God, love and almonds

When I went over to my mom’s the other day, as soon as I walked in the door, she said, “Where are the containers I asked you to bring?”

“Oh, sorry, mom, I forgot”. I replied apologetically.

And that launched a whole discussion (or rather a sermon, I come by it honestly ;) on the benefits of eating almonds for memory.  Before leaving her place she packed up a ziplock bag of almonds and told me to eat a few each day.

I rolled my eyes, respectfully, took the bag and shoved them in my purse.  Guess what?  I forgot they were there and just found them today.  And if you are reading this mom, I am eating almonds as I write this :)

The truth is we all forget all types of things… where we left our car keys, our phone, what we had for lunch!! But Hebrews 6 reminds us that God does not forget.

God is not unjust; God will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.   (Hebrews 6:10)

God does not forget your pain.

God doesn’t forget your struggle or your difficulty.

God doesn’t forget the times you pushed through even when you didn’t see a way forward. Or the times when you kept going when it seemed hopeless.

And God doesn’t forget the love that you have shown to others. Like the small acts of listening, the effort that you made to be kind, the way you paid attention to somebody and tried to encourage them.

God doesn’t forget.

God doesn’t forget when you went out of your way to help that person who ended up hurting you, or when you encouraged and served somebody who didn’t recognize it.

Every small act of kindness is remembered.

Hebrews 6 says your work and love were not just done for others but when you do them they are actually done for God. God receives the love that you show others as love shown to God.

And here is the good news — that while God does not forget our acts of kindness there is one thing that God does forget, God forgets our sins.

A little later in Hebrews 8:12… For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”[a]

God says, I will never again remember their sins. Because of what Jesus has done for us God forgets our sins as we trust and follow Him. But God remembers every act of love to others.

So be encouraged today.

Keep serving others, keep loving others well.Keep doing small and large acts of kindness for others.Keep giving, keep showing up, keep helping, keep making time because God doesn’t forget the love that you have shown others. And as you do, you have shown that LOVE to God.

Trust God with all of it!

For much of my life, one of the areas I had the hardest time trusting God with was my finances. Money.  I want to be generous but I believed, and sometimes still struggle with, being generous when I feel I just don’t have enough. I thought that if I received more money, I would give more money. But the Apostle Paul shows us the opposite using a simple farming illustration.

In 2 Corinthians 9:6, Paul writes, Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

That makes perfect sense.  If I plant more seeds I will yield more produce. So, given that, does it mean that if I give more, I will receive more?

Paul is not saying that when you give financially to God that God is obligated to give back to you financially. Nope, that’s not what it says. And, I think what Paul intimates in this passage is that thinking that way actually is limiting God! Rather, by “sowing” or giving generously we are showing our trust that God is faithful to His word.

Think about a farmer. When the farmer plants that seed the seed is small but they give it generously, and they have faithful expectations that what is in that seed is going to produce something way greater than what they actually planted. The same is true for us. We don’t hold onto the seed, we don’t hold onto our finances, we give to God generously because when we give, we receive far more than the money (or whatever) that we gave to God.

So what do we do with this, especially in the area of our finances?

I think first we need to remember that God’s blessings are not limited to just money, they go so far beyond - peace, joy, strength, encouragement, love, the list goes on and on. God’s blessings are so vast that we can’t even comprehend them but what we must do is trust. Trust God.

I get this is a tough one. Trusting God is hard enough but trusting God with our money? Yikes.  But, I can attest that trusting God with all of it, including the money part is absolutely the way to go.  I could fill pages and pages of personal examples of how this principle is true and that God IS FAITHFUL.

Give of your gifts generously, give of yourself generously, give them freely and joyfully back to the Lord and watch, just watch and see what God will do.  It will blow your mind!  God is faithful in ways you can’t even imagine, because you are not God!

A few verses later, in verse 8, Paul writes:

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

So today, I encourage you… don’t hold on to what God has given you but rather give generously and joyfully because what God will give back to you is so far greater than what you ever gave to God.

Trust!

Level Ground

After going through a very difficult situation, a well meaning Christian woman looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Well it was God’s will that that happened to you.”

I remember feeling stunned. I was hurting, I felt betrayed and now I hear that this was God’s will?  What kind of God would want me to suffer?

This occurred many years ago and her words have rung in my ears ever since.

How do we know what God’s will is?

I believe that the only way to truly know God’s will is by getting to know God. And we can do that:

• through prayer.

• by searching the scriptures

• listening to the Holy Spirit, and

• seeking confirmation from wise and Godly people

It’s through drawing near to God that God’s guidance and direction becomes evident.

So after doing all of the above, I believe the dear woman had it wrong. It was not God’s will for that situation to occur. It was not God’s will for me to be abused and hurt by another. However, what was true was that God was in the midst to carry me through, to direct me and to put me back on level ground. The adversity forced me to grow and to lean more on God, that was clear but what occurred was not of God.

So what would my response be?  I found myself crying out to God. I needed strength and God’s wisdom to handle this situation. I wanted to do God’s will even though I knew it would be hard. Psalm 143:10 was a powerful verse for me:

Teach me to do your will, because you are my God.  Let your good spirit lead me on level ground.

The Psalmist is praying for God’s divine direction and God’s guidance. I found myself doing the same.   

“You are my God” the Psalmist declares. I love how this expression shows us the intimate relationship the psalmist has with God. A relationship that I too desire.

What would happen in your life if you asked God to guide you, to direct your step, to correct you? I believe that God will do for you what God did for me…that God’s spirit would lead you on level ground.