To Everything A Time

Learning to Trust God in Every Circumstance. Day 5 of 5 day devotional.

The Better Way…………A Time to Love

Love is a word that has been overused, misused, bandied about, cheapened and corrupted. The mention of love assaults (and often offends) our senses from popular songs, advertising, promoting—tinkling and screaming and exhorting us from every direction. Even most dictionary definitions focus mainly on love in the sense of sexual attraction and relationship between people. 

The ancient Greeks had several definitions of love. The four most commonly used are:

Eros, or sexual passion

Philia, deep friendship

Storge, love of parents, children and families

Agape, the love of God for man and man for God.

Perhaps agape love is the strongest and purest of the four, but any attempt to describe agape love will fall far short. For God’s love is vast, immeasurable, unfailing, everlasting and far beyond our human understanding. God IS love. That’s what he is made of. That’s what he is. God’s love is extended to everyone who has ever walked the face of the earth, whether they believe in him or not, whether they’re poor or rich, highly successful or dismal failures, good or bad, nice or nasty, rulers of nations or beggars in the gutter. Nothing we do will make him love us less. And nothing we can try to do will earn his love. It’s a gift and it’s free, because Jesus paid the price.

God created us and loved us from the moment of our conception and will love us to the day we die, whether we acknowledge him, mock and scorn him, deride him or deny him. He longs for us to turn to him and be born again by his spirit, and to live with him forever. And his command to us is that we love one another.

That’s easy when it’s our families, or the inspirational people we look up to, or our best friend, or the lovely people in our church. Not so easy, though, when it’s a druggie hanging around our child’s school, or the bully who made our schooldays a misery, or a dictator creating suffering for thousands, or the sarcastic boss you see every day. But still a command. For love is a powerful force, and there is no weapon against it.

‘Love Wins’ is the title of a book that has caused controversy. Whatever your viewpoint, that title speaks truth. In the end, it is only love that will remain and conquer the horrors of this present world.

Martin Luther King Jnr said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” (From Strength to Love Martin Luther King)

So let’s accept the love of God in Jesus, so that we can love ourselves and love others, and in our own various ways hold back the darkness. It’s a time to love.

To Everything A Time

Learing to Trust God in Every Circumstance. Day 4 of 5 day devotional.

Let it go… A Time to Forgive

Have you ever felt that you could never, ever, forgive someone for what they did to you, or to a loved one? I have. Or that something you’ve done could never be forgiven, you’d messed up so badly that God couldn’t possibly have any further time for you, even that you’d lost your salvation? I’ve done that too, been there, got the T-shirt.

I’m immeasurably thankful that God didn’t leave me wallowing in misery. Through what might seem a random chain of happenings—visiting a bookshop, picking up a book by an author I don’t particularly like, reading a couple of pages I can’t even remember but where the words sprang out with spirit-fuelled power and spoke directly to my heart. I knew instantly that I was forgiven, that God loved me with an everlasting love, that all my sins—past, present and future—were covered by his blood and his grace, and that he had a purpose for my life. I’ve needed God’s forgiveness many times since, but that assurance has never left me.

God forgives and he restores; it is the very heart of the Gospel message, the cry of Jesus from the cross—“Father, forgive them…..’

As C.S.Lewis has said, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

Not that it’s easy. We tend to hold on to grudges, to nurse and nurture them, and it’s not good. Resentment is like poison. Some years ago, I was struck by two situations that happened close together. One was the rape of Jill Saward, whose father was terribly beaten. He forgave the perpetrators from his hospital bed, and walked out of the hospital within a day or two. The other was local man, also terribly beaten and robbed in his own home. His wife never properly recovered and he was filled with bitterness. His broken bones refused to heal, and in a short time he had died of cancer.

As Nelson Mandela once said, “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”

We have to forgive even if we don’t feel it. To quote Corrie ten Boom, ‘Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.’

And we must forgive ourselves, too.

To Everything A Time

Learning To Trust God In Every Circumstance. Day 3 of 5 Day Devotional.

It happens…… . A Time to Weep

‘It happens’—not quite the slogan I’ve seen on T-shirts,  but near enough. It does.

Soon enough, however, happy our circumstances, we will come down to earth with a bump. Just back from honeymoon and blissfully happy, I had my first small taste of disillusionment. We woke on a glorious weekend morning, the day ahead full of  possibilities. What should we do? Work on our house? Dig the garden? Go for a long walk? Whatever we decided, we’d be doing it together! Wrong! My husband casually remarked during breakfast that some of his mates were going motor cycle scrambling later, and he might just join them for an hour or so. I didn’t mind, did I?

I did. Motor bikes didn’t interest me. We were married, for goodness sake, and married couples did things together, didn’t they? I bumped down from my blissful cloud rather painfully that day! 

As mentioned, that was a tiny thing.  We have never cowered in terror with bombs exploding around us, or left our homes and possessions, our businesses and schools and pleasant lives, to find refuge in a strange land. We haven’t known famine, or want, or sat in a busy street with a placard proclaiming we are homeless. We have been the fortunate ones.

And yet even the privileged have their trials and sorrows, their losses and sufferings. Difficulties come. Hopes are not realized. Businesses fail. Accidents, illness, depression, tragedy, can happen to any of us. Children make wrong choices, or we do so ourselves. We mess up.

Maybe the worst thing that can happen is the feeling that God has somehow left the picture. And strangely enough, it often seems to happen at the times we most need him.  C.S. Lewis, during a time of great personal pain, cried out to God and said he got ‘a door slammed in [his] face, and a sound of bolting and double-bolting on the inside. After that, silence.’   We feel that God has totally deserted us in these times. Where has he gone?

It is okay for us to cry out to God in our pain. It is okay to express our anger. There is a time to weep. God hears. He has not gone away, he collects up all our tears and he has not turned his face from us. He understands. And he will restore.

“Tennessee Ernie Ford – Stand By Me (Live)” on YouTube.

Lyrics below for the whole hymnal song.

1.
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the world is tossing me
Like a ship upon the sea
Thou Who rulest wind and water,
Stand by me (stand by me).

When we are being tossed into the storm of life what a blessing to know the Father is with us.

2.
In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the hosts of hell assail,
And my strength begins to fail,
Thou Who never lost a battle,
Stand by me (stand by me).

We will have tribulations as Jesus had being a follow of His. He never lost a battle and when the time comes the final victory against satan will be His.

3.
In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When I do the best I can,
And my friends misunderstand,
Thou Who knowest all about me,
Stand by me (stand by me).

We can never be perfect in this life. We are weak by our human flesh. It is God within us that we strive to being Christ like. No longer wish to do the things that displeases the Lord. We have a changed heart.

4.
In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When my foes in battle array
Undertake to stop my way,
Thou Who saved Paul and Silas,
Stand by me (stand by me).

We will have persecution and battles in this life being a child of God. People will try to silence us. Yet we stand firm in Faith that no matter what Jesus has us. No matter the danger for us being a follwer and sharing the gospel with others we will continue to do so as we are called upon to do. We have something worth sharing for others that it is worth our own lives to share it. To know without a doubt who Jesus is and that He died for your sins. To be saved from eternal hell and separated from God and be told He doesn’t know us and cast us out. No one wants to hear that. So for those who believe will have eternal life.

5.
When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When my life becomes a burden,
And I’m nearing chilly Jordan,
O Thou “Lily of the Valley,”
Stand by me (stand by me).

Whether you grow old and feeble or life becomes too much of a burrden He is with you. No one wants to be feeble or weak later on in life or dependant on others. Maybe go through memory loss and become forgetful. Have to be medicated at the end of life because it helps you get through the days. Loss of hearing or sound that comes with growing older. Life can become a burden especially through hardships and struggles. Maybe lost of some many loved ones over the year. No matter what you go through or for what the future holds for you God is with you. Sometimes the journey is not necessarily for you but for others. He who sits on the throne will hold your hand until He calls you to come home. What a glorious day that will be.