It has been some time since I've written you regularly but I hope you are well and staying in the love of Jesus! We are doing well and thank the Father for His faithfulness in keeping us and leading us through life.
I have been writing infrequently in the past year, but much more recently. I feel it is time to begin sharing the Word of God with others again and so I naturally thought of all of you who have been with this e-mail devotional list for these several years now. I am thinking of sharing via a blog (a journal-like website) in the future. I think it may be better in that it will be less formal and I could share teachings that continued from day-to-day without worrying about completing the entire train of thought in one long message. Please let me know your opinion or thoughts on this. You could still get the entries e-mailed to you if you prefer e-mail. But, if you get too much e-mail, this may be better for you.
The purpose of these writings will remain the same as always: to share what God has taught me and to encourage us all to renew our minds according to the Word of God. My prayer has always been to demonstrate in a practical way the supernaturally-natural way God teaches us to put on the life of the new Man (Jesus) as we submit ourselves to His Holy Spirit.
Anyway, here are some musings I had yesterday after working in my garden and reading the bible. As I sat down to read, I thought (or maybe it was the Holy Spirit asking me) "What is it that you want to learn from God today?" I wrote:
To minister to the Lord better
I didn't really even know what I meant by that - I just wrote it down and went on to read John 14 which talks about how Jesus goes to prepare a place for us and that we know the way because we know HIM and He IS the way. Then, I came to
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Then I knew where God wanted me to go – To minister to the Lord better, love Him more.
Of course, that is more easily said than done since I can’t just love Him more because I think it’s a good idea. So God gave me the answer (and a new question) at the same time in
If you love me, keep my commandments
What are these? Simple, I thought -
First, love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength.
Then, love your neighbor as yourself.
And there is so much here, Lord.
How do I love you with all my heart?
I first say, Holy Spirit, I need you to make Jesus more real to me. I can’t love anyone unless you give me the love of God. I put my hope in You to give me understanding of Your love.
Romans 5
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
God says that His love has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He has already done this. We have His love in our hearts. The more we comprehend the depths of His love, the more we will love Him with all our hearts.
Ephesians 17-19 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
When the hope of God blooms again in my heart, I have the revelation again that all the things we do in life are just an endless realm of possibilities of fun and joyful glorification of the Father and all He has created. Instead of a burden, life is a possibility. This is hope to me – when things we have to do seem like possibilities instead of burdens. I will not hesitate to say “fun” because fun does not have to be a selfish or meaningless seeking. Fun can be a satisfaction that comes from completing or moving in things that God has planned for us from the beginning of time simply to show His goodness. Sometimes we limit our understanding of this to big “ministry” type actions and accomplishments. But, do we understand? I want to understand. When I enjoy planting a plant or singing a song or learning to play the piano or writing– this is not selfish indulgence but participation in the purpose God has for edification of my spirit. It does not even have to be something anyone else ever sees to glorify God. It is glorifying God simply because it is something I have done in my life as I submit to God and choose to let the life of Christ be my life. Oh how wonderful if we would “notice” God in this way in all the details of our daily life.
An example – I plant a plant and get pleasure out of seeing it grow. I say in my heart, “God this is for and because of You.” The pleasure in my heart is like a revelation of the Father’s love. The growing plant and my pleasure are glorifying God – revealing who He is to my own self. God is concerned with the individual heart in a deep, intense way. It is important to Him that I, as an individual, understand that He wants me to enjoy this plant growing. That I, as an individual, see His goodness in the fruit coming forth from a tomato plant. That I, as an individual, realize He has nurtured every second of the existence of every cell in that plant and caused it to have life and to grow.
A miracle of the greatest kind has occurred in ONE SMALL PLANT for me to see and notice. Me! If no one else, maybe I will see Him in it. It is quite an amazing thing to ponder. I think of how many plants are growing in my garden. Then I think of all the things we consider “more” important that He does. It is truly incredibly generous in a supernatural way, to live and exist even for a single day surrounded with all He does in the multitude of “small” things in our lives. The best way I can summarize this thought is – in the smallest thing we can see the infinite nature of God, the infinite goodness, power, and love. Today I looked to the small things to receive by faith the revelation of His love poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Well, this has been more devotional than exegetical today, but I hope it has encouraged you. I have a little more in-depth study of the surrounding verses and the nature of hope from this passage that I can send you next time. Abide in Jesus’ love and walk in peace until next time!
As always, with love,
IN JESUS,
Karen
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