Light of Life

With light we see clearly – we can appreciate what we see; we can travel the way we choose to go, and thus we can accomplish what we desire to accomplish.

Meditation Thought: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Light versus darkness – what a difference in these two situations! In darkness we are disoriented and confused about how we can get to where we want to go.

With light we see clearly – we can appreciate what we see; we can travel the way we choose to go, and thus we can accomplish what we desire to accomplish.

Who is this person who wants me to follow him? Is He the one whom I should follow? What is this man’s character? He obeyed God’s commands, even to the point of terrible pain and sacrifice in the body. He preached love and revealed God as a loving Father. He performed miracles to reveal the powerfulness and goodness of God.

Yes, I am willing to follow Him. I’m weak and cowardly but He promised that He would put an indwelling Spirit of God within me so that I could become a person who would develop the character and faith that He demonstrated for me and for others.

Lord, I’m a weak and selfish-natured person to be given such an undertaking. But that is the whole point, isn’t it? With this nature any improvements and works due to those improvements become a light unto Your path. Thank You!

The Key

Truth, trust, hope, perseverance: four words that can be the key to the life God surely intends for each of us.

Meditation Thought: “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:6-8)

Truth, trust, hope, perseverance: four words that can be the key to the life God surely intends for each of us.

Truth. Without truth, we cannot deal with reality of a situation. How much trouble we get into and cause for others when we believe something to be true – and it isn’t!

Trust. Without trust we fear to move ahead, and perhaps miss out on the wonderful works God would like us to do in us and through us.

Hope. Without hope we get stuck in the mire of the situation that distresses us instead of lifting our feet to get out of the sticky ground.

Perseverance. Without perseverance we not only stay in the miry mud, but we miss out on the great events that can take place on the solid ground when we step on it.

Lord, help me to look ahead and eagerly lift my feet – even if slowly and with difficulty – to get out of the mire!

Fellow Travelers

Perhaps if more people thought in terms that we might travel the very path that others travel we would be more accepting of them as co-travelers and more eager to help – and be helped.

Meditation Thought: “A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel man brings trouble on himself.” (Proverbs 11:17)

Lord, is this the same thing as “what comes around goes around?” Somehow thinking in these terms really makes sense. So many things in our lives seem to travel in circles. Perhaps if more people thought in terms that we might travel the very path that others travel we would be more accepting of them as co-travelers and more eager to help – and be helped.

Maybe you made you made us with a ‘sixth sense’ that we move in circles, perhaps returning over and over into the same places, even though we might not recognize them as the same because their ‘season’ has given them a different look. Perhaps as we repeat our journey we are to grow more knowledgeable and able to travel more alertly and competently and appreciatively.

If so, help me cope better and better with each encounter, and Lord, I do have the desire to learn from my journey and to help others learn more about you and your will for their lives in addition to them becoming more aware of your reality.

Accept it

Since I didn’t create anything on my own, I can’t control anything on m own.

Meditation Thought: “…whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

“Think about such things. This is the key to opening the door that reveals the reality of My creation. You would have me orchestrate every detail so you could be comfortable and happy and content 100% of the time. This is not feasible. Our relationship could not have the depth we both desire if we did not have the interaction of dealing with problems and of solving them together. You do get frustrated – even somewhat rebellious and angry at times when you are aggravated with visitations. But think: How often have these annoying situations brought about visibly good results when you pray and when you try to deal with them competently? Yes, you know! Much good for you and for others has resulted. Your trials enable you to ease the way for others who have similar trials – just as you experience their helping you from the knowledge gained from their own trials. You may not like this arrangement, but it is My will and My plan. Accept it; there is a purpose, and you shall gain as you learn from each experience.”

Response: All right, Lord. I admit I’d rather have my own way – all ‘sweetness and light’ in my life, but since I didn’t create anything on my own, I can’t control anything on m own. I’m ‘stuck’ with You being my ‘parent’ as well as my Creator. I don’t often think of it as ‘being stuck’, but at downhearted moments, I have to admit that I’d like to have my own agenda. At one level I know I’m not that competent, just as a child is not competent to handle the situation he is exposed to at times. That doesn’t stop us from being ‘pouty’ at times, though, does it? Thank you for forgiving us when we realize that we hadn’t seen the whole picture clearly and that you were right after all!

My Heart Trusts in Him

Meditation Thought: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped.” (Psalm 28:7)

“I am your loving creator; I delight in you, for you are a part of me as your children are a part of you. As you love them, so I love you. As you help them, so I help you.

Do not fear – I am here!”

 

Christ-like Characteristics

Meditation Thought: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Have you seen any better description of the characteristics of Jesus Christ?

Have you seen any better list of what you would like both to receive and to give?

Ponder this thought.

Hope in the Lord

“Hope in the Lord.” Hope is an attribute that keeps us going when we don’t want to go.

Meditation Thought: “… those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will run and not be weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31

“Hope in the Lord.” Hope is an attribute that keeps us going when we don’t want to go.

It is easy to go when we are strong and eager to go. We can manage that. But when we are weak and when we would rather not go, we linger – or even rebel. God knows our weakness and weariness – and He knows that He can relieve our reluctance – perhaps even distress – if we trust Him and appeal to Him.

Come My Beloved

“Come my beloved. Walk with Me, talk with me, and we shall do good in a hurting world.”

Meditation Thought: “Therefore, since we have been justified with faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” Romans 5:1

By faith I am standing in grace. It does not matter that I do not feel at peace and comfortable and happy at this moment. It does matter that God is with me; God is in me, and God is guiding me.

Moreover, He is guiding circumstances concerning me. How do I know? Because He told me so – He said so through prophets, through the faithful who have followed Him, and through the Word and through circumstances.

I am not in the situation I prefer – but I am in the loving guiding ship of my Creator, my Guide and my Protector. I trust you, Lord, whoever or whatever You are. I may falter – often – but You know how to guide me to places you want me to be, to think and say and do what is pleasing you – and therefore is pleasing to me and to others involved with me.

“Come my beloved. Walk with Me, talk with me, and we shall do good in a hurting world.”

(Context: Mom wrote this a few months after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis and just days after going through both a round of memory testing and finishing radiation for breast cancer.)

Transforming Power

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8)
“Sow love wherever you find ground to sow it, cultivate it even if the ground is not perfect for growing. Just as you can grow plants by using the physical parts – the earth and seed, so you can ‘sow’ love and joy and peace and reap of harvest of more love and joy and peace. This is My will for you. This is My will for the world.”

Meditation Thought: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:8)

“Love, love, love – concentrate on the meaning of the word, and how to express that word as transformed into action, and thus results.

It is loving, transforming power that brings peace, joy, love, contentment and satisfaction. All people desire these, but many seek them by the wrong methods. Through the ages I have sought to reveal the truth about Myself, and many have perceived much of the truth. Those who know must share that knowledge as much as they are able – they are My family who realizes I am their creator – that the world was not created by ‘nothing’.

What you have learned through your science classes, through your Bible study, through your experiences and your belief that there is much more to creation than can be perceived through physical proofs is the Way the Truth and the Life that I desire for My beloved.

Sow love wherever you find ground to sow it, cultivate it even if the ground is not perfect for growing. Just as you can grow plants by using the physical parts – the earth and seed, so you can ‘sow’ love and joy and peace and reap of harvest of more love and joy and peace. This is My will for you. This is My will for the world.”

My Creator, Sustainer and Helper

Meditation Thought: “Go to the ant you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer, and gathers food at its harvest. (Proverbs 6:6-8)

“Do not fear – I will help you. I will help others through you. I have prepared ahead of you. I can use every event and circumstance for good – providing you heed my instructions. Be alert. Be at peace. These events and circumstances are not antagonists but co-joiners to accomplishing good works.”

Mom went on to share throughout the day in various written prayers. These were written in May of 2002 – shortly after the Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

“All right, Lord, my intentions are good. But – good intentions do not accomplish the deed. Please give me the will and the strength to accomplish the works which you desire of me.”

“Dear Lord, my Creator and Sustainer and helper: Thank you! I am more convinced than ever that you are with me, helping and encouraging me – and through the trial my family and I are enduring that You are working good – for us and probably for other people too.

I almost see myself from outside myself and wonder how I can feel so calm – really almost excited too – when I have such an upsetting diagnosis. Somehow You have entered into my mind – even my emotions – that you have assigned me a quest to help people to either avoid the disease or cope with it. I have a big imagination, but it couldn’t conjure up the thoughts – and particularly the emotional feeling – that is taking place. I don’t know what the future holds, but Lord I pray that I can always hold on to your reality in my life as much as I am at this moment.

As is natural, I know I don’t want to be a burden, and yet if it is necessary so that You can perform some action that is Your quest, then I’ll accept it. I’m not accepting it gladly, but as a little child obeys its parent, that is the intent of my heart. You have worked miracles for my good, and I know you can work a miracle for my good in this situation.

…I praise You and thank You for what You are doing for me and for others. I don’t know that Your will is for the situation, but I do know that it has been in some of the most painful experiences of my life that You have revealed Your love and Your power to me.

Therefore, my pledge to you this day is that I shall try to accept that ‘Thy will be done.’

… Please sustain me, Lord. I know how weak and cowardly I am, but I know too, that these qualities can be restructured and renewed with Your power to make me ‘a new creation’.”

She then shared a bit about this meditation process – as she was correcting an “error” in the personal prayer part (not shared here) where she said a family member had called her ‘yesterday’ and it had actually been several days before. She writes:

“Although I honestly believe that the thoughts in meditation time are prompted by God, for they flow so easily, and so often later prove valid, still I am involved in the process and am prone to error. I don’t know the ‘ins and outs’ of these sessions, but I do know that just trying to communicate in this manner with God has enriched my life and helped other people.”