A year with a purpose

The end of the year is such a great time, don’t you think?  It is a great opportunity to slow down and think what we have done, what would we like to do and dream big for the next year.

We continuously complain how fast time is going by so it is good to stop and make sure we don’t allow one more year to just get lost in the rush of our lives.  It is a time to revisit each moment, from the tough circumstances draw lessons and from happy ones save smiles and memories in our heart to never forget them, and maybe include as one of our New Year’s resolution to enjoy each day to the maximum.

It is also a time to look ahead toward the New Year and to make plans. Making New Year’s resolutions is so much fun! It may sound silly, but I love that feeling of a fresh start and new opportunities ahead. I know this can happen in any month of the year and in any day of the month, but for some reason resolutions are more exciting in January.

I have finally learned that to make any plan that is worthwhile, first I need to spend time with God to find guidance.  It makes no sense for us to make a lot of plans and work hard to achieve them, if God is not involved all the time and investment will be wasted, “Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is useless.” (Psalm 127:1)

When thinking about our New Year’s resolutions we may not know where to start but if we put God first, He will guide us and show us the way “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6) and keep in mind that God is big, so most likely He will ask us to do big things, tough things that will give big fruit and will glorify Him in big ways. 

So as you get ready to write your goals for the new year; whatever you decide, make sure it helps you to live each day of the year with purpose; be good to yourself; ask God for His blessing and for those blessings to overflow so many will be blessed; make yourself available for His purpose and I can assure you there will not be a boring day in your life. Let’s live according to what we believe.

Breathe deeper, laugh often, live with passion making time for the important things.  Be happy and let your happiness be contagious; change one life, change many lives, once you make the decision you will be surprised how random acts of kindness will start becoming part of your daily life and blessings will be multiplied.

Above everything, let this year be all about God, about receiving His love, spending time with Him, reading His Word and allowing Him to fill you.  

As we close one year and greet the next one we need to remember that everything starts and ends with God, He is “the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelations 22:13)  

Happy New Year!

A legacy of love

Have you ever thought about the legacy you are leaving?  Have you thought how your actions today will speak tomorrow? 

Building a legacy doesn’t happen in a day, it is the outcome of our daily living, so it is something we need to think about now.  

God has this amazing plan for each of us “For I know the plans I have for you, ‘says the Lord.’ They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)  But what if for that plan to be completed we have to do something bigger than us, something we may not want to because it is too hard and painful.  What if God is asking us to behave in a way that makes no sense to society and to our view of fairness … What if God is asking us to love the way He loves us and that is the legacy He wants us to leave.

Should we love even those we feel don’t deserve it? “I am giving you a new commandment: love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” (John 13:34) This answers our doubt, so maybe the question is, how do we love someone whom we feel doesn’t deserve it.

We can look for hints in 1 Corinthians 13 but the words in this verse may leave us even more confused. “Love is patient and kind.  Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude.  Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Do you see what I mean?  How can we love this way?  It seems impossible!  But before we can digest this description of love, Paul finishes saying:  “It’s like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does.  But when I grew up, I put away childish things.”  (1Corinthians 13:11) Maybe all the excuses I was about to write and all the reasons I was going to give for not being able to love the way God wants us to love were childish thoughts.  Maybe God is saying to us that it is time to grow up and begin a new level, one that requires for us to allow Him to love through us, no matter how hard it may seem.

But are we supposed to love, even if we have been wronged? Are we supposed to be patient and kind and always hopeful?  It doesn’t seem fair does it?  If we really think about it, was it fair when Jesus died for our sins? God loves us so much that “he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)  Did we deserve it?  How patient has God been with us?  How many times have we hurt Him by turning away from Him? And yet He never gives up on us and He is by our side in every circumstance. 

Jesus was, is and will always be love. We can argue that He can love that way because He is God, but when Jesus came to earth He became a man, with the same feelings and weaknesses we have, so He could have not loved all those around Him, but He chose to, because that was His mission on earth. “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work” (John 4:34)

Everyone has been created in the image of God “God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) when we love someone, no matter what they have done, we are loving God.  When we love the way God wants us to love, our actions speak of Him and we share His love.  It is all about God; He shines and He is glorified.  We leave a legacy that has eternal impact, a legacy of love.

A team effort

Do you sometimes think that you can or need to do it all alone, so you keep going until you crash?

Do you feel there is so much to do and so little time?  Then love yourself and share the work load!

I will be honest, as I write this; I smile to myself, because it is so much easier said than done, isn’t it?

I don’t know if this happens to everyone, but for me delegating is hard!  I know I should, I know I need to, I know it is the right thing to do, but…  

Sometimes we want to do so much, we have great intentions, we may even be working on the mission God has placed on our heart but we are doing it all alone and as we read the Bible it doesn’t take us long to realize that God is interested in us being a community, in depending on each other.

We read in 1 Corinthians 12:12; 18 “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body.  So it is with the body of Christ….  God made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it.”  This applies to our life, we are supposed to depend on others; we are connected.

 “Who is Apollos, and who is Paul, that we should be the cause of such quarrels? Why, we’re only servants… Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow.  The ones who do the planting or watering aren’t important, but God is important because he is the one who makes the seed grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters work as a team with the same purpose.  Then they will be rewarded individually, according to their own hard work.  We work together as partners who belong to God. ” (1 Corinthians 3:5-9)

I wonder why we don’t like to delegate or share our work?  Could a little bit of pride be hidden deep inside our motive? Could there be some fear that others will not be able to do things as well as us or maybe we are afraid they could do them better than us? Or simply we just don’t want to “bother” anyone, but then again that takes us back to pride, can we really be self-sufficient?

We all have talents and abilities which we should use, interact and maximize.  We can do more together than on our own.  Even Jesus shared the work load “Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness.”  (Matthew 10:1)

In Exodus 18:14; 17 we read how Moses’ father in law, Jethro, gives him great advice as he sees people lining up for Moses to help them with their problems. “Why are you trying to do all this alone? The people have been standing here all day to get your help… you’re going to wear yourself out – and the people too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself.”  And I love Moses’ response; he “listened to his father-in law’s advice and followed his suggestions.” (Exodus 18:24) 

But it goes so much further than just getting some help so Moses could do a better job and the people could get help faster, so much happens spiritually when we work as a team.  In another occasion when Moses asked God to send help, God told him to get together seventy of the leaders of Israel “Bring them to the Tabernacle to stand there with you.  I will come down and talk to you there.  I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put the Spirit upon them also.  They will bear the burden of the people along with you, so you will not have to carry it alone.’”(Numbers 11:16-17) God answered Moses plead by preparing people around him and sharing His blessings, His Spirit! So many times when we refuse to share our work load we could be denying others of blessings that God has prepared for them.  

God has big plans for each of us and He is not expecting us to carry the weight on our own.   He has already placed in our path the people who will cover us in prayer, the people who will share the ups and downs of the journey, and the people who will cry and laugh and celebrate each victory with us. This is a team effort and God is our leader.

The threshing floor

Have you ever thought… if God loves me, then why do I have to go through difficulties?

God has made us wonderful promises “I will cause my people and their homes around my holy hill to be a blessing. And I will send showers, showers of blessings, which will come just when they are needed.” (Ezekiel 34:26)  “The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens to bless all the work you do”. (Deuteronomy 28:12) 

Have you noticed that many times when we read in the Bible about God’s blessings, due season and obedience are mentioned right beside them?  And most of the time that perfect timing comes as we pass through hard things.  

God doesn’t want us to take shortcuts when it comes to growing, learning and letting go of unnecessary loads.  He is serious about teaching us, purifying us and taking us step by step closer to Him.

The other day I attended a workshop organized by Out Of Darkness, a nonprofit organization that runs a 24/7 hotline to rescue women who are being trafficked.  One of the guest speakers talked about the “threshing floor season” in such a beautiful way that easily explained how God lovingly purifies us so we can be closer to Him. 

Threshing in the Bible times was done during harvest season, when it was time to remove the grain from the husk. The threshing floor was a circular flat area where mules or oxen pulling a special sled would pass over and over the sheaves. After this, the stalks and the grains were thrown into the air so the wind would blow the unwanted chaff and only the good kernels would remain at the threshing floor. 

This is a great way to describe the purifying process that we go through, which many times includes painful situations that help us get rid of the things we don’t need. 

The threshing floor is a place of crushing, sorting and at the same time of abundance and blessing.

“David replied, ‘I have come to buy your threshing floor and to build an altar to the Lord there, so that the Lord will stop the plague.’ ‘Take it my lord, and use it as you wish,’ Araunah said to David…But the king replied to Araunah, ‘No, I insist on buying it, for I cannot present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.’” (2 Samuel 24:21-24) Don’t you love that answer?  Many times we want the blessing but we are not so sure about the sacrifice.  We don’t want to wait, change our attitude, face the past or give up things that we should.  We just want things to be better quick; a miracle that happens instantaneously. 

The threshing floor bought by David became later the place where king Solomon built the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.  So the place of humbling sacrifice became the place where the glory of God shone.  

The closer we want to be to God the more we need to let Him mold us, because there is too much selfishness in us and too many distractions that need to be taken away, separated and blown in the wind.

The promises of God are real and they are for each of us, and the perfect time always comes, and as we wait God refines us so we can be closer to Him and He can use us to help others.  “In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay.  The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use.  If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose.” (2 Timothy 2:20-21)  

One matters to God

Have you ever felt overwhelmed when facing big issues such as poverty, environmental degradation or human trafficking to name a few? Have you thought that any action you take is so small and insignificant, so why even bother?

I am sure you have heard the story of the boy who was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and kept throwing them back into the water.  A man saw him and asked him what he was doing and tried to make the boy realize that it wouldn’t matter because there were thousands of starfish on the beach in thousands of beaches around the world, but the boy refused to give up, picked up another one, threw it back into the ocean saying: “it mattered to that one”.

“As one person I cannot change the world, but I can change the world of one person” Paul Shane Spear

One matters to God, He is all about personal relationships; He cares about you!  About everything you do what you feel, what you fear, what you want to hide from the past and what you dream for the future. He knows you and wants to have a relationship with you because you matter to Him.  He wants to bless you because He loves you “I love all who love me.  Those who search for me will surely find me.  Unending riches, honor, wealth, and justice are mine to distribute.” (Proverbs 8:17) 

We read in the Bible how Jesus changed people’s lives; how He kept spreading God’s love one person at the time. He could have used a more “efficient” method, for example, once He arrived to a city, He could have gotten together all the people who were sick and He could have had massive healing gatherings, this way thousands of people would have been healed all at once!… but no, He chose one on one and those healings are still teaching us today. 

God loves us beyond understanding and He sees everything that happens to His children, to all His children! “You can be sure I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt.  I have heard their cries for deliverance from their harsh slave drivers.  Yes, I am aware of their suffering.  So I have come to rescue them from the Egyptians… Now go, for I am sending you.” (Exodus 3:7; 10)  It is so easy to say a quick prayer from our comfortable lives, and keep going, and that is fine sometimes, but other times God wants to send us, to literally take us places we would prefer not to go, because they are not pretty nor comfortable, but that is where some of His children are, waiting for someone to say to them… “You matter to God and to me”.

So we are clear that we, each of us, all of us are important to God. Now, let’s understand that God wants to use us to help one or many; all we have to do is give to Him what we have and see how He multiplies it beyond our comprehension.  Remember the story of Jesus feeding five thousand people? “Jesus soon saw a great crowd of people climbing the hill, looking for him.  Turning to Philip, he asked, ‘Philip, where can we buy bread to feed all these people?’ He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.  Philip replied, ‘it would take a small fortune to feed them!’… ‘There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish.  But what good is that with this huge crowd?’ … Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and passed them out to the people.  Afterward he did the same with the fish.  And they all ate until they were full.”  (John 6:5-9; 11)  We just need to give God the little we have and wait for Him to do the rest.

We all are a family, and we need to take care of each other.  We need to spread God’s love one person at the time, giving God our talents and abilities and letting Him guide our steps to multiply the gifts He has given us for the good of His people.  “God does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:11) God loves all of us the same, so once we realize the depth of His love for us, we need to be Jesus’ hands and feet and show the people He puts in our heart His love for them.

The battle is not yours

Have you ever been in a situation that is too big, too impossible or too difficult for you to even know where to start?  If so, then you can understand how King Jehoshaphat felt when messengers told him that the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites had declared war on him and were on their way.  He could have assembled his greatest war advisors to start making decisions right away, since the messengers told him that the enemy was close, but instead he refused to do anything until he heard from God.

We like to read the stories in the Bible, but sometimes we don’t see how they apply to our life, so let’s ask God to show us how we can learn from king Jehoshaphat’s response and put it into practice when we face attacks.

“Jehoshaphat was alarmed by this news and sought the Lord for guidance.  He also gave orders that everyone throughout Judah should observe a fast.  So people from all the towns of Judah came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord.”  (2 Chronicles 20:3-4)

The first thing we can see is that the king was afraid.  I think many times we feel bad because we are afraid when facing problems; we reason that because we are God’s children we should not feel fear, we put pressure on ourselves and quickly guilt starts building up. When threatened, we will feel fear; it is an emotion we experience. We can’t do anything about feeling fear, but we can control our reaction to fear and our actions even while feeling it.  As Joyce Meyer says “do it afraid!” 

We also notice that as soon as the king received the news he prayed to the Lord. He didn’t say a wimpy fearful prayer asking God to make everything ok, no!  He said: “O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven.  You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth.  You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you! … O our God, won’t you stop them? We are powerless against this mighty army that is about to attack us.  We do not know what to do, but we are looking to you for help.” (2 Chronicles 20:6; 12) what a powerful prayer!  And Jehoshaphat didn’t pray alone, he knew the power of praying together; immediately he gathered the whole nation to pray with him. “As all the men of Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, wives and children, the Spirit of the Lord came upon one of the men standing there.” (2 Chronicles 20:13-14)  When was the last time your family got together believing God for something big?  Praying together is powerful “For where two or three gather together because they are mine, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20) 

God answered His children’s prayers “Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.  Tomorrow, march out against them… but you will not even need to fight.  Take your positions; then stand still and watch the Lord’s victory...Do not be afraid or discouraged.” (2 Chronicles 20:15-17)  Don’t you just love this verse?  God is saying this to you and me, right now in whatever situation we are facing.  He knows we are afraid, but He reassures us that He is in charge, but He still tells us to face our challenge. Problems can’t be ignored, we can’t run away from them, we face them knowing God is by our side. He asks us to take our position, whatever He says we need to do, we do it and then we wait… oh! That is the hardest part!  How can we wait in the middle of our problems?  How can we just wait for God to act when it seems that He is not doing anything!  So tempting to act and give God some ideas on what to do and when to do it, but not Jehoshaphat, he obeyed and he organized the people in their positions “the king appointed singers to walk ahead of the army, singing to the Lord and praising him for his holy splendor.” (2 Chronicles 20:21) This reminds me of the song “Praise Him in advance” by Marvin Sapp which says “praise will confuse the enemy” and how true it is, not only the enemy but also the people around us, what a testimony!  And that is exactly what happened “at the moment they began to sing and give praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir to start fighting among themselves.”(2 Chronicles 20:22)

May our powerful God give us the strength and wisdom to wait, hold our positions and praise Him as He fights for us. “The Lord himself will fight for you.  You won’t have to lift a finger in your defense!” (Exodus 14:14)

Undeserved Love

“I’m forgiven because you were forsaken; I’m accepted you were condemned. I’m alive and well your Spirit is within me because you died and rose again.  Amazing love, how can it be that you my king have died for me?” “You are my King” by Newsboys 

Have you ever stopped to think about the depth of Jesus’ love for you and me?  Undeserved love, undeserved life, undeserved grace and mercy, all for us.    

To be honest, it took me some time to understand that there is nothing I can do to earn God’s love or approval.  I was used to doing “good” things and being a “good” person; I liked approval and wanted to keep earning it.  When I finally understood that God’s love for me doesn’t depend on me, on what I do or don’t do, I finally could accept His love the way He intended it.  There is so much freedom when you do this… freedom from fear, comparison, guilt… there is just love. It may sound a little corny, but what can I say, it is true! But oh, sometimes it seems easier to do, to work, to earn than to believe, doesn’t it? 

“God saved you by his special favor when you believed.  And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. (Ephesians 2:8-9) It is interesting how our feelings can go from one extreme to the other in a matter of minutes. One moment we feel so unworthy, so wrong for all the things we have done, and the next something may happen and we feel so much better than the person beside us, there is always the danger for pride to sneak in and we don’t even know where is it coming from.  I love the way God works, He knows how dangerous pride is, and how easily it is to fall into its trap.  He makes it very clear that His mercy and His grace are unearned. They are a gift, which He gives to us because He loves us.  I really like what Paul says in Romans 12:3 “I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.” We need God to keep reminding us to be humble, the more He gives us, the more humble we must be because the greater the temptation to see ourselves in a different light.  If God decides to bless us with material things we need to thank Him, as always keep Him first and ask for wisdom to manage His money; if He decides to bless us with insight into His Word and time to study it, the same way we need to thank Him, put Him first and ask Him who does He want to help or touch through what He has taught us; and the same goes if He decides to bless us with opportunities, with leadership positions, with anything God decides to give us.  You see, God has an amazing plan for our lives and He gives us everything we need to achieve it, but He doesn’t give it to us ready; He expects us to be disciplined and learn, grow, develop our gifts, to allow Him to shape us and prepare us and when the time is right, He uses us, because it is not only about us, it is about others, “Give as freely as you have received!” (Matthew 10:8)  It is not about thinking how good we are, how we have earned what we have because we have worked so hard… no!  It is God who allows us to do what we do and to have what we have, remember what Jesus said “apart from me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:5)

“For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty.  He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.”  (Romans 3:25) God has made us right with Him through Jesus; just think about it, He has declared us not guilty, whatever we have done, He has forgiven us!  “He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west.”  (Psalm 103:12) Can you feel His mercy and favor?  Can you see how He wants to bless you abundantly? When we put God first, delight in His presence and recognize that everything we have or do has been given by Him, then we can truly receive His undeserved love, which is better than anything we have ever felt before.