James 4:1-3
What is causing the quarrels and fights
among you? Isn’t it because there is a whole army of evil desires
within you? You want what you don’t have, so you kill to get it. You
long for what others have, and can’t afford it, so you start a fight to
take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want
is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask you don’t get
it because your whole aim is wrong—you want only what will give you
pleasure.
The Living Bible
copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of
Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights
reserved.
For more than a year, we’ve gone out to eat
with the children after church on Sunday. There are about five
restaurants that we have rotated through…and of course, the children
have their favorites – Pizza Hut® and Burger King®, for starters!
Timothy and Zola “campaigned” for one of these two options every Sunday,
so Greg would say, “Okay, today is Zola’s day to choose,” or “It’s
Grandma E’s day to choose,” and we would rotate through the five of us
in just over a “month of Sundays”!
One Sunday, Timothy chose
Pizza Hut® - and the next week, it was Uncle Greg’s turn. Timothy
asked, “Uncle Greg…where do you want to eat? I think Pizza Hut® would
be a great choice…don’t you? Wouldn’t you like to eat at Pizza Hut®,
Uncle Greg?” We had to laugh at his “diplomatic” attempt to manipulate
the choice.
This is cute when one is five years old. It’s not
cute at all when you are our age…and we are trying to manipulate God for
what we want, rather than what He has in store for us.
We sometimes pray in specifics…as we should. But our motives are often
misguided at best…if not downright selfish. So instead of asking God to
guide our interview for a new job and to work in the hearts of those
who decide which person to hire, we say, “LORD, please help me get this
job.” We give no consideration to whether this is the place God wants
us to be, because it’s where we desire to work!
Or
we pray for God to heal us…or to fix a relationship…or to help us get a
new car or pass a particular class…or to save a loved one from dying…or
whatever is on our heart. And we never even ask God what He desires.
Because you see…that really doesn’t matter to us, quite often.
Several
weeks ago, our pastor asked us “Are you making a difference…or making a
point?” It’s a valid question for all of us. I know that learning to
ask God for His will over our own is a hard practice for
many of us to master. We are not wired to submit to the will of another
– not even to God! So we “campaign” for whatever our “Pizza Hut®”
desire is…even to the point of trying to manipulate God into doing it.
“LORD, it would be great if You could take this cancer from me…don’t You
think that I could do so many wonderful things if I wasn’t sick?!” Or,
“LORD, I really need a new house/car/job/relationship…so that I can do
even more for YOU!” Pah-lease! (insert eye-roll here!) God is not
fooled for even one second!
If we will learn to pour our hearts
out to God…and even tell Him what we want (like He doesn’t already
know!)…He will listen. But we must humbly and genuinely submit to Him
that what we really want – and need – is His will for our
lives…and we are ready to accept this and eagerly abide in whatever He
designs for us. We can stomp our 5-year-old “spiritual feet” and demand
our own way…or we can surrender to God’s will and actually make a
difference. The choice is ours…what will you decide?
©2015 Debbie Robus
Showing posts with label making a difference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making a difference. Show all posts
Daily Devotional for March 16, 2013
March 16 ~ Job 2:9
His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
In his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, author Harold S. Kushner tells the story of Martin Gray, who survived the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust. He married, built a successful life, and raised a family. One day his wife and children were killed in a forest fire that destroyed their home in the south of France. Some demanded an inquiry as to whether there was negligence or someone was at fault. But Gray refused. He said that accusing others for your misery only makes you lonelier. He maintained that life has to be lived for something, not against it.
An awful lot of us are living our lives against something. We are seeking blame or making excuses. Basically, we are ready to “curse God and die.” I once knew someone who turned her back on God after her father’s death. In her words, “What kind of God would allow my daddy to suffer like that?!” Indeed, it does often seem hard to comprehend the hardships some face. But giving situations a purpose and meaning often makes them more bearable Kushner points out that soldiers who lose a limb fighting for something have a better outlook than those who suffered the same in jury in a car or boating accident.
It often seems that in order to maintain our integrity, we must find the purpose for everything… and it had better be a good one! In other words, when troubles come, we give up on God and take whatever means necessary to survive and/or feel good. We are easily persuaded to “curse God and die” – inwardly, at least, if not literally.
My prayer for each of us today is that we would not sit back and wait on God to show us His purpose for our lives in each situation… but that we would endeavor to find it and to create good outcomes out of even seemingly bad situations. THIS is the mark of integrity… to consistently maintain our values, principles, and expectations… to never waiver in our faith - even when things are crumbling around us. The person of integrity doesn’t ask, “Why me, LORD?” He/she asks, “Where do I go from here? What are You showing me?”
These are the questions for today… “What is God showing you? And what are you doing with it?” Will you give meaning to the things that happen in your life - with God’s help - or are you ready to curse Him and die? Are you living your life for something… or against it? The choice is yours. Our reactions to people, situations and circumstances gives them meaning – either positive or negative. What are yours saying about you… and your faith in God to handle all things?
©2013 Debbie Robus
His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
In his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, author Harold S. Kushner tells the story of Martin Gray, who survived the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Holocaust. He married, built a successful life, and raised a family. One day his wife and children were killed in a forest fire that destroyed their home in the south of France. Some demanded an inquiry as to whether there was negligence or someone was at fault. But Gray refused. He said that accusing others for your misery only makes you lonelier. He maintained that life has to be lived for something, not against it.
An awful lot of us are living our lives against something. We are seeking blame or making excuses. Basically, we are ready to “curse God and die.” I once knew someone who turned her back on God after her father’s death. In her words, “What kind of God would allow my daddy to suffer like that?!” Indeed, it does often seem hard to comprehend the hardships some face. But giving situations a purpose and meaning often makes them more bearable Kushner points out that soldiers who lose a limb fighting for something have a better outlook than those who suffered the same in jury in a car or boating accident.
It often seems that in order to maintain our integrity, we must find the purpose for everything… and it had better be a good one! In other words, when troubles come, we give up on God and take whatever means necessary to survive and/or feel good. We are easily persuaded to “curse God and die” – inwardly, at least, if not literally.
My prayer for each of us today is that we would not sit back and wait on God to show us His purpose for our lives in each situation… but that we would endeavor to find it and to create good outcomes out of even seemingly bad situations. THIS is the mark of integrity… to consistently maintain our values, principles, and expectations… to never waiver in our faith - even when things are crumbling around us. The person of integrity doesn’t ask, “Why me, LORD?” He/she asks, “Where do I go from here? What are You showing me?”
These are the questions for today… “What is God showing you? And what are you doing with it?” Will you give meaning to the things that happen in your life - with God’s help - or are you ready to curse Him and die? Are you living your life for something… or against it? The choice is yours. Our reactions to people, situations and circumstances gives them meaning – either positive or negative. What are yours saying about you… and your faith in God to handle all things?
©2013 Debbie Robus
Daily Devotional for December 28, 2012
1 Peter 4:11
Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Today, many in our state are without power, following an epic Christmas Day blizzard. These folks are staying with friends or family members… huddled around a space heater powered by a generator… or bundled up in layers of clothing and blankets trying to stay warm in a freezing cold house. Thousands of support people are working diligently throughout the area to provide safety, emergency medical services, transportation, a warm meal, and whatever assistance is needed. Men and women from our state and those around us are making every effort to clear downed trees and power lines and restore electrical connections.
Whether they realize it or not, all of these people are exercising their gifts and calling on the strength and energy that God supplies to accomplish vital tasks. You may have never considered that providing a warm meal or a place to stay for a needy neighbor or relative was your gift… but it certainly can be! You may not have thought about those who work for utility companies or soldiers in the National Guard as people who are answering God’s call on their life… but this very well may be the case. As I spent a snowy day doing laundry in my warm, cozy house, I thought about the clothes I washed, dried and folded. Believe it or not, keeping a clean, well-run household… and yes, even doing laundry, can bring glory to God when done right! These simple tasks show others that you care about them - and their comfort and appearance.
Cleaning your room and holding up your end of the household bargain, being a good student and doing your best in school, caring for family pets, doing your best as a parent and/or spouse, and working hard at your job can all be considered gifts. When done to the best of our ability, whatever we do can be strengthened and energized by God. And when we give Him our best, He magnifies and multiplies our efforts.
So the next time you start to think of the things you do in a day as routine, mundane or unimportant, ask yourself how well you are performing the task… and whether you have given an effort that God cares to bless and strengthen. Are you using your gifts to glorify Him? Are you giving Him your best at all times? Isn’t it time you did?
©2012 Debbie Robus
Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Today, many in our state are without power, following an epic Christmas Day blizzard. These folks are staying with friends or family members… huddled around a space heater powered by a generator… or bundled up in layers of clothing and blankets trying to stay warm in a freezing cold house. Thousands of support people are working diligently throughout the area to provide safety, emergency medical services, transportation, a warm meal, and whatever assistance is needed. Men and women from our state and those around us are making every effort to clear downed trees and power lines and restore electrical connections.
Whether they realize it or not, all of these people are exercising their gifts and calling on the strength and energy that God supplies to accomplish vital tasks. You may have never considered that providing a warm meal or a place to stay for a needy neighbor or relative was your gift… but it certainly can be! You may not have thought about those who work for utility companies or soldiers in the National Guard as people who are answering God’s call on their life… but this very well may be the case. As I spent a snowy day doing laundry in my warm, cozy house, I thought about the clothes I washed, dried and folded. Believe it or not, keeping a clean, well-run household… and yes, even doing laundry, can bring glory to God when done right! These simple tasks show others that you care about them - and their comfort and appearance.
Cleaning your room and holding up your end of the household bargain, being a good student and doing your best in school, caring for family pets, doing your best as a parent and/or spouse, and working hard at your job can all be considered gifts. When done to the best of our ability, whatever we do can be strengthened and energized by God. And when we give Him our best, He magnifies and multiplies our efforts.
So the next time you start to think of the things you do in a day as routine, mundane or unimportant, ask yourself how well you are performing the task… and whether you have given an effort that God cares to bless and strengthen. Are you using your gifts to glorify Him? Are you giving Him your best at all times? Isn’t it time you did?
©2012 Debbie Robus
Daily Devotional for May 22, 2012
Romans 12:1-2
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
One of my dearest friends (who is now in Heaven) used to say, “I never did anything with my life.” This was so far from the truth that it was almost laughable. What Becky meant was that she never finished college – never got the nursing degree she had hoped to obtain… never “spread her wings” and lived anywhere but her home town. What she didn’t always recognize was how successful she was as a wife, mother, servant in her church and community, office manager in her dad’s construction business, and friend to more than she could count. Becky could never fathom that her life would leave such a mark on others that we still speak of her with admiration and respect to this day.
The point is that God doesn’t call everyone to become a celebrity or live in the limelight. And honestly, He uses the ordinary, everyday experiences of our lives as much or more than those we consider grand and impressive – if we are living for Him. In the coming weeks, many will graduate from high school or college, marry, move, or begin new jobs and new adventures. If you are one of them, remember that whatever you do is important to God… when you offer it to Him.
Whether you are spending the summer as an intern, babysitting, or filling boats with gas at a marina, you can serve God. If you are starting graduate school or an entry-level job, you can offer your work to Him and conduct yourself in a way that glorifies His name. If you are a stay-at-home mom or a retired grandpa who spends his days building bluebird houses or piddling in the garden, you can give these activities to God, and He will bless them.
My point is that God can use anything and everyone. When you do the laundry clean your house, wash the car or mow the lawn, you are caring for your family and being a good steward of God’s blessings… and He will bless you for doing so. When you nurture children, smile at the clerk at Wal-Mart, or rescue stray animals, God can be glorified. You don’t have to earn a Ph.D. or live in a mega-mansion for God to use you… although He can! You don’t have to be a certain age, have a specific amount of money, be a world-class athlete, or look like a model…you are special to God just as you are!
You may have heard the phrase, “Bloom where you are planted.” God wants us to bloom for Him… wherever He plants us. Recognize that everything you do and say is an opportunity to glorify His name. Don’t try to become something you are not – or that God did not design for you. Don’t let the world dictate how you think, speak or act. Ask GOD who you should be… and live comfortably and simply in His will… regardless of your age or where you find yourself these days,
If you are not completely certain you are living a mature, Christ-centered life, ask God to help you shift your focus and turn your attention back to Him. Whatever your age or station in life, you can focus on God and glorify Him in all you do. Are you blooming where you’ve been planted?
©2012 Debbie Robus
So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
One of my dearest friends (who is now in Heaven) used to say, “I never did anything with my life.” This was so far from the truth that it was almost laughable. What Becky meant was that she never finished college – never got the nursing degree she had hoped to obtain… never “spread her wings” and lived anywhere but her home town. What she didn’t always recognize was how successful she was as a wife, mother, servant in her church and community, office manager in her dad’s construction business, and friend to more than she could count. Becky could never fathom that her life would leave such a mark on others that we still speak of her with admiration and respect to this day.
The point is that God doesn’t call everyone to become a celebrity or live in the limelight. And honestly, He uses the ordinary, everyday experiences of our lives as much or more than those we consider grand and impressive – if we are living for Him. In the coming weeks, many will graduate from high school or college, marry, move, or begin new jobs and new adventures. If you are one of them, remember that whatever you do is important to God… when you offer it to Him.
Whether you are spending the summer as an intern, babysitting, or filling boats with gas at a marina, you can serve God. If you are starting graduate school or an entry-level job, you can offer your work to Him and conduct yourself in a way that glorifies His name. If you are a stay-at-home mom or a retired grandpa who spends his days building bluebird houses or piddling in the garden, you can give these activities to God, and He will bless them.
My point is that God can use anything and everyone. When you do the laundry clean your house, wash the car or mow the lawn, you are caring for your family and being a good steward of God’s blessings… and He will bless you for doing so. When you nurture children, smile at the clerk at Wal-Mart, or rescue stray animals, God can be glorified. You don’t have to earn a Ph.D. or live in a mega-mansion for God to use you… although He can! You don’t have to be a certain age, have a specific amount of money, be a world-class athlete, or look like a model…you are special to God just as you are!
You may have heard the phrase, “Bloom where you are planted.” God wants us to bloom for Him… wherever He plants us. Recognize that everything you do and say is an opportunity to glorify His name. Don’t try to become something you are not – or that God did not design for you. Don’t let the world dictate how you think, speak or act. Ask GOD who you should be… and live comfortably and simply in His will… regardless of your age or where you find yourself these days,
If you are not completely certain you are living a mature, Christ-centered life, ask God to help you shift your focus and turn your attention back to Him. Whatever your age or station in life, you can focus on God and glorify Him in all you do. Are you blooming where you’ve been planted?
©2012 Debbie Robus
Daily Devotional for December 25, 2010
Philippians 2:3
Don't be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
NBC Nightly News recently reported on Tracy Hall, a woman in Silver Spring, Maryland, who came up with an idea called “The Gift Tree,” which provides gifts to the children of soldiers who are stationed at Walter Reed. Hall’s own husband, an Army physician, is now deployed in Afghanistan. She created a gift registry through Target.com and Amazon.com, where people can purchase gifts or gift cards to provide items on the wish lists of the soldiers’ children, who register through a secure online application form.
The Walter Reed Auxiliary goes through the applications and lists the items on The Gift Tree for people to purchase. Each gift is wrapped and placed in a box for that particular child. Then parents stop by Hall’s home and retrieve their child’s gift box in time for Christmas. Hall said donations come largely from people in the metro Washington, DC, area… but they have had purchases by people in Arkansas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania – all over the country.
Aside from the massive scope of this operation… the large number of volunteers who catalog, wrap, and coordinate all of these gifts… I was struck by something else about Tracy Hall. When Christmas is over, she personally writes a thank-you note to everyone who donated. We have to be talking hundreds of people. She said it was the least she could do for those who were so generous.
Here’s the thing… we tend to think we have really outdone ourselves if we write a check to a local charity or bake an extra loaf of banana bread for a neighbor during the holidays. I’ll be the first to tell you that I have been guilty of having good intentions… but not acting on them. So that elderly person who has no family or close friends to visit them at Christmas time sits at home alone… it’s just another day/week/month for them. The young single mother who can barely feed her family and keep the lights and heat on has to explain to her children why their classmates got all these wonderful things on Christmas morning… and they got their same old bowl of cold cereal.
As we buy our Christmas presents and drive to Grandma’s to celebrate the holidays in style, we don’t think about those who worked to check our groceries, clean the motel room in which we will stay or sell us a cup of coffee as we travel… all for little more than minimum wage. We don’t think of their families and how they will manage to provide a merry Christmas for them.
Yet this young mother with a small son, whose husband is deployed to Afghanistan, opened her own home to become “Santa Central” for the children and families of other soldiers. Surely she must be tired. She had decked the halls of her house with holiday décor, and she greeted those who visited warmly. But you know she has plenty to do to care for her own household and young child. Still, she thought of others. She said, “I know how I would feel if I couldn’t do the extra little things for my own son.” She put herself in others’ shoes.
The story of Christmas is not just for today… it is for every day of the year. Whose shoes are you wearing? Do you hunker down and take care of yourself and let others fend for themselves? Do you look around for needs to meet… and then do something about them? We need more “Tracy Halls” in this world who consider others to be more important than themselves. Are you willing to step up and be one?
©2010 Debbie Robus
To learn more about The Gift Tree at Walter Reed, go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40153870/. For more inspiring “Making a Difference” stories, go to http://www.makingadifference.msnbc.com/.
Don't be jealous or proud, but be humble and consider others more important than yourselves.
Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991,1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.
NBC Nightly News recently reported on Tracy Hall, a woman in Silver Spring, Maryland, who came up with an idea called “The Gift Tree,” which provides gifts to the children of soldiers who are stationed at Walter Reed. Hall’s own husband, an Army physician, is now deployed in Afghanistan. She created a gift registry through Target.com and Amazon.com, where people can purchase gifts or gift cards to provide items on the wish lists of the soldiers’ children, who register through a secure online application form.
The Walter Reed Auxiliary goes through the applications and lists the items on The Gift Tree for people to purchase. Each gift is wrapped and placed in a box for that particular child. Then parents stop by Hall’s home and retrieve their child’s gift box in time for Christmas. Hall said donations come largely from people in the metro Washington, DC, area… but they have had purchases by people in Arkansas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania – all over the country.
Aside from the massive scope of this operation… the large number of volunteers who catalog, wrap, and coordinate all of these gifts… I was struck by something else about Tracy Hall. When Christmas is over, she personally writes a thank-you note to everyone who donated. We have to be talking hundreds of people. She said it was the least she could do for those who were so generous.
Here’s the thing… we tend to think we have really outdone ourselves if we write a check to a local charity or bake an extra loaf of banana bread for a neighbor during the holidays. I’ll be the first to tell you that I have been guilty of having good intentions… but not acting on them. So that elderly person who has no family or close friends to visit them at Christmas time sits at home alone… it’s just another day/week/month for them. The young single mother who can barely feed her family and keep the lights and heat on has to explain to her children why their classmates got all these wonderful things on Christmas morning… and they got their same old bowl of cold cereal.
As we buy our Christmas presents and drive to Grandma’s to celebrate the holidays in style, we don’t think about those who worked to check our groceries, clean the motel room in which we will stay or sell us a cup of coffee as we travel… all for little more than minimum wage. We don’t think of their families and how they will manage to provide a merry Christmas for them.
Yet this young mother with a small son, whose husband is deployed to Afghanistan, opened her own home to become “Santa Central” for the children and families of other soldiers. Surely she must be tired. She had decked the halls of her house with holiday décor, and she greeted those who visited warmly. But you know she has plenty to do to care for her own household and young child. Still, she thought of others. She said, “I know how I would feel if I couldn’t do the extra little things for my own son.” She put herself in others’ shoes.
The story of Christmas is not just for today… it is for every day of the year. Whose shoes are you wearing? Do you hunker down and take care of yourself and let others fend for themselves? Do you look around for needs to meet… and then do something about them? We need more “Tracy Halls” in this world who consider others to be more important than themselves. Are you willing to step up and be one?
©2010 Debbie Robus
To learn more about The Gift Tree at Walter Reed, go to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40153870/. For more inspiring “Making a Difference” stories, go to http://www.makingadifference.msnbc.com/.
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