Tag: Proverbs 3:5-6

Weekly Photo Challenge: Serene

Dr. J.D. Wilkins1 Comment

Oh to be at peace like the sweet little Sugar!
Sitting relaxed and watching the world go by.
Doesn’t it make you want to reach out and hug her?
Or just go stretch out beside her, and look at the sky?

This is how we should be, day by day,
As we trust in the LORD, into His arms we lean.
Listening quietly to all He has to say,
Brings with it a sense of being totally serene.

Sugar-is-Serene

Serene:   Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

 

Serene

 

Waxing and Waning

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Daily Post: Taper

taper

This image showing the various cycles of the moon waxing and waning over time, is a wonderful metaphor for the human existence.  We enter this world in a small fragile body, growing physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually to a full bodied grown human adult.  And while most would prefer to stay in the center of this image, full of vigor and vim, living in their prime, at some point life’s demands causes our energy and enthusiasm to taper ever so slightly through the years.  The process waxes and wanes until, at some point in the crescent wane of our life, the light is overtaken by the shadows, marking the end of our time on earth.  Unlike the moon, we have only one life to live on this planet.  After a time of darkness, the moon starts a waxing crescent, growing again to fullness before the next waning season.  We have no such cycle.

Which causes the questions, often asked when confronted by so stark a truth:  “Is this all there is in life?  What’s the point?  How can I extend this human existence?  Where is that infamous fountain of youth, that many have searched for?”

Understanding the limitations our Creator has put on us, perhaps none of these questions even factor into what God wants us to discover about our life.  In every age and phase of our existence, there is purpose and meaning when viewed through the lens of Scripture.  It seems to me that we come into existence for the purpose of living a life that brings glory to the Creator.  That becomes a real challenge for those who deny His existence.  Yet, those of us who believe this premise, we too face a substantial challenge to actually accomplish this design goal.  The essential nature of a human life bringing glory to God means living subject to God’s definition of what brings Him glory.  The one thing that gives Him the greatest glory is when we yield our life here, believing that when it is over, He will give us an eternal life there where He is, with Him.

Yet, we humans have a tendency to bargain with God about what would bring Him glory.  A few examples might help…

“Oh God, if you’ll just give me that new job, I will talk about how you blessed me every day while I work there!”

“Oh God, if you’ll just help me get pregnant, I’ll worship you every time I look at my child!”

“Oh God, if you’ll just take away this tumor, I’ll….”

You get the picture.

The thing is, bringing God glory may have less to do with a new job, being pregnant, and not having a tumor… and have more to do with what is going on inside your head and your heart.  These kinds of prayers have more to do with a false image of who God is, than with what it means to call Him Lord.  When we only see God as a celestial slot machine, or as obligated in some way to bless us with some good thing of our own choosing, we don’t really understand the Creator, or how He created us.  The ebb and flow, the waxing and waning of life, is the very core of how God designed us to bring Him glory.  We are to bring God glory by yielding to His Lordship in every season, through every circumstance, trial, trouble, blessing, and experience that comes to us in this life.  We only have one go around, we need to make it count.

How to do this is the real issue right?  Here are just two verses to help you daily in this process, while you wax and wane through life.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

 

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No Trepidation

Dr. J.D. WilkinsLeave a comment

Daily Post: Qualm

trepidation

I’ve been out of town a couple of days, and missed writing my blog.  I’m back in the saddle again, so hang on to your hats for another wild and wooly ride into the unusual word associations of “As I was saying…”

This image is one simulating what occurs in our brains when we suffer fear, anxieties, or qualms regarding what “might” happen in our future.  The “what if” game is more prevalent in some folks than others, yet I believe we all suffer from this malady from time to time.  When circumstances look bleak, when our future seems insecure, the normal human response is to walk with trepidation through these dark places.  We sense something is out there, and we put an evil looking face on it, and sure, sometimes it is evil that wants to destroy us.  Other times however, when our minds are painting the picture of a wolf stalking us, waiting to attack and destroy us, the very thing we fear is not a wolf at all.  It is simply the unknown.

We can hem and haw all we want, but at some point we must come to accept there are some things beyond our control, and most of those are unseen, or unknowable.  At times we see giants, when really they are ants.  Other times we see lambs, and they really are wolves.  How do we cope in a world where the unknown and unseen seems so daunting?

I have no qualms in writing these words to you, because they are true.  God, the Creator of the Universe, is Sovereign Lord of all.  This simply means that just because you can’t see it or know it, doesn’t mean that it – whatever “it” is – has escaped God’s view.  God is never surprised.  The thing that most causes that anxious spirit within us, God has already seen and dealt with; it is now under His control.  This should produce peace in our hearts and minds, and when it doesn’t it is because we don’t believe God is in control.  To give lip service to this truth, and go through life full of fear, is a non sequitur.

Isaiah 26:4
Trust in the LORD forever, for in God the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.

Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Isaiah 41:10
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

These verses, and hundreds like them, are to be taken literally.  They explain that to say you believe “God is in control”, and behave in opposition to this confession, makes no sense for the true believer.  Faith is having no qualms with trusting God absolutely in every major or minor detail of my life.  Faith is living with no trepidation of what might happen, because God is our Sovereign LORD, and He is in control.

 

 

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