Learning to Trust

 By: Grace Metzger 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
 And lean not on your own understanding.
‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

My coworker and I like to joke about how I’m such a distrustful person. At my job it’s very easy to get in trouble or even fired from a single mistake. I’ve seen it happen plenty of times in the past so I’ve become extremely cautious over everything I do.  However this joke started getting to my head, have I really become so independent that I don’t trust anyone? Has this happened in my relationship with God?

Whenever I am afraid,
 I will trust in You.
Psalms‬ ‭56‬:‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I’ve thought about my current situation, the troubles I’m experiencing in my life right now. Was I trusting God through this? Was I believing that He had control over it? Sadly, I don’t think I can confidently say that I had total trust in God. Instead, I was allowing my anxiety to control my thoughts. 

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication,
 with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

As I was thinking about this, I thought about this verse in Philippians. I remember learning this verse as a child and repeating it over and over again whenever my anxiety rose. I love this verse so much because shows that God understands us. He knows that we have a habit of allowing anxiety to control us so He used His word to give us instructions on how to trust Him. 

We need to give it to Him in prayer. When we pray, we are relinquishing control and fears over our problems and giving them to God. I’ve noticed a change when I pray over the storms in my life and stop thinking about it. When fear tries to take control I remind myself I already gave it to God. It’s no longer mine to fear, if it’s not my problem then why do I worry over it? 

Discussion Questions: What helps you when you're lacking in trust and faith?

Back to School Prayer

By: Jenifer Metzger

All over the world students and faculty will be heading back to school in the coming days. This year my oldest grandchild begins school and I am so excited for him!

I'd like to invite you to join me in praying over children, teens, and young adults students, as well as all those who work in the school system in any capacity and homeschool families.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank you for those headed back to school. Our children heading to elementary school, preteens heading to middle school, teens heading to high school, young adults heading off to college, those who work in the school system, and homeschool families. They all matter and we are thankful for each and every one.

We ask You right now for your hedge of protection to be around all of them. Keep Your guardian angels encamped around them and allow no harm to come to them. Stop any plans the enemy has for harm. Protect them physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

I pray, Lord, for students of all ages. As they learn, help them to retain. When things get hard, give them the strength and desire to press on. Let this be a successful year as they learn and grow.

I pray for those who work in the schools. As they prepare lessons, organize events, clean buildings, or whatever they may be called to do, give them wisdom. Help them to be gentle and patient with those they are teaching or guiding. Allow them to get good sleep at night and wake each morning ready for a new day.

Lord, help all those heading into the schools -children and adults alike- to be includers. Help them to reach out to the friendless and be a friend. Help them to stand up for the one who is different. Help them to always have a smile ready to show and a kind word ready to speak.

I pray for the homeschool mamas who work just as hard as those in the brick and mortar buildings. As they care for their families and homes, do the chores, and teach their children, strengthen them. Sustain them. Help them to find their support village and be a support for others.

And last, we pray for the believers heading to school. Help them to boldly stand up for You. Unashamed and ready to share the Gospel of Jesus. Help them not to waiver in their faith but to stand with feet firmly planted in You.

We pray all of this in Jesus name, amen.

Fruits of the Spirit Series: Peace

 By: Rebekah Hargraves

Photo Courtesy of: Sunguk Kim

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...."

~Galatians 5:22a

In our series on the fruits of the Spirit, we come now to the fruit of peace. 

This is one of the fruits that can sometimes seem especially hard to possess in times like these when there seems to be an exceptional lack of peace everywhere we turn. From national strife between countries to personal discord between people who think differently or live differently from one another, peace can oftentimes feel like the last thing we could ever hope to find or possess.

But, as with the other fruits we are studying throughout this series together, that is the whole point, isn't it? So often is seems impossible to possess or to cultivate these fruits because, humanly speaking, it is! They are the fruits of the Spirit, not of us, and He is the One Who must cultivate them in us as we walk with Him.

One of my husband's favorite hymns is "It is Well with my Soul", a hymn that has accompanied him especially throughout his military career, from the first hard days of basic training to the challenging days of a deployment during Covid. If you aren't familiar with the story behind the hymn, it is an incredibly powerful one. The hymn-writer, Horatio Spafford, lost his four daughters in 1873 when the ship they were sailing on with their mother sank. Their mother alone survived, and when Horatio traveled to meet with his grieving wife after the accident, he penned the hymn's lyrics right as he was passing near the site of the tragedy.

Can you imagine?

I used to not be able to. How could he say it was well with his soul? As a mother, I couldn't fathom it. Except for this fact: saying it is well with your soul is not the same as saying it is well with your circumstances. It is not the same as saying that all is going well in your life, that your life is free from tragedy, hardship, and pain. It is saying that all is well with your soul - it is saying that you have an inner peace and calmness of spirit because you know that your soul is eternally safe and cared for by your Savior and heaven is what is awaiting you. 

And that is how we can have peace no matter what this life or this culture or this time in history throw at us. Which brings me to one of my favorite passages of Scripture, Philippians 4:6-7:

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 

Paul readily admits here that this kind of peace defies and surpasses all human understanding. Humanly, it just doesn't make sense. But that is because it is a supernatural peace from a supernatural God. 

We see this clearly in the definition of the Greek word that is translated as "peace" in both Galatians 5 and Philippians 4. It is the Greek word, eirēnē, a couple of the definitions of which are as follows:

• security, safety, prosperity, felicity
• the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is
• peace, quietness, rest

Isn't that beautiful? Our inheritance as daughters of God, as followers of Christ, is that we get to experience a deep-seated inner quietness, rest, peace, harmony, and felicity that can be ours no matter what, for it defies human logic. No matter what may come our way, no matter what our lot in life, the peace of the Spirit is ours for the taking, for it is eternally well with our souls.

Reflection Questions:

1)  What stood out to you from today's study?

2) In what are of your life are you lacking peace right now? How can you walk by the Spirit in that area and watch Him cultivate peace in your life?

3) How can you encourage someone else with what you have learned today?

God Stoops to See Us

 By: Joanne Viola

 

It is good at times to switch up our Bible reading so that familiarity does not keep us from discovering something new.

We need to have our memories jogged every now and then. We need to remember who our God is and how He interacts with us.

“For the Lord is high above the nations; his glory is higher than the heavens. 
Who can be compared with the Lord our God, who is enthroned on high? 
He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth.” 
(Psalm 113:4-6, NLT)

Our God is great, is exalted above the heavens, and sits enthroned on high. Yet He stoops down to us!

God sees us and draws near to us in our distress. Can you see the picture Scripture is depicting for us? Like a loving parent who squats to speak face to face with a child, to hear a child, to comfort a child. This is the very action of our God towards us – He stoops down to us.

“Stooping” according to dictionary.com means “to bend the head and shoulders, or the body generally, forward and downward from an erect position; to descend from one’s level of dignity.”

The psalmist goes on to tell us who it is God stoops to help:

“He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump.” 
(verse 7, NLT)

• The poor, to raise them from the dust. What is making you poor today? Where is your deficit? We may have a financial need but more so, we can also be spiritually bankrupt.
  
• The needy, to raise them from the ash heap. What has left you feeling rejected? Sent to the rubbish heap? Devoid of hope.

God is reaching down towards us to help us in our situations. He stoops in order to raise us up. He settles the barren, those who feel without significance, without joy, or without hope, into places where their lives will be productive and bring forth fruit.

Our mighty God stoops
to raise us up so that we come to know Him better
and our hearts are filled with praise.

 

 

Reflection: 
Take time today to identify your need and bring it to God in prayer. May you remember He is always with you, nearer than you realize, and waiting to raise you up.

 

Image by Tyli Jura from Pixabay

 

 

 

Sharing God's Love

 By: Grace Metzger

How, then, can they call on the one
they have not believed in? And how can they
believe in the one of whom they have not
heard? And how can they hear without
someone preaching to them?

Romans 10:14 NIV

Recently, I had dinner with some old friends who I have been close to for years. I’ve known a lot of details about these friends-from their dating lives, their families situation, etc. I’ve always felt comfortable enough to talk to them about most things, but through this dinner, I realize there’s one thing that we’ve never really discussed. We’ve never talked too much about religion. During the dinner, one of them brought up how she’s been getting into the Word more. She’s going to church, reading the Bible, doing her devotional, and overall is getting closer to God. I felt so excited for her.  But I also felt a tiny bit of shame. I’ve known her for years and I’ve never brought up God to her. I couldn’t help but thinking what if I just talked about God years ago, would she have started living for God much earlier? How different would her life have been if I did what God called us to do and shared the Good News.

Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story,

those He redeemed from the hand of the foe.

Psalms 107:2 NIV

God calls us to share our testimony with everyone in our life. Does that mean that every single person we speak to will be saved? Maybe not, but it does mean that in our daily we are planting seeds of God. How are we showing God to the people we come across? How are we telling the stories of how God redeemed us from the hand of our foe? 

Because we loved you so much, we
were delighted to share with you not only the
Gospel of God but our lives as well.
1 Thessalonians 2:8 NIV

We need to share God's love because we love others. I wish I shared my testimony with my friends, I wish I told them more about the joy and peace God has given me. I missed my chance in the past but I refuse to miss any future chances. I challenge you this morning to think about the people you come across in your daily life. How have you shared the gospel with them?  Spend time this week in prayer, asking God to show you how to share your testimony with them.

Discussion Question! 

What do you think keeps people from sharing God's love?