He sees the deepest crevices of my heart, knows my fears and still finds me loveable. (p.53)
Cindy describes early on how God sees all our secrets and chooses to love us anyway and even die for us..that's some kind of love, huh? p.75 We're all His spokesmen.. He's given us each a story to tell. Some are amazing while others are steadfast, but until we utter them as worthy words, they cannot be heard and others cannot be touched..if only for a minute, speak with grace. God will bless.
Phillipians
1:9-11 (message)
So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not
only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head
and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not
sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus
will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ
attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.
Many timesI think of grace as love in action. When we meet people we should extend grace not knowing their story while using grace to share our own. If we are so worried about being right then our righteousness will trump our grace card and much like the advertisements for visa and mastercard we should not leave our homes without our gracecard...it is truly priceless. Much like Christ's death for us on that cross was just that...priceless!
p.79 Promises are easy to make but hard to keep. Choose your promises wisely.
When God does allow us to help others we must do so gracefully doing our best to keep our promises as we are an example of Jesus in our community. When we share the love God has placed in our hearts we function much like a window that light beams through. The light does not initiate in us, but we are a tool so that the Sun (Son) can shine through our glass panes (pains).
It is so much easier to extend grace and mercy to those we don’t know than those we walk with daily. I am so much more willing to go the extra mile with the broken-hearted wife or the distraught mother that I meet at the grocery store than with people I must deal with on a daily basis. Why? Because those close to me I know! I know their faults and short comings, I know their sinful ways. The bottom line, I know how they affect my life! The Bible says in Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.” (NKJV) When I choose to look at their good qualities and encourage them in their strengths, when I choose to cover their sins, the areas that need improvement are easier to handle and they are so much more willing to listen and receive instruction. On page 73 Cindy uses the old saying, “You get more with honey than you do with vinegar” just another way of saying “Kind words are like honey — sweet to the soul and healthy for the body” found in Proverbs 16:24.(NLT) In Proverbs 15:4 we are encouraged to use a gentle tongue which will bring life and health. The gentle tongue comes when we walk in mercy and grace, when we walk in the knowledge of just how much we have been forgiven so we can extend forgiveness to those around us. The final truth is that they know me! They know my faults and short comings, they know my sinful ways! I need to sow what I crave, their mercy, grace and forgiveness.
I love that last comment, "I need to sow what I crave, their mercy, grace, and forgiveness." Ladies, that is so true. We all crave it..along with acceptance..let us give as much as we are glad to receive this precious gift that Christ first gave us.
As mentioned above and on p. 79 by Cindy, "Promises are easy to make but hard to keep. Choose your promises wisely." This phrase really stood out to me due to a discussion we had on relationship qualties in one of my classes last week. The four qualities named were loyalty, dedication, honesty, and forgiveness. We had to discuss which of these four was most imperative to us personally and name others that were also important. This led to further discussion about each quality. One woman in the class when speaing of honesty said she finds herself making promises or saying 'I promise' at the end of a sentence to give it more weight but often times finds it impossible to keep these sincere oaths due to life's circumstances. Upon reading this another classmate shared this scripture about our word, 'yes or no', simply should be enough. Matthew 5:33-37 (NIV): 33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. Our lives should be a testament to our honesty without having to make 'promises' that are most often impossible to keep. This was such a simple concept but left a strong impression on me. How many times, like Cindy mentions, do I make promises I cannot keep with a well meaning heart? I cannot promise things I have no control over, her example was never leaving her sons. The only one who can promise this type of security is the Lord. What peace comes with truly understanding and believing nothing can seperate me from His love. That is a promise I can believe in for only God has power to control all things and make this possible. AS Cindy says, 'What a solid foundation' (p.77). I like how she also says now she just promises her boys love, uncondionally, just how God loves her. In the end that is what all the relationship qualities mentioned above add up to...love. What better gift can we give anyone then love? We all fall short, me constantly, but we are able to extend this same love God shows us by extending it to other, like Rinalda mentioned, through grace and mercy. I for one can always use an extra measure of all of these.
Promises are so important. Think of all the promises God keeps to us every day. How great is His faithfulness! Thank you for the wonderful posts this week, what a great discussion. I agree, it is so important that we do our best to keep our word to others in a world of broken promises.
When it comes to promises, I have noticed how loose I have been in the past with promises to pray for people. It's so easy after hearing someone's personal struggles to be moved and say, "I'll pray for you." It's not that I had no intention to pray, or that I didn't mean it, but that I had a lack of discipline in that area because I would forget. And I would feel really bad about it when I'd realize that I let too much time pass before I'd remember to pray for particular individuals, especially for those who asked for prayer. So for years, I would keep a list inside my purse calendar so that I could write in names after a conversation with someone. Then came my phone. Praise God! It has a place to take notes!! Now I keep my prayer list on my phone. It offers me many opportunities to pray because it's always with me. The people who need prayer really need it. It was SO important to me when my grand baby was facing open heart surgery that people who promised prayer were really praying. It is such a privilege to pray, and prayer is filled with promise because of the One who listens. Matthew 6:6 has an awesome promise from God, the one who does not break promises: "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Just think of the potential!!
It is so much easier to extend grace and mercy to those we don’t know than those we walk with daily. I am so much more willing to go the extra mile with the broken-hearted wife or the distraught mother that I meet at the grocery store than with people I must deal with on a daily basis. Why? Because those close to me I know! I know their faults and short comings, I know their sinful ways. The bottom line, I know how they affect my life! The Bible says in Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all sins.” (NKJV) When I choose to look at their good qualities and encourage them in their strengths, when I choose to cover their sins, the areas that need improvement are easier to handle and they are so much more willing to listen and receive instruction. On page 73 Cindy uses the old saying, “You get more with honey than you do with vinegar” just another way of saying “Kind words are like honey — sweet to the soul and healthy for the body” found in Proverbs 16:24.(NLT) In Proverbs 15:4 we are encouraged to use a gentle tongue which will bring life and health. The gentle tongue comes when we walk in mercy and grace, when we walk in the knowledge of just how much we have been forgiven so we can extend forgiveness to those around us. The final truth is that they know me! They know my faults and short comings, they know my sinful ways! I need to sow what I crave, their mercy, grace and forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteI love that last comment, "I need to sow what I crave, their mercy, grace, and forgiveness." Ladies, that is so true. We all crave it..along with acceptance..let us give as much as we are glad to receive this precious gift that Christ first gave us.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned above and on p. 79 by Cindy, "Promises are easy to make but hard to keep. Choose your promises wisely." This phrase really stood out to me due to a discussion we had on relationship qualties in one of my classes last week. The four qualities named were loyalty, dedication, honesty, and forgiveness. We had to discuss which of these four was most imperative to us personally and name others that were also important. This led to further discussion about each quality. One woman in the class when speaing of honesty said she finds herself making promises or saying 'I promise' at the end of a sentence to give it more weight but often times finds it impossible to keep these sincere oaths due to life's circumstances. Upon reading this another classmate shared this scripture about our word, 'yes or no', simply should be enough.
ReplyDeleteMatthew 5:33-37 (NIV):
33 “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Our lives should be a testament to our honesty without having to make 'promises' that are most often impossible to keep. This was such a simple concept but left a strong impression on me. How many times, like Cindy mentions, do I make promises I cannot keep with a well meaning heart? I cannot promise things I have no control over, her example was never leaving her sons. The only one who can promise this type of security is the Lord. What peace comes with truly understanding and believing nothing can seperate me from His love. That is a promise I can believe in for only God has power to control all things and make this possible. AS Cindy says, 'What a solid foundation' (p.77). I like how she also says now she just promises her boys love, uncondionally, just how God loves her. In the end that is what all the relationship qualities mentioned above add up to...love. What better gift can we give anyone then love? We all fall short, me constantly, but we are able to extend this same love God shows us by extending it to other, like Rinalda mentioned, through grace and mercy. I for one can always use an extra measure of all of these.
Promises are so important. Think of all the promises God keeps to us every day. How great is His faithfulness! Thank you for the wonderful posts this week, what a great discussion. I agree, it is so important that we do our best to keep our word to others in a world of broken promises.
DeleteWhen it comes to promises, I have noticed how loose I have been in the past with promises to pray for people. It's so easy after hearing someone's personal struggles to be moved and say, "I'll pray for you." It's not that I had no intention to pray, or that I didn't mean it, but that I had a lack of discipline in that area because I would forget. And I would feel really bad about it when I'd realize that I let too much time pass before I'd remember to pray for particular individuals, especially for those who asked for prayer. So for years, I would keep a list inside my purse calendar so that I could write in names after a conversation with someone. Then came my phone. Praise God! It has a place to take notes!! Now I keep my prayer list on my phone. It offers me many opportunities to pray because it's always with me. The people who need prayer really need it. It was SO important to me when my grand baby was facing open heart surgery that people who promised prayer were really praying. It is such a privilege to pray, and prayer is filled with promise because of the One who listens. Matthew 6:6 has an awesome promise from God, the one who does not break promises: "But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." Just think of the potential!!
ReplyDelete