We Must Pray...

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:44 NIV

Pray for Paris

Pray for Beruit

Pray for wherever they may strike next

These senseless attacks and the people who they hurt, families who lost a loved one or their loss of a sense of peace certainly need prayers. I wonder though are we missing something?

Terror begins to fill us when we hear of these attacks and the uncertainty of more. We begin to become uncaring and say we don't want to help out and allow refugees here. We worry about ourselves and stop thinking about others.

Is this how we are called to be? What if they didn't let the great, great, great, great grandma of ours here? Would we be living here now?

The Lord tells, "So do not fear for I am with you, do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10 NIV  and in Psalm 23:4b "I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me."

God wants us to trust in him, and move forward in His strength. We are not to hide away in fear, and we are to love people He after all created each of us. Sure some of those he created have turned away and don't want anything to do with Him. It's those we need to really be praying for.

We need to pray that those who want to strike fear in us.  We need to pray that they would find the true God, that their plans would be stopped, and no one else would have to die. We need to pray also for those who have been displaced and have no where to go and just maybe their new home would be in America.

"With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies." Psalm 108:13 NIV

Not That Different

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7 NIV

Walking down the gang plank I expected to see something different. Huge palm trees, a volcano, tropical flowers...what I found instead; a street lined with stores, cars, and the same old hustle and bustle of home. The next country we went to was about the same. The only difference was all their road signs were in Spanish.

One would think "I'm in another country, shouldn't it seem different." Instead, I had to keep reminding myself, "I'm not in America."

The people weren't even that different except they really wanted me to spend my money.

"Need a sombrero"

"Mayan calendar only a dollar, cheaper than Walmart."

Here in America we have a smorgasbord of different people-Hispanic, Oriental, African, Egyptian, Greek, Jew...we may well represent the entire world.

When I think about it, I realize we aren't really all that different. That's why I get so upset when the racism card gets played.

Recently my sister-in-law had the racism card thrown in her face. One afternoon as she was driving students home from school and fight between two girls broke out; resulting in her having to call the police to ensure the safety of her and the other students. The following week when she had to get onto these girls again, they made it clear that she was just picking on them because their skins were a different color than hers.

This began to make her job rather difficult, every time she would have to remind any student the rules on the bus they would play the racism card. What I don't understand is why? Shouldn't students be expected to behave no matter what color their skin is?

I sincerely try to look at a person and not look at the color of their skin, I mean God created them just like He created me. There are times though when I look at someone and I just feel unsafe. It has nothing to do with the color of their skin.

My husband and I were having dinner at a local restaurant when this man walked in with a backpack on his back and a hoody over his head. That wouldn't have bothered me, it was the way he acted that wanted me to get out of there as soon as we could. He supposedly just wanted the restaurant to let him get a drink of water which they did, but then he kept circling in front and at one point ended up walking in from the back entrance. This man frightened me and it had nothing to do with his skin color, it was the way he acted. By the way he was white.

There have been other times when I had a certain feeling about someone and I turned out to be right about the way I felt. Not sure why I felt this way, maybe God was sending me a signal, a sense that I needed to watch out for him.

Try as I may, I try not to judge a person by their outward appearance. God has made each and everyone of us. He loves all that He made, in fact He calls all He made good. So unless I get a strange feeling about someone, I will try my best to show God's unconditional love the way He would.

Sometimes It's Just to Much

Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Matthew 26:38 NIV

Full time work, activities, illnesses, meetings, being pulled in ten different directions...life has a way of becoming overwhelming. We tend to think people will be disappointed in us if we don't live up to their expectations. We worry what people think when our kids misbehave. We fret over disappointing our parents or spouse.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we over-commit and fill our days to the max? Could it be our fast paced society puts undo pressure on us? Or do we cause this to ourselves?

There are times when my schedule is so full I feel like I don't even have time to breathe let alone take time out of my busy day to spend time with God. I get caught up in the planning or making sure everything is going to work out that I forget God needs to be at the center.

This past weekend we held our annual God's Harvest Festival. This year I felt a bit ill prepared as we were on vacation a couple of weeks before the event. We also planned a 25th anniversary celebration the Saturday before. My time became consumed with a project I had for the anniversary party, I hadn't forgotten about the festival I just became preoccupied.

The week before I became frantic, I began to wonder would everything turn out alright? We had a volunteer sign up sheet with one name on it. I really would have liked it to be full. There was a new game we tried last year and I really wanted to improve it for this year, some how the ideas wouldn't come. My best bet for this night was to leave it in God's hands. That it was I did.

The night turned into one of our better nights. A few of the youth took over setting up the new game and had wonderful ideas. Every game booth had a volunteer, people donated food and candy, and everyone seemed to have a grand time.

Becoming overwhelmed is a part of our lives. Jesus even became overwhelmed. The night he was going to be sent to the cross all he wanted was his friends to stay awake and pray with him. He knew that the anxiousness he was feeling could only be calmed by his heavenly Father. He got his team on board and had them pray for him while he tried to get a grip on what lied ahead.

Maybe when the craziness of life begins to consume us we can get our team of prayer warriors on board and go and meet our heavenly father. Then we can find the peace we need to face the challenges that lie ahead.