You 'feeling' your blessings?

"A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants." (Joseph Addison) 

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs." (Matthew 5:3) How much do you 'have' compared to what you 'need'? For many of us, our need appears greater than what we have, but in truth, we have been given so much - we just don't always remember how great those blessings are. As Addison reminds us, it is our duty to consider (reflect upon) our many blessings instead of always focusing so intently on our wants.

The more we recognize our need for God's grace, the less we focus on all the petty 'wants' we have in life. The closer we press into a relationship with Jesus, the less we find ourselves pining after things that don't matter all that much. God blesses those who recognize their need for him - with his entire Kingdom. If that doesn't make you feel a little bit special today, think about it a little longer. We have been given all we need in Christ Jesus.

A need is something essential to life. A want isn't exactly essential, but we crave or desire it. We sometimes get those two confused, focusing on all the wrong stuff, or coming at life with a totally off-kilter view of what it is that will make us 'happy', 'fulfilled', or 'blessed'. The message is that we have already received the biggest blessing we could ever need or want! God gives us all that is necessary for life, but he doesn't always make a way for us to enjoy or achieve all our desires.

The other side of that coin is that our desires begin to 'morph' a bit the closer we get to Jesus. There is a transition that occurs mentally and that begins to affect our desires. Perhaps this is why scripture tells us, "Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires." (Psalm 37:4) It is also important to recognize that "Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." (Matthew 6:21) If we are struggling a bit with 'feeling our blessings', maybe we need to focus a little less on the feeling and a bit more on the connection we have with Jesus. We'll find all we need in him - all we want will begin to seem a little less important as we do. Just sayin!

A house or a home?

Home is any four walls that enclose the right person. (Helen Rowland)

Take notice that Ms. Rowland did not say the right home makes the person. I think we spend way too much time focusing on the walls, bricks, mortar, and furnishings, sometimes to the neglect of the individual who resides within. The 'right person' within the four walls - regardless of their color, condition, or size - that is what makes a home. Perhaps it is time we focus on becoming the 'right person' instead of on having the 'right home'.

I will try to walk a blameless path, but how I need your help, especially in my own home, where I long to act as I should. (Psalm 101:2)

What are you inside the walls of your home? How do you act there? Is there a difference from the way you act 'in public' view? There are times each of us 'acts' just a little differently when our 'public face' is on versus when we are within the confines of our own 'personal space'. I know we have to be professional in the workplace, presentable in public, and polite with peers. That isn't what I am talking about here. I am referring to the genuineness of our character - within the walls of our home and outside those walls.

Become the right person inside those walls and you will be the right person without them! Spend time with the right person within those walls and you will be transformed! Jesus isn't just to be a guest in our house - he is to be a welcomed family member - the leader of the family. If you are a family of one like me, it is good to know there is someone else in control; that I don't have to do it all on my own. Who we become really depends on who we welcome into our home. 

A 'welcome' member of our family is received with pleasure - there is enjoyment in their presence. They are cherished and desired. We are grateful for their presence and delight in what they bring into our home. Can you say this is how you treat Jesus within your home? If so, you know how much his presence actually begins to change the way you make decisions, the things you dwell upon in your thought life, and the words you accept as truth. Jesus never asked to be a visitor - he asked to be welcomed, appreciated, cherished, and desired more than anything else in our lives. 

The walls don't make the home - it is the person within those walls. When that person is guided by the Holy Spirit, built up by the Word of God, and overflowing with heartfelt worship, the home is being built. Not from without, but from within. Just sayin!

Living in order to do that loving

My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. (I John 3:18-20)

To practice indicates there is a habitual or customary performance of something in your life. It is this repeated performance, or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring a skill or proficiency that we are looking at today. The difference between talk and practice is action - practice requires the action which actually backs up the talk. In other words, there is substance to it. Love is really an action, not just a "message" or a thing we "say". It requires action to back it up! As a matter of fact, the "means" by which we can evaluate if we are really living in the reality of being kids of the King is us putting love into action! So, it is more than just "action" - it is a "measuring stick" by which we can determine if the "Christian" life change has occurred within us. Self-centered individuals put love into action, but the action is directed toward themselves! Christ-centered individuals put love into action in such a way which reveals Christ to the world.

Maybe one of the most important things to understand is the ability for the practice of love "shutting down" our own self-criticism. The debilitating effect of our self-criticism is probably very well-known to many of us. I don't think there is probably a person reading this who has overcome all aspects of self-criticism. In fact, if we were painfully honest, we'd admit we often struggle with being a little hard on ourselves on some of the same issues over and over again, right? We can shut this type of "impractical" self-talk down - with the practice of love in our lives. God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. God is greater. We don't even need the rest of the passage - God is greater is more than sufficient to shut down ALL of our self-criticism. When I worry about how I must appear when I say something foolish and self-centered, I recall that indeed "God is greater" than any of my foolishness and self-centered actions! God is greater - not just bigger, but greater. He is our "more than enough" - more than enough in our failures, more than enough in our deficiencies, and more than enough even when success might build up our egos a bit.

Our worried hearts are best handled by the one who settles the storms. God is greater than our worried hearts - this speaks more than most of us realize. We torment ourselves with all kinds of disturbing thoughts, don't we? God is greater than any mountain of disturbing thoughts we could muster up! All the things which "harass" us with their continual "nipping at our heels" - those little and big things which we tend to muddle over time and time again - are not outside of his care. We just need to place them squarely into his care! God is greater - but he wants us to realize those worries are best placed into his hands in the first place. God knows more about us than we do ourselves. This should give us some sense of hope - the Creator knows exactly how we were created and he is able to put in order anything which may have become a little "disordered" in our lives through the influence of sin, the self-destruction of various behaviors, or the misguidance of another.

God is greater - greater than _______. You fill in the blank. Nothing could fit into that "blank" for which God is not sufficient (more than enough) to overcome, fix, or put out of the way in our lives. Love in action is to realize the most important relationship we can maintain is that which centers us squarely on the one who is "more than enough" to overcome all our worries, problems, and 'internal issues'. We often think we are the ones doing the "loving" in our lives, but until God does the "living" in our lives, all the "loving" which comes out of our lives falls short of what the Creator really designed. Just sayin!