It’s okay to share your heart’s burdens with others

Today's reading

The scene in today’s reading shifts from the Upper Room to the Garden of Gethsemane. The mood gets heavier and more somber. Jesus calls three of his closest disciples and summons them to pray with him.

While I’ve mulled over Jesus’ tribulation in the garden before, I’ve never dwelt on the fact that he invited his friends to grieve with him and pray with him.

It’s not like the God of this universe needed them. It’s not like he didn’t know they would be catching up on naps instead of praying.

Yet, by sharing his sorrow with them, Jesus was clearly demonstrating that it’s okay to share your heart’s burdens with others. Just because you have God in your life doesn’t mean you have to be poised and stoic and invulnerable. It’s okay to say, “Hey, would you mind coming along with me for this?” and give someone else the opportunity to pray with you and for you.

Jesus displayed a beautiful openness in inviting his closest disciples to come alongside him.

No, we don’t depend entirely on our loved ones. Nor do we act like faith erases them from the picture.

Bringing It Home

What am I trying to handle alone today? Has God shown me specific people I can share my heartaches and my dreams with? Am I willing to be invited into another person’s burden, even if it means sacrificing my time and my pursuits?

Lean In

Heavenly Father, Help me grasp the fact that asking for help or asking for prayer does not chip away at my faith. Help me to be humble enough to invite people I trust to come alongside me on my faith walk. Amen

Today's Prayer

Father, I don’t want to do life without depending on you. In you I live and move and have my being. I can’t stand firm unless I’m standing on the Rock that is higher than I. Thank you for being my Rock. Amen

Keeping Pace or Keeping Peace

Today's Reading

Luke 12:16–21
Parable of the rich man who stores up grain

No matter what you’re tempted to compare, there will always be someone with more than you, and there will always be someone with less. Whether you compare husbands or hair, there will always be someone else to envy and someone envying you.

So you have a choice: either keep pace or keep peace.

Comparison will tempt you to keep pace, to accumulate more. But the parable in today’s reading illustrates that accumulating more is a worthless pursuit if what you’re accumulating isn’t put to good use for God’s purposes. The wise choice is peace with what God has entrusted to you.

In some areas, he’s given you more than others—maybe you’re a talented singer or gifted writer. In other ways, you may come up short—perhaps you had a challenging childhood or disappointing marriage. But God doesn’t ask you to change what you’ve been given. He asks you to use what you’ve been given.

Whether a lot or a little, what you have is less important than what you do with what you have.

TRY THIS: We all have a surplus of something. Brainstorm one area in which God has given you a surplus and commit to one thing you can do today to better use it for him.

Be Perfect

http://bible.idailybread.org/share/dod.html?breadId=1806a06583bdd7e0bab5e64664412f89&time=1552747357522&date=0316

Believing Makes Being Together Even Better

Today's Reading

Let's explore the gift of friendship, God's desire for you to be connected to meaningful and life-giving relationships that strengthen your faith, and his desire to use your life to bring hope to those around you. This is one of my greatest joys and passions: connecting women of all ages to God's purpose through interaction and relationship with one another. My desire in our time together is to help you grow in understanding that his plan for your life includes connection to others for the purpose of leading the girls around you closer to Jesus.

Believing Makes Being Together Even Better

I love my life, but it would definitely not be described as quiet and slow-paced. It seems like I am constantly facing some sort of deadline. Your schedule may be similar: go here, go there, pick up the kids, send that text, make dinner, empty the dishwasher, check on Mom, finish that report! Wowza . . . life can get pretty crazy! And if we are not careful, just "doing things" can be all that we do, and our relationships and connections with people can get shoved to the side or ignored altogether. People are really meant to be the most important part of life.

Have you ever experienced a connection so obvious that you knew God had made it happen? Have you ever heard him whisper to you, "See that girl in front of you? She needs your encouragement today." It can happen almost anywhere, for anyone: the server in the restaurant, your neighbor, the woman sitting next to you in the doctor's office, the couple sitting in front of you at church. Whether you are noticing or not, they are there, just waiting for you to stop and notice them. The truth is, it is God's will for you to connect with people and to use your life to reveal his love to those around you. But for that to happen, you have to be willing to stop, take time, open up your heart, and share your life with them. And that, my friend, takes faith!

There are girls all around you who are desperately searching for an answer to their lonely, hurting lives, and as a believer in Jesus Christ, you could be their only connection to the hope that is inside of you! But for you to be used by God, there are things you must do to make connections with the people he places in your path. Most importantly, you have to keep your eyes open, have an obedient heart, and be willing to respond to God's voice. 

1 Thessalonians 5:6, 8, 11 (The Message): So let's not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let's keep our eyes open and be smart. . . Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation. . . So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you're already doing this; just keep on doing it.

In 1 Thessalonians, Paul is writing to believers and admonishing them to live wide awake, ready to be an encouragement to those around them. When was the last time you stopped to encourage and talk to a girl you did not know? What do you think Paul means when he says, "Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind"?

My Faith Declaration

I believe that God created me to love and connect with others! Even when I feel the desire to hide, I will remind myself that he has called me to notice and reach out to the girls he places in my path. I will purpose to bring hope, life, love, and acceptance to the sisterhood that God has positioned around me, and guard against disunity and strife. And I will strive to always lead every girl who is watching me—through my kindness, words, actions (and social media posts)—closer to Jesus! 

40 Days Lent Devotional - Day 1

We start the Lent devotional with someone who truly got it. Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, actually understood. In fact, she understood more than the indignant disciples who tried to stop her from “wasting” the perfume on Jesus. She, perhaps, understood that Jesus wouldn’t be with them much longer. 

Her response to Jesus’ imminent death is beautiful. She worshipped him. Not a casual, what’s-next-on-the-agenda worship. But an extravagant worship where she didn’t count the cost. 

It was a reverential worship, an extraordinary worship, perhaps even an irrational worship. She didn’t look at the clock or her wallet or at people around her who were wagging their fingers in judgement.

Instead, she looked at Jesus. She allowed him to fill her vision and eclipse everything else around her. She worshipped like no one was watching.

Bringing It Home

What is my response to Jesus’ death on the Cross? Am I offering Him a sacrifice of worship and praise? Or is my sacrifice this season of Lent geared more for my own benefit?

Lean In

Heavenly Father, Help me to worship in a way that truly takes all of me. Help me love you with not just my words but with all my soul, my mind, my strength and my heart. Let me never be content with lukewarm worship, but let me burn with the flame of faith set aglow by a deep reverence for you. Amen. 

She Believes - Embracing The Life You Were Created To Live

Today's Reading 

We long for revolution. Something within us cries out that the world is horribly  broken and must be fixed. For centuries, the word revolution was scarcely heard, buried under ages of oppression. The word itself was feared and speaking it was treason. And then, revolutions seemed to appear almost everywhere.

Some historians have gone so far as to identify our modern epoch as “The Age of Revolution.” Is it? Perhaps it is more accurate to refer to our times as “The Age of Failed Revolution.” Looking across the landscape it becomes clear that very few revolutions produce what they promise. Arguably, most revolutions lead to a worse set of conditions than they replaced.

And yet, we still yearn for radical change, for things to be made right. We rightly long to see righteousness and truth and justice prevail. We are actually desperate for what no earthly revolution can produce. We long for the kingdom of God, and for Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. We are looking for a kingdom that will never end and a King whose rule is perfect.

This is why Christians pray the Lord’s Prayer. As we will see, this is the very prayer that Jesus taught his own disciples to pray. So Christians pray this prayer as a way of learning how to pray and what to pray—as Jesus teaches us to pray.

The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer that turns the world upside down. Are you looking for revolution? There is no clearer call to revolution than when we pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But this is a revolution only God can bring . . . and he will.
 
This short prayer turns the world upside down. Principalities and powers hear their fall. Dictators are told their time is up. Might will indeed be made right, and truth and justice will prevail. The kingdoms of this world will all pass, giving way to the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ.

It all comes down to one of the shortest prayers found in the Bible. The Lord’s Prayer takes less than twenty seconds to read aloud, but it takes a lifetime to learn. Sadly, most Christians rush through the prayer without learning it—but that is to miss the point completely.
    

Watching The Clock

Today's reading... 

When you’re waiting it seems everything ticks.

The clock, your heart, the tapping of your leg.

No stopping it, no magic bag of tricks.

Relentless ticking, what to do but beg?

Time just crawls, what does it mean that it’s due?

Time never seems to be due on my time.

Always left waiting, time rarely comes through.

I try to be humble, but waiting’s a crime.

So I cast all my cares to Him they belong.

Waiting seems easy when I know that He cares.

That frees me to be sober to know I belong.

And free too, to throw the clock down the stairs.

Waiting.  Is there anything harder than being patient?  Joyce Meyer said once that “Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting.” 

This meditation from the fifth chapter of first Peter will help you stop minding the time and cast your cares on Him who created time.  

Resting in imaginative contemplation for a moment, remain with your eyes closed...imagine holding a baby.  Perhaps just a few months old.  Very aware of being lifted.  Very unfamiliar with time.  A baby loves being lifted, tossed in the air, and cradled in caring arms.  They laugh.  They giggle.  When you place them back on the floor they look at you with longing eyes.  They want to experience that again but don’t know how to ask.  They don’t know when.  But out of care and joy in your heart, you pick up the child again.  You can do this all day can’t you.  The joy you feel of caring for them.  If only they knew.  Stay there lifting and twirling this baby in your arms.  Give them your time. 

Today you have the opportunity to be lifted up by God as he is mindful of time.  He knows your needs, far better than you. He is aware of time, much more than you. He created you.  He created time.  And he created time to be with you.

Let me pray too that you remember too to humble yourselves, then, under God's mighty hand, he will lift you up in his own good time. Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you.  Now to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever will be. Amen. 

So when you are ready, step into your day be mindful of being lifted.  Turn away from the clock today and focus instead on an encounter with God as he lifts you at the perfect time.

Where Do You Walk?

Today's Reading 

Have you ever felt alone in a crowd? Walking down an unfamiliar street yet very familiar with the fear you feel.

Isolated.

Far from home, you feel vulnerable.  Lost yet too afraid to ask strangers for directions.

And those you see around you, those you may seek for counsel and guidance, don’t seem the sort too willing to help.  Is it just you or are others standing in your way?

Blocking you from finding your way.

How do you feel when you desperately want answers but have no one around you to help.  And those that are around you seem only bent on taking you further from the truth you seek. 

This meditation from the first chapter of the Psalms will help you steer away from the counsel of the ungodly and delight in the law of the Lord.

Resting in imaginative contemplation for a moment, remain with your eyes closed...see yourself walking down a strange unfamiliar street.  Strangers whispering advice, wicked advice as you pass by.  Their words drifting in and out of your ears like worthless chaff.  How do you feel?  Now turn the corner.  Find a cool stream.  A well rooted tree.  Sit there in peace.  In its shade.  Leaning back against the solid trunk.  Cooling your feet in the stream.  How do you feel now.

Encounter God there.

Today you have the opportunity to be delighted in God. To experience truth and wisdom that only comes from the Lord.

When you encounter empty words today, return to the planted tree by cool water.

Rest there.  Be delighted in what the Lord says to you.

Let me pray that you remember to have your delight in the law of the Lord, And on His law [His precepts and teachings.  That you habitually meditate day and night on God’s law that is like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water.  Now to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever will be. Amen.

That Seems Impossible

Today's reading 

Maybe you’ve seen it at the circus. Perhaps between skyscrapers. Or stretched high over a canyon. A tightrope walker fighting gravity, fear, isolation, and howling winds to slowly navigate the impossible. 

Focusing with laser precision. One step, then another, on a thin cable.  Their eyes on safety at the end of this impossible journey.

Constantly shifting, adapting, and adjusting for whatever comes their way. The impossible becomes more likely with every forward step they take.

Have you ever faced something in your life that seemed impossible to navigate?  Hearing unexpected news. Receiving a late night phone call.  Encountering the unforeseen. Then you become frozen. Your new reality seems impossible to face.

This meditation from the first chapter of Luke will help you find hope when facing hopelessness. Courage when facing the impossible. 

Resting in imaginative contemplation for a moment, remain with your eyes closed...you may not want to imagine being on a highwire, but imagine the solitude of facing a journey that seems impossible. A new job. New relationship. Disease. Caring for someone in need. When have you faced what seemed impossible and seen your way through to the other side. Imagine the beginning.  Imagine the ending. Walk that path again for a minute. 

Let me pray that you remember the word of God will never fail.  That with God, all things are possible.  Nothing is impossible. To live the truth that you are a servant of the Lord; may all things be done to you in peace according to His word.  Amen.

Today you have the opportunity to face the impossible. To experience divine peace and gifted faith when confronting the impossible. When you encounter it today, embrace it today. Relish it as an opportunity to encounter His hope when facing hopelessness. His courage when facing the impossible.