating, but God is teaching you to handle big and little problems as He is going to put you in a position of more authority. Ecclesiastes 3 says there is a season for everything and a time for every matter under heaven… a time to plant and a time to pick up what is planted… a time to break down, and a time to build up, etc. Even if right now life seems rather mundane, know that your Father knows best what season you are to be in and wait for what comes next.

Hope you had a lovely weekend and time to relax. We enjoyed time in Mora with Board members who are friends we have known for so many years. Today I am going to Aldi’s and then Al and I are taking friends from the lake out for lunch and to celebrate their birthdays. 

Recently I read what author Debra Fileta had to say about Jesus being in touch with His emotions. I guess I haven’t thought about Jesus being emotional and in tune with His feelings, but she brings out over thirty-nine different emotions that are written in scripture that Jesus expressed while He was on earth. He felt joy, as He says to his disciples in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in your, and that your joy may be full.”  We know that He experienced grief when He wept over Jerusalem and also at the time of Lazarus’ death. He also showed righteous anger, calling the Pharisees and scribes hypocrites, serpents and a brood of vipers. We know He got weary, sitting by the well when the Samaritan woman came along; also there were times he went away from the crowd to pray to His Father. We read often that He was filled with compassion when He saw the crowds, healed them and taught them.

Debra writes how Jesus recognized his feelings and chose to react in a positive way. Of course, that can’t be said of us all the time for we may react instantly, express anger or frustration and say things we will later regret. Or it could be we just shut down and withdraw and try to numb our feelings. But let us remember that feelings are not bad or good but are signals to let us know what is going on inside of us. It’s how we respond that is important. Instead of immediately reacting, we can stop and think of what they mean and pay attention to what they are saying is below the surface. Maybe we need healing, or maybe we need to set boundaries or need relief from stress. But whatever it is, may we consider feelings as our friends, tune into them and respond in Jesus’ way.