Category: Humility

Caring for Others as Self-care

The most gracious, loving ministering, sacrificing welcome possible.

Meditation Thought: “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” (Romans 15:7)

‘As Christ has welcomed you’ – the most gracious, loving ministering, sacrificing welcome possible.

Put aside your desires, your feelings, your works, your preoccupations, and your unkind tongue. Minister in empathy and with a joy of helping another. If you totally forget to minister to yourself, then Jesus ministers to you far, far more effectively than you can minister to yourself.

Footnote: These blog posts come from my Mom’s journals. For me, I’m going to try this post another way:

If I put aside my desires, my feelings, my works, my preoccupations, and my unkind tongue in order to minister in empathy and with a joy of helping another and I totally forget to minister to myself, then Jesus will minister to me far, far more effectively than I can minister to myself. (Note, this calls for intentionally putting aside, not denying, not ignoring. Just set aside. Like I might do with something that is in my way when I’m working on something.)

Yield to a Better Way

I could not do this in my own sinful, rebellious, ego-centered nature no matter how long or how hard I tried. I must allow it to happen, but I cannot cause it to happen.

Meditation Thought: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1)

In view of the mercies of God present myself as a living sacrifice. I do not have to present myself by my own effort. Instead, if I humble myself and yield myself to God, then He will do the preparation needed for me to be presented holy and acceptable. I could not do this in my own sinful, rebellious, ego-centered nature no matter how long or how hard I tried. I must allow it to happen, but I cannot cause it to happen.

It is my job to give the loaves and fishes; it is God’s job to feed the 5,000. (See Matthew 14:13-21)

A Twist on Stem Cells

This is the reason that thoughts are critical to life – or death; to peace – or agony; to fulfillment – or discontent; to health – or to sickness; to richness of lifestyle – or poverty of lifestyle.

Meditation Thought: “So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” (Romans 8:6)

A thought is the tiny first cell of the growing expression which will take form in many mediums and influence many others. This original cell-thought has within it all the genetic features needed to multiply it into a huge far-reaching form.

This is the reason that thoughts are critical to life – or death; to peace – or agony; to fulfillment – or discontent; to health – or to sickness; to richness of lifestyle – or poverty of lifestyle.

God seeks to illuminate our understanding that we may recognize that thoughts seeking relationship with Him are the key to the fulfillment of our creation both spiritually and humanly.

To come to the realization that God- almighty, all powerful, all loving, all creating, all righteous, all beautiful, all orderly, all reconciling, all accepting, all encouraging, all giving of freedom to choose His offer of companionship, of fellowship, of fatherhood is our Father, is to be completely awed, completely, happy, completely obedient.

We do not expect to do as well as our Hero (Jesus) in expressing our life in our humanity, nevertheless, the determination to do our best to adopt the same thoughts, the same attitudes, the same type of language, the same type of actions, and the sure conviction that our Hero was and is real and is able, by our belief in His realty, to empower us to become more like Him.

Weight Lifted; Chains Loosed

He made the lifting of the burden and the breaking of the chains possible – not easy, not quick, but His example of the method is there for all who seek it.

Meditation Thought: “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)

I feel the weight of sin, but my own power is insufficient to move it. I know that if only this weight could be removed, I could move places where I cannot go now. I am bound in guilt, in inadequacies, in the past. I cannot raise the energy to fulfil my dreams, but am frustrated by weight, by chains.

Only one man succeeded in avoiding the crushing weight and binding chains: by total obedience to the Father’s will; by willingly foregoing the pleasures anyway – He made the lifting of the burden and the breaking of the chains possible – not easy, not quick, but His example of the method is there for all who seek it.

My prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for being willing to forgo the using of Your power for Yourself, that Your power might be used for my benefit. Enable me to, in my gratitude, in my desire to give you joy that your sacrifice was not in vain, but released me from much pain, to accomplish the very purpose for which You came. (See Matthew 18:18)

Enable me to become an expression of Your joy, and not an extension of Your pain. In Your Precious Name I pray. Amen.

Choose Your Storehouse Carefully

And the conscious decisions bring into your life the contents of the storehouse so that the unconscious decisions draw upon the stock within you, thus reinforcing either sickness of Satan’s stock or health of God’s stock.

Meditation Thought: “ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.” (Romans 6:13)

All manner of things are in the storehouse – you must choose what you will take from it and bring into your life. It is easy to walk into Satan’s area – for it is downhill, easy to just let the inertia of sin and self-will to almost propel you down the hill to his area.

God’s area is higher – more difficult to reach because you must take effort to remove sin and self-will by energy, time, and commitment before you can make the walk up the path to reach God’s storehouse. But for those who try – what blessings! The fruits and gifts of the Spirit are there: the storehouse is pleasant, commanding a beautiful view. (See Galatians 5:22-23)

Life is a series of trips to the storehouse: each conscious decision takes the path to either the storehouse area of Satan or of God. And the conscious decisions bring into your life the contents of the storehouse so that the unconscious decisions draw upon the stock within you, thus reinforcing either sickness of Satan’s stock or health of God’s stock.

Seek ye first the Kingdom – God’s area – and the joys of the Kingdom’s stores shall accumulate in your life. (See Matthew 6:33)

How to Glorify God

His glory shines through the clouds of despair and gloom and apathy – bringing warmth to those were surrounded by dark and coldness.

Meditation Thought: “Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.” (Romans 15:2)

“Give and it shall be given you, pressed down, running over” (Luke 6:38) – giving of yourself is the most beautiful, the most blessed giving of all: to sacrifice your desires, your preferences, your opinions, your actions to please another is loving, unselfish, caring, helping – and glorifying to God. The stronger your desire for something other than your neighbor’s preference, the more sacrifice is required. But, the deeper the sacrifice is, the more meaningful is the gift. That gift uplifts greatly, touches the recipient to the heart – to the spirit so deeply that God’s love is perceived in the gift. So the two have come together, touching God’s love – one through giving, one through receiving, with both parties being uplifted.

Each time we are confronted with a choice to please our neighbor or please ourselves, we have an opportunity to bring several people closer to God. Our yielding to the Father’s will is what makes the sacrifice possible – and thus the glory possible. As the sacrifices multiply, God’s glory multiplies. His glory shines through the clouds of despair and gloom and apathy – bringing warmth to those were surrounded by dark and coldness, and additional light and warmth to those who had some, but are seeking more.

Words: in Season

To everything there is a season – including words.

Meditation Thought: “A fool utters all his mind: but a wise man keeps it in till afterwards.” (Proverbs 29:11)

To everything there is a season – including words. Only by keeping our minds on and in God and Christ can our words be released in the appropriate season and thus bring the fullness of harvest.

There are tilling words,
There are watering words,
There are fertilizing words,
There are sun-shining words
– and if we use the wrong words where we are trying to harvest God-glorified acts, they do more harm than good. Only God’s wisdom released through our lips can harvest His works. We must pack His wisdom into our mind so that when the contents come out, God’s wisdom is released. If we had God’s wisdom pouring from many, many lips, we would have God’s Kingdom residing in many, many hearts. Think of the difference in God’s Kingdom engulfing the world – or the world engulfing God’s Kingdom. That should give us incentive to let God’s discipline rule our hearts and our minds and our tongues instead of allowing our own feelings and desires to rule them!

Family Metamorphosis

It is at this point that our lives take on a new fulness of meaning, a focusing of purpose, a completeness and sureness to replace confusion and frustration.

Meditation Thought: “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” (Romans 8:29)

How do we feel about the people who have the same father we do? We have a special relationship, a deeper concern, a more intense interest in them. So it is when we realize that our Father is Christ’s father, and our Father is the Father of many – in fact, of all. We might not be as fond of some of our brothers and sisters as of others – but the realization that we are all family changes our thinking about each person.

And when we truly perceive that Christ is our older brother, created as a model for us to imitate – created, trained and devoted to that very purpose – we feel a kinship , an interest that was lacking before. It is at this point that our lives take on a new fulness of meaning, a focusing of purpose, a completeness and sureness to replace confusion and frustration. And when we not only trust in faith, but come to know in fact that God did send the Counselor to us because of Jesus’ obedience to His will, that is the time that the meaning of the phrase ‘the Kingdom is within’ takes on real meaning. It is at the point that – for the first time – the world starts to recede into the background and the Kingdom comes to the foreground. As we walk with the Spirit, the two forces continue their juxtaposition, until our surroundings have made a total change. At first, we affected a change in our surroundings – now, our surrounding cause further change in us. Both we and our surroundings are interacting in a cooperative task: the completion of our metamorphosis into the image the Son, the Light of the world.

Level Up

Day by day we make exciting discoveries about all of life, and particularly our God and ourselves.

Meditation Thought: “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28)

Without God we would not exist! With God, not only are we existing, but are dynamic, causing change, excited as we learn more about this Father who created us. Day by day we make exciting discoveries about all of life, and particularly our God and ourselves. All of the discoveries may not come pleasantly – but nevertheless, with each day that passes, we are more complete, more whole, moving toward our goal. There are many levels of living – and when we allow God to live as He wants to in us then we move to a higher level. We are never bored, rarely depressed, always curious about what interesting event will next take place. We have love constantly, unconditionally, often gloriously. We have peace for we know that strength is in us when we free Him in us to do His work. We know that whatever happens, we can turn to Him and He will make everything right for us.

Stranger or Friend

What joy to know that we do not need to struggle and flounder, but only need to heed His voice and follow Him to find our place, our joy, our needs supplied.

Meditation Thought: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

We do not recognize a stranger’s voice: we must come to know Jesus before we can know His voice, and follow it to all the good pastures where He wants to lead us. He knows us, too, and wants us with Him. ‘Come’ – Jesus says this word so often. If He is our Shepherd, then we will come, for we know He cares for us, seeks out whatever is for our good. What joy to know that we do not need to struggle and flounder, but only need to heed His voice and follow Him to find our place, our joy, our needs supplied.