Month: April 2021

WE CAN NEVER ASK FOR A BETTER PARTNER THAN OUR LOVING GOD

We are in a loving partnership with God. We do all things with Him. We never do anything alone.

Every moment God is there partnering up with each of us. When we realize this, we can wake each and every day with an excitement and energy knowing that no matter how good or bad we expect the day to be, God is with us and that will make it an amazing day. 

All God asks is that we show up. He desires that we partner up with Him. We recognize that what we are doing is not done alone. We have a partner that is there doing our task with us. When we give God our yes and show up, He is there. This is true of all aspects of our lives… We just need to say yes and show up.

At times prayer is dry and it’s hard to even begin. Show up. We may wonder why bother. It may seem that our prayers aren’t changing anything.  Show up and praise God for all He is doing to work things out anyway.  We need to be aware of this partnership in our prayer life just as we would do with any other area of our lives.  

In the circumstances within our life, in our encounters with our neighbors and when we see we can do nothing to cause calm and peace in the world other than pray, we need to show up knowing and believing that when we say yes and show up to do what little we can, God partners with us and does the rest.  When we show up with this awareness and love for God and God in our neighbor, we glorify God and amazing things happen even if we can’t see them.

In practicing this with the daily little things in life, we can build up many joyful memories that can hold us up in the more difficult times. Feeling tired and unmotivated to do anything? Say yes and make a first step.  Show up and take note of where you may feel energy. That’s God honoring your yes. Not feeling well? Feeling down? Try with all you can to show up and then take note of what happens.  For instance, who may have called and lifted you up enough so that you could get much done and feel better about yourself?  You have to make dinner again, but feel uninspired. Suddenly inspiration comes for no reason other than you have been God inspired.  As evening rolls around and you think back on your day, how exciting it can be for you to know that simply by showing up with nothing more than your yes, God came and in partnership He supplied all your needs. What may have looked like a day where you were going to go to bed feeling blah, unproductive and even alone turned out to be a great day because God partnered up with you. Your yes is all He needed to supply all your needs and make your day one filled with joy, but that’s not all.  One simple yes can bring about an overflow of your needs AND whether you realize it or not, the needs of others because we are one. 

Waking up each day with hope-filled anticipation because you know you are taking the day on with God can change everything. Your yes to the partnership can change your interior life, your active life and the lives of others even if you don’t see them.  It can help you in all circumstances including encounters with your neighbor so you can love both them and God in them. Even in a world where you seem small you can say you made a difference simply by saying yes.  In partnership with God, yes is a very powerful word.

Prayerfully Reflect on the following with God.

Read 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 and carefully reflect on each of the following 

  1. Being in partnership with God  
  2. Doing our part in showing up 
  3. Trusting that when we do our part, whether we are aware or not, God is doing His part to change things for the good.
  4. Reflect on anything else that may have touched you in this passage.

On the first Christmas, how many were aware that the world was about to change due to a yes in partnership with God? (Luke 1:26-39)

On Holy Thursday how many were aware that the world was about to change due to a yes in partnership with God? (Matt 26:36-46)

How does all this effect your relationship with God in your prayer life, active life and with your neighbors you know and do not know. 

The Cross is Never the End of the Story but a Sign of the Resurrection that is to Come

Recently while at Church I looked up and saw the phrase, “Jesus I trust in you”. I never realized until then that God ordained that the name Jesus would hold the word “us” in it. It is a name that  holds more than one person within.  That fits with Jesus saying, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).  Jesus also said,  “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees him nor knows it. But you know it, because it will remain with you, and will be in you.” (John 14:16- 17) and “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” (John 14:23). Clearly we know by these words that the  most Holy Trinity is not just with us, but  in us!  We all truly are one in Christ.

“JesUS, I trUSt in you.”  TrUSt also has the word “us” in it. Trust us.  Scripture is filled with messages calling us to trust in the Lord.  I don’t think it was an  accident that, once again, God put the word “us” in such a powerful word.  “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trUSt in the name of the Lord, our God” (Psalm 20:7).  What a calming reality all this is.   “Jesus, I trust in you” is a tremendous reminder that we can trust the most Holy Trinity that is in us.  We can trUSt the “us” that is in each one of us.  

This Easter week is a great time to reflect on this. Jesus was nailed to the cross. There was nothing He could do.  There is something oddly calming about not being able to do anything about any given situation if you can pause for a moment and recall that you are not alone.  In that pause we can trust just as JesUS did.  In this Easter week we are reminded that the crucifixion was not the end of the story.  It may be awful. We may feel great sorrow and the situation may feel overwhelming, but in the depths of that pain, if we are still and take note, we can experience great comfort. That comfort is Jesus. We are not on the cross alone and the cross is not the end.

When we are in pain and unable to move and the heartache is deep, we can trust that that is precisely the moment that God can show up and work it all out. What’s overwhelming to us, is never overwhelming to Him. He does His best work when we are powerless and can’t move. He does his best work when we cannot get in the way to try and fix it and make it better. If we aren’t feeling overwhelmed and powerless, then we may not be at the point 

where God can come in and do His best work because we are still getting in the way. Until we are resolved that we are powerless and there is nothing we can do, we haven’t given it entirely to God. Until we powerless with nowhere to turn, He can’t move as mightily as we may need for Him to move.. 

TrUSt JesUS can be a tremendous reminder that the Holy Trinity, the Us in all of us, has the power to raise the dead and roll back the boulder in our lives just as was done for Jesus.  It is in this position that nobody can ever doubt who the author of our resurrection is. The crucifixion isn’t the end of the story. It is a lesson that we will often feel like we are trapped in a corner with no place to move. We may feel dead in any given situation and as painful as that is, that is when God’s resurrection power can come. That is when we can be a witness to the Us that is in JesUS and the Us that you can trust is in you.  

The phrase, “Jesus, I trust in you” when looking at a crucifix is powerful. God never leaves us for dead. We are always victorious when we trust. Anytime we feel the fear entering in any given situation we know we can feel better by going to the crucifix and saying “Jesus, I trust in you.” It can be a reminder that the pain and discomfort we are feeling is not the end. Jesus died as an ultimate act to show us all that we are  saved. Sorrow was turned to rejoicing. Now we have an opportunity to complete what is missing in the crucifixion.  St. Paul assured us of that when he said, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.” ( Colossians 1:24). But then Paul goes on to say that this is a, “mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to his holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.” (Colossians 1:25- 27).  Paul shows us that it doesn’t end with the crucifixion. It wasn’t the end for Jesus and when we are united to Him and filling up what is lacking, it is not the end for us either. There is a mystery involved and our hope is in God and the glory He receives from our participation in Jesus cross and resurrection.  

Jesus came to save us and like Him our prayers for our good and the good of others may be answered through a cross. When we suffer we can hold that hope of an Easter moment in our lives. Even if we cannot see, we know the cross is never the end.  Good will come out of it for “We know all things work for the good for those who trUSt in the Lord and are called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28).  We may be experiencing pain so that an answer to a prayer we have been praying for may be realized just as it was with Jesus.   You never know, but in any case good will always come for we are always given “victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ” (1Cor 15:57) and that is the hope and glory of the mystery that is lived out in is as we live our lives as a living prayer.

Prayerfully reflect on:

 The highlighted scripture passages above.

Think of the times in your life when a resurrection occurred after your suffering.  Can you now see where Jesus was helping you carry your cross though you may not have been aware of it at the time? What was the Easter story afterwards? Was a prayer you had been praying for unexpectedly answered in your Easter story?