Would you run to him today?

Luke 19:1-10 “He entered Jericho and was passing through. ² And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³ And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. ⁴ So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. ⁵ And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. ⁷ And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” ⁸ And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” ⁹ And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.””

Here is a question that I keep asking myself…Would I run to Jesus like Zacchaeus did?  Would I go out of my way to see Jesus? Would I allow Jesus to stay in my house? Of course we should answer – Yes…yes we would run to Jesus, yes we would go out of our way to see Jesus and yes he could absolutely stay here at my house…Here we are in modern day so I ask, Am I going out of my way to see Jesus, to learn about Jesus? Am I letting Jesus into my home, allowing him to reign over us? I know Jesus is here in our house – though it may not be said boldly or loudly, but he is here. He is waiting patiently as we hand him over bits and pieces, trusting one tiny step at a time…

On the flip side, are we like the crowd grumbling saying “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner?” Are we holding back, staying away from those who sin? Isn’t the sinners who need Jesus, who need to learn about Jesus? Jesus said “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

I would run to Jesus today, but I would be scared. Jesus knows me, he know my thoughts, my actions….my sins!

sm

Good stewards

Once again, life got busy, and blogging was pushed to the side. Yet I have so much rolling around in my brain…here I am feeling overwhelmed once again. Probably explains the feeling of anxiety I have been feeling for the past few days…

In this week’s bible study the theme is using your gifts and your talents to glorify God along with taking care of what you have been given and using what you have wisely. I can honestly say I am not using my gifts, my talents or even what I have wisely...

There are things that I would like, and I am quite thankful for what we have, yet I am not being a good steward with what we have…Why would God give us more? In Luke we are told about 3 servants, each were given a mina or money. 2 of the servants made the money/mina grow while the 3^rd servant tucked it away afraid to do anything with it. The Lord gave the 2 servants more, more to take care of, while He gave that 3^rd servant nothing. He actually took things away from him.

I can’t help wonder if I am that 3^rd servant, not sharing what I have, or taking care of what I have. Afraid to share, afraid to take a chance. It would seem I still have trust issue with God…

Despite how much we have or do not have, there is always something we can share, there is a gift, a talent that we can use to both glorify God and to show people God.

Once again it seems for years my talent has been tucked far away, afraid to let it out again…

sm

Are you weary?

The other morning I woke up to "Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest!" It is a verse I know and try to think of when I am low on faith and belief. Yet, I wasn't sure why I was thinking this. We continue to struggle and I feel as if the devil is breathing down our back, planting negativity, and putting a wedge, placing doubts all over.

I grow weary with the same old battles. It's as if my adult life has been nothing but a battle with both money and food.

Money – Feeling deserved. Wow feeling of being justified – justified to spend what I want. Justified to keep what I want. That literally screams me, me, me! Nothing will change until I humble myself, and remove the god of money that seems to be wedged between me and God….between me and the man. I keep wanting things to change – wanting to be able to help the man way more – wanting my business to bloom – wanting to help my other daughter with her wedding – wanting to help my daughter at school. God will continue to work on me and refine me.

Food – I love to eat and I love food. This too seems to be a battle that I have faced for a few years. Looking back my real addiction to food came once I quit smoking. I won't lie, sometimes I teeter that line of wanting to really smoke again. Too focused on the next meal – too focused on the foods I should eat – the foods I shouldn't eat, which all in the end just makes my focus on eating….The god of food. So here I am wanting to weigh 30+ pounds less – wanting to eat completely healthy, natural foods. Yet I look at money…never enough to buy what I want…once again…me, me, me.

Yes I am weary, but yes I am truly thankful that God is a merciful, loving, patient God, that will continue to mold me and refine me. My mindset needs to change…my money and my food gods have got to go….Now I suddenly understand why I felt the need to read the books of the Major Prophets in the bible…

sm

Take up the cross

I love it when I hear a sermon and the message kind of clicks in my brain. I had one of those, “Oh I get it” moments as I listened to a sermon today. Which God is no doubt say “Its about time!” J The sermon, Choose Hope. Simple enough. Choose God and Choose Jesus. When our lives are going well, and things are going the way we think they should, it’s really easy to have faith and choose hope. When life gets a bit rough, and God is refining us, and He is bringing our sins to light so that we can change, it seems our hope begins to fade. We wonder…

As I have blogged before, I am bad with money, and I can easily justify the spending, or keeping all of my money. But a light went off in my brain today – Am I choosing hope? Choosing God? Or am I Choosing Money? Frankly, this is not an easy pill for me to swallow. Right now my worry over money, over bills is causing my faith to waiver.

God’s still working me. This refining process is difficult. God is turning up the heat and removing my impurities. Honestly, I wish all debts were gone, and bills up to date, and we had a clean slate. Yet I truly know that God’s not done with me yet, and I would probably continue to justify spending money….keeping money…not helping out…

So today I hear “You must die to live” – you must surrender to God! A part of me must die – the part of me that is getting in between God and me.

What is standing between you and God today?

sm