Quick Thoughts

June 30th, 2016

"As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me." -Psalm 40:17

 I cried when I read this verse. 

 In fact, when I went to read the whole of Psalm 40 during a family devotion, I cried the whole time.
If you know me, you'd probably be surprised, since it is not often that something can bring me to be so emotional.  When I read this verse, every sin I'd ever committed (or at least the overwhelming consciousness of them) flashed through my head. I was reminded of who I was as a sinner. So filthy and undeserving of any kind of love. All that I have been commanded to do, I daily break. Jesus took my place- my punishment- at the cross, and I say I am grateful,yet I daily spit in his face.  I am nothing. I have done nothing to earn Christ's favor. I am poor and needy. Why should He care for me?
 So, I wept for my sins. 

 But, (and oh, what a glorious but!) then I read the rest of the verse. "but the Lord takes thought for me." I read it again. The Lord takes thought for me?? Every day I disobey what God has commanded me. Every day, like a wayward sheep I stray from the path. But, like the good shepherd that he is, he patiently searches me out and carries me back to Himself. So softly, so tenderly he leads me back to the fold. Sometimes I come back kicking and screaming, but still, he gently corrects His child- poor and needy as I am.  

So, I wept because Jesus takes thought for me.

The Glorious Maker of the entire universe thinks of me and takes time to have a relationship with me. How can it be? Praise God.

-jh♥

June 11th, 2015

Matthew 19:16-22~  "Now behold, one came and said to Him, 'Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?' So He said to him, 'Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.'
 He said to Him, “Which ones?”
Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’  ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”The young man said to Him, 'All these things I have kept from my youth.What do I still lack?' Jesus said to him, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.^' But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."

The story of the Rich Young Ruler... If you attend church I'm sure you've heard this story a hundred times. It's one that is usually used to give example of our requirement  to be benevolent to others and how the love of money is the root of all evil. Before this past year,  I never really thought that it had any application to me since I already knew to tithe and I wasn't really rich, but I never really thought about how it could affect me until I attended a Youth Group and this passage came up. The speaker asked us a question that really made me think- What did the rich young ruler do wrong? There was a lot of different answers but the main point that really struck me was that "...he went away sorrowful..." Well, why did he go away sorrowfully? "...for he had great possessions." My first thought was that he had valued his possessions more than Christ (and he had), but I was looking too deeply into it.
 The rich young ruler went away sorrowfully because he valued his earthly possessions more than Christ- Yes. He knew that he couldn't leave his possessions; they meant too much to him, but in order to follow Christ he had to. So, to make it simple, where he went wrong was that he went away sorrowfully- He knew he couldn't do it, but instead of asking for Christ's help, he left.
 This was the point that really struck me in a new way. So many times I've been unable to do something that God requires of me and I fail. Over and over. But at that moment, I realized that I needed to stop  relying on my own "goodness" (nothing) to accomplish things. That couldn't do me any good. We are unable to do what Christ requires of us. Absolutely unable. But, we're not hopeless; Our Creator knows our limitations and if we cry out to Him, He will be our help.

  So, don't go away sorrowfully like the rich young ruler when you see your incapability. Don't let God go- Cling to Him. Ask Him to help you in the areas where you know you can't succeed. Do you care to seek the Lord? If not, make this your prayer- Lord, help me to care.

-jh♥

June 10th, 2015

Psalm 34:7~ "The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them."

 This verse has been one of my favorite passages in the Bible since one of my friends put it in  a sympathy note to me. Every time that I feel scared or get weary with life, I remember this verse. It's so amazing to me to think that God would care about a filthy rag like me. I am nothing to Him, yet He still cares enough for me to protect me with His angels. We are so lucky to have a God that cares for our needs individually. How amazing that we can have a personal relationship with the Creator of the world!
This is also encouraging to me in the sense that any time I think that I'm alone and no one can feel the pain I'm in, I can read this verse and know that God is there and will be my Rock. He can sympathize with us because He has felt our pain and went through many of the same trials when He walked on the Earth. If you're hurting or feeling alone or even feeling like you can't go on, cry out to Jesus! He hears you and is the All powerful deliverer. Your deliverer. Read this verse and remember what an awesome God we have that cares for his people so tenderly and individually; he knows what you have need of.
 And if you're reading this today and you're not a Christian- you can have a relationship with your Creator, too. Don't wait around anymore; run to Him because He's calling you. He loves you and cares for you. Leave your sin and call on His name. Sin seems sweet now, but it will only drag you down in the end. Leave it all to Jesus and be forgiven; He's already taken the punishment.
  So, here's two points to sum it all up:

• Christians- Be encouraged and don't worry about whether God is going to take care of you or not. Remember that whatever you might be going through is His sovereign plan.

• Non-Christians- Come to Christ! His arms are wide open to you. Leave all that sin and dirty laundry to Him. Believe me, He can forgive anything. 

-jh♥

June 8th, 2015

Romans 12:17, 19~ Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all...  Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

 Here is a verse that I've heard many times before, but have never really given much thought to. I'd never really thought about how it could effect me, because I'd never been in a situation where I really felt angry enough to want to "avenge myself" haha. But, in the past couple of weeks, that changed for me. I'm just taking a wild guess that I shouldn't be too specific about what made me so angry, considering that this is a public website. So let's just say that I was lied to (extensively) by someone that I really trusted and now there seems to be rumors flying around concerning me, my family, and the person who lied... The Lie-ee haha.
 Anyways, I felt so betrayed when I found out about the lies, that automatically, instead of feeling sad and wanting to curl up in a ball and cry (which came later) I felt this overwhelming sense of anger and vengeance. I felt like I somehow needed to hurt the other person just as bad so that they could know what they'd done to me. At times, I would have so much hate for the person welling up inside of me that it kind of scared me.  I knew it was wrong to hate and have all these evil plans to get back at the person for what they did, but I wasn't sure that I could ever stop feeling the way I did and forgive the person again. So, I did the only thing I knew how to do- Pray. Immediately, that helped and my anger subsided- for the moment.
 But, Saturday I found out more lies and rumors and went straight back into rage mode (I'm guessing I sound like a pretty mean, angry person right now but, really, I swear I'm not haha). And there I was, right back where I started. This time, I couldn't even think to pray or try to calm myself down; it was bad. So after many thoughts of vigilante justice, I eventually decided to pray about it before I went to sleep; I reluctantly asked God to help me forgive the person and move on with my life (but, really, I didn't want to forgive. I was too busy being angry about something that wasn't going to change.).
 Of course, God always knows what I have need of, and after breaking down on Sunday morning and not thinking that I could even go to church, our pastor opened up the Bible to Romans 12: 17 and 19 and right away I was humbled.
 I knew that by being angry and unforgiving I was only hurting myself and disobeying God. When you really care about someone and put a lot of trust into them and they break that trust, it hurts. It hurts more than I hope you ever have to experience. But, one day you just might, and that's why I'm writing this. I hope that if this happens to you and you start to feel the fury rising, you'll remember Romans 12:19 and give your anger to Christ. Sitting around and seething about a situation isn't going to do anything; confront the person in truth and love or let it go and move on with your life. You can only keep trying to be a friend to the person so many times before you have stop putting yourself in a situation where your bound to get hurt- And, that's another thing, be abundantly forgiving, but be smart. If this is like the second or third time that someone who "cares about you" has hurt you- they don't care about you and they'll keep doing it. Some people don't change and the only thing you can do is pray that God will work in their lives.
So- after this not-so-quick-thought (I promise I'll try to keep the next ones brief), I hope you will give any anger you have to God and remember to not try to get back at people for what they've done- Leave it to God to convict them and punish them- it's just not our job!

-jh♥